Community colleges play a critical role in providing access to higher education for over two million Californians seeking an educational foundation that will prepare them to transfer to a four-year university or to participate in the workforce. However, community colleges have not always delivered on that promise--fewer than half of students who…

In Indiana and Minnesota, career and technical education programs are intended to provide pathways to both postsecondary education and careers after high school. Each state's education agency, higher education agency, and workforce agency collaborated to develop career and technical education courses. These agencies partnered with the Regional…

Think College Reports present descriptive data in narrative and tabular form to provide timely information to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers for review and use. This report provides program- and student-level data reported by TPSIDs (Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities) during the…

Think College Reports present descriptive data in narrative or tabular form to provide timely information to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers for review and use. This report provides an overview of descriptive program and student-level data provided by Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities…

The "High Schools That Work" school improvement initiative is the nation's largest comprehensive school reform model with over a thousand schools adopting its framework. The initiative's premise is that all students can meet the demands of a college preparatory curriculum if provided the right supports. Analyzing over a decade of data on student…

This article outlines how to make music programs more inclusive and therefore enable music teachers to compete more effectively for enrollment. Fortunately, music affords teachers many compelling options to win the hearts and minds of students, and thereby to create a more musically literate and supportive public. The author suggests that music…

The "Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV): was intended to raise the academic and technical rigor of secondary and postsecondary CTE instruction in order to prepare students for entry into high-skill, high-wage, or high-demand occupations. Under "Perkins IV," CTE generally means a sequence of…

As our society becomes more technologically advanced and jobs require additional related skills, it is important that all girls, not just those interested in science, technology, engineering, and math (commonly referred to as the STEM disciplines), take advanced levels of science and math in high school. Evidence suggests that intervention…

A two-course sequence in electromagnetics (EM) was developed in order to address a perceived lack of student learning and engagement observed in a traditional, lecture-based EM course. The two-course sequence is named VECTOR: Vitalizing Electromagnetic Concepts To Obtain Relevance. This paper reports on the first course of the sequence. VECTOR…

This study focuses on the effect of using a computer-based competitive learning system called LearnStar, as supplementary instruction in introductory chemistry courses. The outcomes evaluated were of student performance on classroom exams, the cumulative final, overall course grade, overall DFW rate (the percentage of student receiving a D, F, or…

This report provides information on the outcomes of the Intervention for College Attendance Program, a program of competitive grants awarded to postsecondary institutions, professional organizations and community-based organizations. Funded programs focus on increasing the access and success of groups traditionally underrepresented in higher…

Ho'okahua is a five-year NSF-funded project designed to increase the number of Maui Community College students entering, persisting in, and succeeding in college level Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses and degree programs, with particular focus on Hawaiian students. This research study measures several indicators of…

In fall 1996, California's Los Rios Community College District (LRCCD) undertook several initiatives to increase enrollment, including the construction of state-of-the-art computer laboratories to meet demands for high tech training and the expansion of course offerings to non-traditional times. To evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts,…

Describes the course content and structure of a one-credit, elective senior seminar designed to inform a college psychology department about the effectiveness of their instruction. Assessment measures included a faculty-generated multiple choice test, a student-generated multiple choice test, student surveys, focus groups, and a student essay on…

Keeping high school students in school and helping them gain competence and confidence in skills so that they can be successful in the world of work and/or college is an enormous challenge. The results of one study clearly demonstrated a direct correlation between one's self-esteem and academic competence. The more competent one feels, the better…