Over the past decade, Tennessee has invested in several policies addressing the educational attainment of adult learners. One of these policies, Tennessee Reconnect, is a last-dollar scholarship for eligible adults to attend community college free of tuition and mandatory fees. In 2021, two community colleges participated in a year-long pilot…

Purpose: What are the best strategies for teaching Generation 1.5 community college students in transfer-level English courses? Why are some students successful and others not? The purpose of this study was to determine through a phenomenological design how Generation 1.5 students describe the experience of receiving validation or invalidation…

Utilizing Validation Theory through a social constructivist lens, this phenomenological study explores the ways in which institutional agents, peers, and family members contribute to the academic and interpersonal self-validation of Latine aspiring bilingual teachers who begin their higher education journey in the community college. All…

Background/Context: The Holistic Oasis for Parents' Education (HOPE) Program is an on-campus summer program designed to serve the whole student with a three-dimensional support model. Low-income, Black, and Hispanic parents experienced some of the most egregious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reflects the demographics of one in three…

While community college is often seen as an avenue that provides access to higher education to a greater part of the population, community colleges have struggled with improving retention, persistence, and degree completion. Research highlights the importance of helping students develop a sense of belonging at the institution, which has been found…

The objective of this study was to describe community-college faculty's experiences teaching in learning communities. Quantitative survey data were collected from 34 faculty who had taught in at least one learning community during fall 2012-spring 2018, at an urban community college in the Northeast. Survey questions examined faculty's evaluation…

Existing literature suggests that social connection with peers is beneficial for first-term college students. First-term community college students are less likely to experience social interactions than their counterparts at residential universities. However, recent attention has pointed to the classroom as the main place where social interaction…

Colleges and universities have begun implementing mentoring programs to offset rising attrition rates; however, the literature on the benefits of these programs is limited particularly among community colleges with peer mentoring programs serving minority students. Further limiting our understanding of post-secondary peer mentoring programs is the…

Transfer from one institution to another is increasingly common for students during the course of their higher education careers. The number of students moving from community colleges to four-year universities continues to rise. Transfer students report experiences of alienation, isolation, and other personal and academic challenges. To address…

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a peer-led academic support program in which SI Leaders help students develop study habits and note-taking strategies as well as facilitate test preparation. While the effects of SI on students receiving the instruction have been thoroughly investigated, there have been far fewer studies that have assessed the…

A narrative review was developed to add to the discussion and dissemination of research on community colleges. The review adds to existing work by synthesizing and critiquing the empirical research to date specific to three of the most prevalent programmatic efforts presently seen on community college campuses: (a) learning communities, (b)…

Faculty at a two-year community/technical college undertook a project in the spring 2010 semester to incorporate more intensive and intrusive academic advising into the Freshman Seminar (COL 105) course. A study was undertaken in which 14 sections of COL 105 were divided into an experimental group (taught by specially-trained instructors who…

This study examined the impact of basic skills curricular learning communities on academically underprepared community college students to determine if participation in such programs significantly contributed to student persistence from year one to year two. The conceptual framework that informed this study was Tinto's (1993) longitudinal model of…

MDRC's Opening Doors Demonstration is measuring the effects of various combinations of curricular reforms, enhanced academic advising, and increased financial aid intended to increase the persistence and improve the academic achievement of students at six community colleges across the United States. To determine the impact of the Opening Doors…