This dissertation conducts an evaluative case study on a community college's Career-Technical Education (CTE) Cultural Resource Management (CRM) technical certificate program to bridge the CRM workforce gap. The study assesses the program's design and development quality by aligning the program theory with stakeholders' needs, including…

The focus of this study was to develop standards that can be used for establishing and assessing high-quality postsecondary trade and industrial programs. A four-round Delphi technique was used to generate consensus regarding program standards. The panel of experts, comprised of postsecondary administrators of trade and industrial programs, was…

In community colleges in the United States, graduation rates remain frustratingly low. Students face many challenges, including the financial costs of attending college; the demands of school, work, and family; complex institutional systems; underfunded student support services; and insufficient preparation for college-level work. To address these…

Opportunity youth (OY; i.e., youth ages 16--24 who are neither working nor in school) are a population who is difficult to engage and retain in educational programs, particularly in community college career and technical education (CTE) programs. OY are an important population to community colleges, as CTE programs culminating in…

Bachelor's degree attainment for community college transfer students is one underutilized but essential pathway for reducing equity gaps in higher education. One way to achieve this at scale is through state-level initiatives dedicated to supporting transfer from community colleges to not-for-profit independent colleges. The Teagle Foundation and…

Purpose: The military medic/paramedic population has desired to seek further education in healthcare with a program that provides earned credit for their prior learning and experiences. The population specifically wants to become a registered nurse (RN). As the nursing shortage continues, these military medics and paramedics are an untapped…

The vast majority of students who enroll in a two-year college intend to earn a bachelor's degree. However, only about 14% transfer and earn a bachelor's degree within six years (Jenkins & Fink, 2016). The need to increase the number of bachelor's degree holders (Torpey, 2018), and the increasing number of students beginning at two-year…

Two-year community college (CC) students face many barriers for recruitment and retention into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields and vertical transfer to 4-year universities (4YUs). Experiential learning, mentoring, and cohort building are effective mechanisms for increasing STEM recruitment and retention, and close…

Increasingly, criminal justice practitioners have been called on to help solve breaches in cyber security. However, while the demand for criminal justice participation in cyber investigations increases daily, most universities are lagging in their educational and training opportunities for students entering the criminal justice fields. This…

The problem that was addressed in this qualitative case study was that student retention and graduation rates at community colleges have been affected by the lack of support provided to students during their academic careers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an understanding of how administrators perceived they were acting in…

Moreno Valley College, a two-year community college in Southern California, experiences an annual migration of cliff swallows. The presence of these birds inspired the development of the undergraduate research program Flying with Swallows. The assessment of the project indicated significant increases in qualitative student outcomes such as…

The goal of this American Association of School Administrators (AASA) youth apprenticeship toolkit is to encourage the creation of school and business partnerships as a viable and expansive pathway to success in school, career and work. This toolkit provides resources for secondary and community college administrators to advocate for and build…

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 dissertation examines the history, funding, structure, efficacy, and challenges of dual enrollment programs in English (and more specifically in First-Year Composition, FYC, courses) that provide access to higher education for high school students prior to graduation, as these programs have developed and currently operate in the United…

Investing in community colleges is a central part of the Biden administration's education agenda, with the goal of strengthening America's middle class and opening the benefits of education to all Americans. CCRC has conducted 25 years of research on how community colleges can more effectively educate students and set them up to successfully…