Student enrollment at community colleges within the U.S. has remained flat or decreased for over a decade (AACC, 2019). Before COVID-19, community colleges had been experiencing a steady decline in enrollment for approximately ten years (Irwin et al., 2021). The purpose was to determine whether demographic, environmental, and academic variables…

Financial stress and student loan debt are on the rise among today's college students. This study examined the associations between financial factors and students' college goal commitment. A multi-institutional survey was used to assess students' financial stress, estimated student loan debt, and the perceived importance of career, economic,…

Baccalaureate degree completion is essential for future development as a nation. Latinxs are the largest minority group in the country and by 2050 nearly one out of every three individuals will be of Latinx descent. While Latinx enrollment may increase, the proportion completing college is not comparable. This study explored the pre-college…

Nearly 40 percent of the students entering 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions indicated their intention to major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in 2012. But the barriers to students realizing their ambitions are reflected in the fact that about half of those with the intention to earn a STEM bachelor's degree and…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and its companion projects serve colleges and universities committed to monitoring and improving the quality of the undergraduate experience. While participating institutions receive detailed customized reports, the "Annual Results" series presents noteworthy aggregate findings from the…

In 2015, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) collected responses from more than 315,000 first-year and senior students attending 585 bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. This report presents selected NSSE results from students at 541 U.S. institutions or subsets of that group where…

The focus of this First Look report is on base-year contextual data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09). This First Look is intended as a companion to the report, "High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09): A First Look at Fall 2009 Ninth-Graders (NCES 2011327)" (ED521115), which focuses on the mathematics…

Community colleges across the country have created innovative, data-informed programs that are models for educating underprepared students, engaging traditionally underserved students, and helping students from all backgrounds succeed. However, because most of these programs have limited scope, the field now has pockets of success rather than…

The Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) regularly evaluates the experience of international students in Canada through a benchmarking survey. Canada First 2009 represents the fourth time CBIE has conducted this research. Previous editions appeared in 1988, 1999 and 2004. This year's survey used a revised questionnaire similar to…

This report presents the findings from focus groups with first-generation students in Texas. The students shared what works to help them make the transition from high school to college, as well as what didn't work or what could work better to get more first-generation students into college. Pre-college services and programs can ease the transition…

This report presents a summary of findings from the Emerging Pathways project, which seeks to identify the diverse needs and characteristics of adult learners, understand patterns of enrollment in credit and non-credit-bearing courses and offer advice to postsecondary institutions and policymakers committed to adult learners' success. Among its…

A survey investigated the attitudes and experiences that distinguish the low-income high school students who decide to attend college from those who do not. Data were gathered in a telephone survey of 900 seniors in the class of 1995 who took the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT); the primary sample was 300 of those students who reported family…

This study examined, over a 3-year period, the ability of financial assistance for minority students to bridge the gap between generic higher education and the high-prestige, high-cost institutions that are associated with long-term economic benefits to graduates. Applying a variation of the status attainment model to data for the 1989-1990…