Colleges implement success courses to improve student outcomes. Since expanding its curriculum to include nine success courses, Illinois Eastern Community Colleges (IECC)--a multi-college community college district in rural, southeastern Illinois--has not determined the efficacy of these courses on student success. The purpose of this study was to determine if completion of a subgroup of IECC's success courses improve student outcomes and to identify variables that predict positive student outcomes by answering two questions: 1) Do outcomes differ for students who participate in success courses compared to those students who do not participate in success courses? and 2) Are factors related to internal, family, and school context significant predictors of student success? I answered these questions using independent samples t-tests to determine if outcomes differ for students who participate in success courses compared to students who do not participate in success courses and using multiple linear regression to determine what, if any, internal, family, or school factors predict student success. I further used matched pairs of students to determine if creating controlled groups enhanced my understanding of the outcomes. My findings suggest that students enrolling in success courses at IECC have no better outcomes than students who do not take success courses. However, in conjunction with each other, multiple internal (age at term, ethnicity, high school GPA), family (Pell eligibility), and school (attempted credit hours and dual credit participation) contextual layer covariates do influence term GPA. This study has both policy and management implications for IECC and may inform other rural community college districts with useful information pertaining to success courses. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]