As Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Scholars, we understand that community colleges can be sites where harm and pain are reproduced for Students of Color. Racial microaggressions, a form of systemic everyday racism, adversely impact the academic experiences of community college Students of Color, producing high pushout and low completion rates.…

New Jersey's oldest community college faced a decade-long enrollment decline, struggling to differentiate itself in a competitive regional and national higher education market. Enrollment only began to turn around after the institution adopted strategic enrollment management (SEM) planning as a central planning framework.

A critical function of community colleges is student transfer into baccalaureate degree-granting institutions. While over 80% of community college entrants indicate a desire to transfer, few students successfully do so and achieve their goal of graduating with a bachelor's degree. In particular, transfer and completion rates for Black and Latinx…

Obtaining a degree from a community college is a strong pathway to numerous career opportunities for students from low-income backgrounds. Unfortunately, graduation rates from community colleges are often very low, so many students do not reap the benefits of a degree. With the goal of increasing graduation rates, three community colleges in…

Objective: A growing body of research has examined the relationship between participation in college promise programs (CPP) and student outcomes, including college enrollment, persistence, and completion. However, variation in CPP design limits the extent to which study findings are generalizable. Further, most studies analyze the outcomes of…

More than 1.5 million parenting students are enrolled at community and technical colleges in the United States, about half of whom have at least one child under age six. Limited child care options put these students at risk of stopping out before completing a credential, jeopardizing their personal investment in education and federal and state…

In the United States, many community college students--about 68 percent--enroll part-time, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Unfortunately, graduation rates for part-time students are low. Only 19 percent of people who begin attending community college as part-time students graduate within six years, compared with 36…

Rural Canada is in decline, and as such has begun recruiting immigrants to rural areas to fill crucial labour gaps. This study explores the ways in which rural community colleges can best support immigrant women in Canada. Using narrative inquiry, it captures the voices of women who successfully completed programs in a rural community college in…

Most students who begin at a community college do not complete their desired credential. Many students fail to graduate due to various barriers other than their academic performance. To encourage previously successful non-completers to re-enroll and eventually graduate, a growing number of community colleges have implemented re-enrollment…

Objective: Most undocumented students enter higher education through community colleges, yet these institutions typically offer less support than four-year universities. Using Shumaker and Brownell's theory of social support, we aimed to understand how resources at community colleges influenced undocumented students' persistence. Specifically, we…

We estimate the cost effectiveness of corequisite English developmental education at community colleges compared with a traditional prerequisite pathway. Our context is a previously published randomized controlled trial that estimated the effects of three different approaches to English corequisites implemented in five Texas community colleges.…

Many community colleges do not have a formal process in place to offer or support a structured gap year option for students who recently graduated from high school, thereby denying those students an educational option that has been recognized as beneficial to many learners. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore factors that…

Pursuant to California Senate Bill 117, Section 19, Schedule 1, Provision 2(d)(2), the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office and the Board of Governors for California Community Colleges are pleased to release the Enrollment and Retention Funding report. This report details the use of one-time funding allocated to California community…

Critical race theory (CRT) continues to push a hot button within education. In higher education, these discussions often center 4-year colleges and universities, leaving community colleges out of the conversation. On top of that, developmental mathematics remains a racialized impediment for students from minoritized backgrounds. In this article,…

Student retention and persistence tracking have become more prominent at community colleges. While it is known that community colleges have low completion rates, these institutions need help finding ways to retain and persist their students. This study explored the faculty perspective of retention and persistence strategies. Using a…