In 2010, California's then-governor Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1440, called the "Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act" (Padilla, 2010), into law. This bill mandated that the state's 112 community colleges (CCCs) develop a new type of associate degree, an "associate degree for transfer," that specifically prepares a…

Because of their commitment to the voluntary measurement and improvement of student learning outcomes, colleges and universities that are members of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) have been at the forefront of the national shift from teacher-centered to student-centered learning. The institutions participating in the CIC Degree…

In January 2011, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors formed a task force to chart a roadmap for system-wide focus on student success. The task force identified best practices and designed evidence-based recommendations to ensure student success is a driving theme in colleges. This comprehensive plan, known as the Student Success…

In spring 2012, after a year of intensive data analysis and planning, the colleges participating in Completion by Design announced strategies for creating clear, structured routes through college for more students, often referred to as accelerated, structured pathways to completion. These strategies contain elements unique to each college, but all…

The Successful Transfer Approach Research (STAR) Project investigated seven California Community Colleges with consistently high transfer rates. Teams of experienced researchers spent two days at each college, interviewing 16-18 administrators, faculty, researchers, and student support service professionals. Focus groups and interviews were also…

This applied dissertation was designed to assess the effect of student participation in community college-based transfer advising programs on the resultant levels of effectiveness and economic efficiency in California's public higher education system. The outcomes of a representative transfer advising program at a California Community College…

The Rostrum is a quarterly publication of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) The Master Plan for Higher Education and the Missions of the California Community Colleges (Jane Patton); (2) Academic Dishonesty and the Faculty's Right to Assign a Grade: A Test of the Academic…

State actions to increase college completion are growing, with 23 states (though not California) signed on to Complete College America, and other foundation-led initiatives involving still more states and college systems. These initiatives are helping states use data to understand how students, and which students, make, or fail to make, progress…

Purpose: The study identified effective validating practices used in transfer centers with EOP&S students at three Southern California community colleges. Methodology: The study used a self-report survey design. The researcher adapted an existing instrument with a panel of experts from EOP&S and transfer center staff at each college.…

This study identifies and examines the key practices of California community college programs that have demonstrated success in improving (or that have shown significant potential to improve) the achievement of underrepresented groups whose educational attainment often lags behind the attainment of relatively well-off White students. Unlike many…

The Rostrum is a quarterly publication of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) The Need for full Time faculty (again) by Jane Patton; (2) Reading May Be the Key to Unlocking Basic Skills Success by Janet Fulks; (3) Diversity Institute on the Right Track by Beth Smith; (4)…

Many criticisms of the transfer function focus on the decline in numbers of students transferring from community colleges to four-year institutions. This criticism, insofar as it stems from the number or rate of students transferring in a study done in California, is unfounded. (Author/MLW)

Designed as a forum for the exchange and dissemination of ideas and viewpoints of California community college faculty, this journal offers six brief articles on various aspects of 2-year college education. In "Academic Standards and the Open Door," Leon Baradat asserts that community colleges must reverse the trend toward decreased…

AS A RESULT OF CRITICISM BY AN ACCREDITATION TEAM, EL CAMINO COLLEGE DISCONTINUED ITS PRACTICE OF ALLOWING DEGREE CREDIT FOR ENGLISH A (A MAKE-UP COURSE) AND REQUIRED THAT ALL EXCEPT BUSINESS MAJORS HAVE ENGLISH 1A PROFICIENCY. PLANS WERE THEN BEGUN TO DEVELOP AN INTERMEDIATE, NON-TRANSFER COURSE THAT WOULD SATISFY THE AA DEGREE REQUIREMENTS BUT…

This study originated in 1968, when desegregation was being carried out mainly on a one-way basis, by busing minority pupils to predominantly white schools. Two of the districts studied, Charlottesville, Virginia, and Providence, Rhode Island, were then groping their way toward racial balance, primarily because of local pressures, and both had…