World language study exposes students to more than just language; they are also exposed to different cultures. After graduating, students will be exposed to different languages and cultures in the workforce, and they must be prepared. Students often leave their language of choice after the one or two semester course requirement; it takes more than…

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to discover how a single, relational intervention in a digital space focused on civil, respectful conversation across difference might influence digital media literacy (DML) among college students, with the goal of increasing college students' sense of belonging and level of curiosity. The…

Offering academic programs that meet community need has long been a core mission of community colleges. However, determining which job skills and credentials are needed for employment in the community is challenging. In order to facilitate a holistic and community-based perspective, our 2-year community college developed a structured curricular…

The five-paragraph essay is highly controversial, and yet it has also been a useful format for composition. In this essay we explain why, despite its limits, students need to go along with the format to make what use and get what advantage of it. We then demonstrate that valuing the philosophical, historical, cultural, and educational backgrounds…

Objective: This research study examined textbook costs and student success rates at one community college in the Southwest United States. Method: Descriptive statistics were used in the study to identify the mean textbook costs and student success rates over five semesters. Chi-square tests for independence were used to determine if a…

This case study investigated disciplinary literacy specific to the trades from a sociocultural perspective. Four community college faculty (diesel marine technology, mechatronics, and mathematics) participated in a disciplinary literacy learning community where they unpacked the discourse of their discipline, identified what it meant to be a…

As a community college writing instructor, I found older students to be both an asset and a mentor in guiding students through the process of exploring their lives and values.

Two-year community colleges enroll nearly half of all first-time undergraduates in the United States, but to ambiguous effect: low persistence rates and the potential for diverting students from 4-year institutions cast ambiguity over 2-year colleges' contributions to upward mobility. This paper develops a new instrumental variables approach to…

This book highlights the exciting work of two-year colleges to prepare students for their future careers through engagement in undergraduate research. It emerged from work in five community college systems thanks to two National Science Foundation grants the Council for Undergraduate Research received to support community colleges' efforts to…

This study explores the factors, attributes, and commitment that contribute to African American adult student success, retention, and completion in the community college environment. This study explores what factors contribute to African American student retention as opposed to those factors that serve as deficit; literature abounds with reasoning…

This study examined the influence of multiple types of insecurity on student GPAs. Data demonstrated that students who did not experience one of the four insecurities had significantly higher GPAs that those facing housing, transportation, and employment barriers; food insecurity or combination; or all four insecurities.

Higher education institutions responded quickly to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The majority of the research conducted primarily focuses on understanding the well-being of collegiate athletes enrolled in 4-year institutions and neglects to address community college student-athletes unique population. This research examined the mental…

Higher education governance of community colleges is understudied. Driving an increased focus on community college coordination and oversight at the state level are the role of access from dual enrollment to adult learners, the need to smooth the transfer function of community colleges, jobs requiring educational attainment beyond high school, and…

Community colleges report general opening spring term enrollment figures to the Illinois Community College Board using a brief web-based survey. These figures reflect student enrollments as of the end of registration for the Spring 2022 semester--usually the 10th day of the term. Community colleges in Illinois serve a racially and ethnically…

Writing Intensive (WR) High Impact Practice (HIP), which incorporates Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT), was applied to written assignments in Human Biology and Anatomy and Physiology II (A&P II) courses. As part of our study sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), certified AAC&U Valid…