This study examines the effects of transfer associate degree policies: an articulation approach featuring two-year credentials as a mechanism to transfer credits from two-to four-year institutions. Using institution-level data, I exploit variation in the introduction of these policies across multiple states as a natural experiment. Results suggest…

Every term, institutions of higher education must make decisions about the class size for each class they offer, which can have implications for student outcomes, satisfaction, and cost. These decisions must be made within the current higher education landscape of tightening budgets and calls for increased productivity. Beyond institution decision…

In envisioning the future of literacy, students' voices are paramount. Students' engagement in classroom talk increases their learning and communication skills, but without intentional implementation, classroom talk can perpetuate hegemony in contemporary classrooms. To better explore this phenomenon, we developed a study in a southeast Texas high…

These administrative rules of the Illinois Community College Board are divided into eight sections. Under Title 23: Education and Cultural Resources, Subtitle A: Education, Chapter VII: Illinois Community College Board, the following parts are included: (1) Part 1501 Administration of the Illinois Public Community College Act; (2) Part 1502 Joint…

This study employed quantitative methods to analyze survey results related to the heutagogical learning preferences of undergraduate students in the United States. Heutagogy, an emerging theory focused on a self-determined and student-led approach, has shown positive benefits associated with 21st-century skills and high-level learning necessary to…

The Massachusetts Early College Initiative eases the pathway to postsecondary education for thousands of high school students annually. Early college programs provide strategically-sequenced, real college classes with strong career orientations during students' regular high school day. When fully realized, they also provide enhanced academic and…

Higher education institutions have prioritized supporting undecided students with their major and career decisions for decades. This study used a U.S. public research-focused university's large-scale institutional data set and undecided student's retention and graduation rate predictors to demonstrate how to couple student and institutional data…

This study probed the predictive effects of accelerated college credits over and above the predictive effects of FAFSA EFC index number, sex, and first-generation status on baccalaureate outcomes on first-time college students. A hierarchical multiple regression on 2,817 students who graduated from a private university in central Arkansas was…

After Kyrgyzstan's independence, reforms were implemented in higher education: new degrees, credit hours, private institutions, tuition in public institutions, and independent accreditation. However, faculty reactions to these reforms have not previously been studied. The authors conducted 57 interviews in four locations over three years. Our…

When U.S. English learners (ELs) attend college, they are more likely to enroll in 2-year community colleges than in 4-year colleges. Prior research points to the tension between English as a second language (ESL) programs providing support to ELs and lengthy ESL programs acting as barriers to ELs seeking access to mainstream college coursework.…

Across the country, students are unwittingly leaving postsecondary credentials on the table without institutions awarding the associate degrees they have earned. A disproportionate number of those students are from populations that have been historically excluded from or overlooked in higher education, including Black, Latinx, Indigenous students,…

Stranded credit is credit that students have earned at a postsecondary institution, but cannot use or transfer because they have unpaid debts at the institution. Institutions will usually not issue official transcripts to students with debt, which results in the student being unable to formally document the credits they have acquired. This can…

There are hundreds of recognized tuition-free college "promise" programs, but few are as generous or flexible as the Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise). Pre-COVID studies on KPromise have demonstrated effects on increased college attendance, credit completion, and persistence. Extending these findings to the COVID-19 pandemic context can help…

This research examines the dual credit and early college program options for school districts planning high school and college collaborations. It utilizes a quasi-experimental design from existing data at a community college that has a well-established dual credit and early college program that offers the students the option of Pell in high school…

Due to the low success of traditional, postsecondary remediation mathematics, The Maryland Mathematics Reform Initiative First in the World Grant (MMRI-FITW) sought to develop and implement a statistics pathway in 2- and 4-year institutions as an alternative to traditional algebra-based math, to accelerate developmental mathematics students'…