Increasingly, colleges and universities across the country are adopting "guided pathways" reforms to create clearly defined, educationally coherent pathways into and through programs of study for their students. Facilitated by built-in supports, the goal of guided pathways is to increase learning and graduation rates, and to help more…

Universities and colleges are embracing and utilizing technology to a rapidly increasing extent, responding to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency as well as the regularity with which 21st century students rely upon it in their everyday lives. Chief amongst the technology used in higher education are Learning Management Systems (LMS), such as…

Objective: Given the current concern across the United States with improving community-college student outcomes, particularly in developmental education, understanding what students encounter inside developmental education classrooms is a necessary first step. Method: Drawing on data from a study of teaching practices inside developmental math…

This study was designed to build on the existing research on teaching and learning in community college contexts and the literature of college writing in two-year schools. The work of Pierre Bourdieu formed the primary theoretical framework and composition theory was used to position this study in the literature of the college writing discipline.…

This qualitative study explored the perceived psychological impact of repeated failures on a high school exit examination (HSEE). We interviewed eight self-identified English language learners (ELLs), whose ages ranged from 20 to 29. All participants were attending tutoring HSEE programs at urban community colleges in New England. Using a modified…

Currently, many community colleges are struggling with poor student success rates in developmental math. Therefore, this qualitative study focused on employing best practices in developmental mathematics at an urban community college in Dayton, Ohio. Guiding the study were the following research questions: What are the best practices utilized by a…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand how community college students assess the risks and rewards of using personal loans to achieve their higher education goals. Method: Interviews were conducted with 12 federal loan borrowers attending a large, urban community college in Texas during the Spring 2013 semester. Results: Findings…

Remedial mathematics at the college level has evidenced strikingly low retention and passing rates. It has been shown that at least 25% of the variation in student performance is explained by students' affective variables such as attitudes, study skills, and mathematics anxiety. This study endeavored to address affective variables by: (a)…

English as a second language (ESL) courses seek to address a primary barrier to college success for language minority students: second language issues that can inhibit their success in college-level coursework. But, there is a limited understanding of the effects of ESL on college student outcomes. Using a rich, longitudinal data set that includes…

This study gave voice to the issues, needs, and concerns of economically disadvantaged single mothers and determined the motivational and institutional factors that helped lead them to their successful completion of a community college degree or certificate program while at the same time coping with the challenges of financially surviving on…

African American women are enrolling and returning to college in large numbers across many community college campuses, especially those women who would be characterized as nontraditional students. This qualitative study examined and analyzed the experiences, stresses, and coping mechanisms of first generation, nontraditional, single parent,…

This Grounded Theory study utilized Self-determination Theory to analyze the interview results of 18 community college African American and Latino males. The goal was to learn what helped participants to succeed and persist in developmental and transfer-level writing courses despite the obstacles that they faced. Three major themes emerged: (a)…

Nearly half of all undergraduates in the U.S. are enrolled in community colleges and many aspire to obtain a baccalaureate degree, however, less than 13% do so within six years. Integration has been identified in higher education literature as a salient factor contributing to students' persistence. Empirical evidence suggests that…

This action research study examined the process of creation and implementation of a case statement for an urban community college foundation. An instrumental case study methodology was used in examining this process. The study chronicled a successful participatory development process that allowed a number of stakeholders to effectively work on…

This research explored the efficacy of blended learning for developmental reading courses by studying the relationship between learners' experience, success, and persistence rates in a blended learning setting of a developmental reading course. Using the model of the blended learning studies done at the University of Central Florida in the 1990s,…