Retention is a continuing concern for institutions of higher education, especially rural community colleges. Students are often not prepared for the rigor of college-level coursework, encounter academic and/or life obstacles, or do not possess the soft skills needed to succeed in college life. Research has shown that college-preparation courses…

For many immigrants, survival in a foreign land has been marked by reinvention. Such reinvention has historically included changes in name, marginalizing traditions and customs in favor of adopting new ways of living, language acquisition, and in best-case scenarios, enculturation through education. For some, though, this reinvention has been…

Communities continue to establish, promote, and monitor the educational outcomes of their citizenry through both explicit and implied norms. Community attributes influence the pursuit of education and level of education completed by individual citizens. The influencers within communities can be attributed to common constructs of communities…

When Case Willoughby took his first community college job, he started by applying student development and student engagement theory to advising. He refocused advising to support students in exploring academic and career goals and teach them the intellectual and practical skills they need to learn. This experience led Willoughby to notice that…

First-generation college students and students from low-income families face financial, social, informational, and academic barriers to college completion because of the high cost of postsecondary education, the complexity of navigating college life, misalignment between high school and college academic expectations, and a general lack of guidance…

A majority of the studies conducted regarding transfer students is in conjunction with their academic performance and academic attainment at the four-year institution. However, minimal study has been done to identify what their other needs are once they reach the four-year institutions and how these needs influence persistence and success. Many…

Most colleges adopt strategies to improve student performance. In this article, the authors describe how Valencia Community College in Florida developed a strategy that would move it from the already much better than average results in student learning, persistence, and success it was achieving toward the quantum level of improvement. They also…