Students of color, particularly Hispanic students, experience inequitable outcomes in postsecondary education endeavors--such as transfer and graduation rates--compared to their white counterparts (Shapiro et al., 2018; Wang, 2020). The following brief summarizes a qualitative study of the use of high-impact practices of two large community…

Little is known about the effects of need-based financial aid disbursed late into college and how students respond when they approach lifetime limits for receiving aid. I exploit changes to federal Pell Grant eligibility rules that reduced the lifetime availability for grant aid from 9 to 6 full-time-equivalent years to examine these questions.…

Purpose: Some degree programs in colleges and universities utilize entrance exams to ensure that students pursuing a given degree have mastered foundational concepts needed for that program. However, often these exams become a barrier to student success. The purpose of this study is to discuss the impact of policies governing an undergraduate…

Competency-based education (CBE) saw a significant rise in adoption in the last decade, mainly in response to the many deficiencies of the traditional credit hour system in measuring higher education students' learning. Nevertheless, despite the many advantages CBE can offer, educators noted several design-related gaps in how the model addresses…

A portion of state-allocated funding for Texas community colleges has been reserved for the completion of outcome metrics, also known as performance-based funding. Texas community college leaders are faced with the challenges of adapting to increasing pressures from performance-based funding, while also ensuing institutional missions and goals are…

The demand for more knowledgeable employees has created a renewed focus in the United States to produce more postgraduate degreed individuals. Researchers have noted that a master's degree could become the new bachelor's degree as employers are requiring more advanced skills and abilities (Wendler et al., 2010). While there are several researchers…

First-generation college students (FGCS), nearly 50% of which identify as Hispanic, are an underserved population. The psychosociocultural theoretical framework posits that individual, environmental, and cultural factors contribute to the academic success of Hispanic students. This study examined the relationship between these factors (i.e.,…

Using data from the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program Survey of Cohorts 1, 2, 3 and 5, this study analyzed the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) scholars to learn more about the experiences and outcomes of Native college students who receive the GMS scholarship. Specifically, the variables studied were perceptions of student-faculty…

Since its introduction in the early 1900s, the codification of vocational education has made explicit that one purpose of the American public education system should be preparation for the workforce. Over three-quarters of high school students participate in present-day career and technical education, nearly half of undergraduate degrees conferred…

In response to concerns about the additional costs and time-to-degree associated with traditional developmental education programs, several states and postsecondary systems have implemented corequisite reform where academically underprepared students take both a developmental education course and college-level course in the same subject area…

We investigate whether student participation in undergraduate research--a high impact practice at TBR community colleges--has an effect on (1) academic performance; (2) probability of graduation, university transfer, and student departure; and (3) time to completion, transfer, and departure. Using enrollment, graduation, and course-taking data on…

This dissertation addresses the unequal incarceration of African-Americans and Mexican Americans in the United States. It examines the historical foundations of the construction of race to create criminality toward African-Americans. The legacy of the prison industrial complex perpetuating and prolonging further criminalization to enslave people…

Community colleges serve as access points to bachelor's degree attainment for a growing number of students, particularly those who live in rural areas. Although increasing the number of people trained in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields remains a national need, and a bachelor's degree in these fields offers a higher…

Time to degree and graduation are paramount concerns in higher education today and have caught the attention of educators, policy makers, and researchers in recent years. Delays in student flow through learning pathways may result in undesired consequences and this fact has made educators and the public start to regard timely degree completion as…

Many colleges and universities have implement programs to support undergraduate student's academic success. One type of program is described as a four year graduation guarantee program. The use of this type of program has been growing over the last several decades. This study was designed to determine how participants in a particular program…