The Office of Correctional Education was created through an Act of Congress in 1991 to oversee and coordinate prison education programs as a way to reduce recidivism (Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, 1990). However, correctional education completion rates are extremely low. Therefore, we used secondary data from the…

Amidst the growing diverse student population, community colleges are enrolling an increasing number of adult immigrant-background students. However, recent research trends tend to focus on students who enter community colleges from the U.S. K-12 system (Generation 1.5 learners), leaving a significant gap in the research and a lack of cohesion in…

This study examined if a faculty-run Reading and Writing Lab at a small, private university in the Midwest helped traditionally underserved college freshmen taking developmental English classes increase their levels of self-perceived comprehension and confidence. Students who typically need to take developmental English classes include English as…

In the context of ongoing discussions about student costs of non-credit developmental writing, this study reports on the affordances of Basic Writing as a traditional, stand-alone course at a career-focused, four-year university. Participants were students who took Basic Writing and Composition 1 between Fall 2011 and Spring 2013 (N = 2,693) in…

This quantitative research study considered three academic factors, seven student-level variables, and four success measures across ten years of academic data related to undergraduate remedial mathematics beginning with the 2009-2010 academic year and ending with the 2018-2019 academic year. Secondary data was used to determine if there was a…

Transitioning from high school to college can be a formidable challenge, especially for students who are the first in their family to attend college (first-generation) and/or are from low-income backgrounds. The authors' qualitative investigation of a college mentoring program illuminates the potential value of relatable peer mentors in helping…

This article is a cross-section of stories of three young men navigating the expectations of a school with a 100% college admissions goal. Similar to their classmates, none of these male teens had a parent who had attended college. In addition, each of them had at one point in their high school lives declared that they would be dropping out of…

The national trend of requiring all college students to engage with tertiary-level mathematics has created the need to rethink how students can be supported at this level. Current trends in higher education show a decreased reliance on remedial developmental education courses and expanded reliance on learning centers. It is important to look at…

The need for developmental education is ever present in higher education as more students annually enter college underprepared for entry level college coursework. Underpreparedness is a pervasive concern in higher education. Community colleges in particular are the primary means of shepherding developmental education. Academic underpreparedness is…

Early college high school models are designed to encourage and assist traditionally underrepresented groups of students- low income, Latino, and African-American- to persist in and graduate from high school while earning college credit. Some of the models target high school dropouts, with the aim of helping them acquire the education and training…

The equity lens evaluates institutional barriers that prevent students of color from gaining access to resources for college success (Bensimon, 2005). The first-generation college students at the University of Southern California are 16% of the total student body and students of color comprise two-thirds of this population. Since 2008, how to…

Precollege courses, also known as "developmental" courses, help students prepare for introductory college courses, most often in math and English language arts (reading/writing). Most colleges use entrance exams, prior coursework, or other evaluations to determine whether students should start in a college level or precollege course for…

The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study is to determine the effectiveness of a corequisite delivery model for developmental math students at a 4-year public institution. Nationally, close to fifty percent of incoming college students are placed in non-credit bearing remedial courses (Complete College America, 2012). Students must…

In an effort to build a diverse, scalable Honors Program, this research considers two major issues that community college Honors Programs often face: homogeneity amongst its membership and the growing percentage of developmental students amongst the general college population. Surveys conducted in the Fall of 2012 at The Community College of…

Student retention rates in higher education have been a focus of study for decades, yet the problem of low student retention still exists, particularly among community college students. While student retention has not been empirically investigated among community college students in language courses, the specific problem of low course-level…