In 2015, Tennessee community colleges initiated a wave of national reform that reimagined academic support and accelerated student success. Through innovations in the delivery of targeted learning support, such as the corequisite support model, students are more likely to achieve key milestones of success in their first year of college. Now, after…

In this article, Julia So discusses the purpose of program assessment, four common missteps of program assessment and reporting, and how to prevent them. The four common missteps of program assessment and reporting she has observed are: (1) unclear or ambiguous program goals; (2) measurement error of program goals and outcomes; (3) incorrect unit…

The statewide program review process for Illinois community colleges required by the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) is scheduled on a five-year cycle, however, the value of program review is lost without regular opportunities for engagement and reflection on what has been learned through the process (Eggleston, 2020). Furthermore, one of…

Strategic planning is the process in which organizations develop goals and objectives that drive actions for the purpose of fulfilling their institutional mission. This paper addresses how strategic planning can be utilized at community colleges. A review of relevant literature is also included. A qualitative case study research methodology was…

Many scholars have sought to measure the effectiveness of diverse supplemental instruction programs. Nevertheless, it is difficult to generalize about supplemental instruction or compare data, given methodological and statistical incongruities and diverse approaches and student populations at various institutions. Quantitative and qualitative data…

The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) partnered with Umoja Community leadership to conduct a study that assesses statewide efforts to support Umoja program coordinators. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the technical assistance, resources, and trainings offered by the statewide…

Despite evidence suggesting that standardized tests are an imperfect measure of academic readiness, many community colleges across the country rely on them alone to determine student course placement. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to transition to remote operations in spring 2020, proctoring in-person placement tests became…

This article reports on the findings of qualitative research which investigated appropriate means for measuring the efficacy of 3 + 1 transfer programs. In a 3 + 1 program, students complete 90 credits at the community college and are awarded a baccalaureate degree after completing their final 30 credits at a four-year college or university.…

Funded grant projects all involve some form of evaluation, and Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grants are no exception. Program evaluation serves as a critical component not only for evaluating if a project has met its intended and desired outcomes, but the evaluation process is also a central feature of the grant application itself.…

This research brief provides community college educators who are facilitating program review with tips, suggestions, and resources to ensure a high-quality review that advances equitable student outcomes.

Remedial courses have been part of the college landscape in the United States since at least the 1800s when nearly 250,000 students were placed into remedial courses. Traditionally, students who enrolled in remedial courses were placed into that course solely based on one test score. Students who enrolled in traditional remedial courses were more…

Historically, colleges have used standardized testing to determine whether a student is ready for college-level work or requires developmental courses first, but this method has been criticized as inaccurate. To obtain more accurate placements, nearly three-quarters of colleges now use multiple measures assessment (MMA) systems. These systems…

The prevalence and emergence of college promise programs presents interesting and important methodological challenges. Based on their immediate access to de-identified data of applicants and enrollees, institutional researchers are in a privileged position to rigorously assess the effect of these programs in a myriad of outcomes. This study is a…

This article describes a faculty-led project to assess and revise institutional student learning outcomes at a small urban community college. The revision process involved four stages: (1) exploring stakeholders' explicit and implicit understandings through an experimental assessment; (2) using statistical tools to identify redundancies and…

Objective: Developmental education provides postsecondary students requisite skills to take credit-bearing coursework. Yet, racial disparities exist in which students are most likely to be placed into developmental education. The present study investigates how multiple measures of students' mathematics background ameliorate racial disparities in…