Millions of students enroll in community colleges each year because of their open enrollment, lower cost of tuition, and flexible class schedules. Once enrolled at a community college, many community college students aspire to transfer their credits to a 4-year institution. One way to transfer credits from the community college to the 4-year…

This report provides a look at the Fall 2024 term enrollment in categories such as student load, location and demographics of the community college student population. The content and format of this report have been developed through a collaborative effort between the Wyoming Community College Commission (WCCC), the Executive Council and the Data…

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…

The corequisite model is a promising developmental education reform effort that is helping students transition into college-level coursework more quickly. The purpose of this Brief is to offer recommendations to college leaders, faculty, and staff involved with implementing the corequisite model at their institution. Our recommendations are from a…

Research Questions: While community college transfer (i.e., upward transfer) represents an important mechanism for advancing equity across STEM fields, existing studies of gender and women's participation within computer science have largely excluded the perspectives of upward transfer students. We address this gap in the literature by exploring…

The problem investigated in this study was the trend of decreasing student retention of first-year, degree-seeking college students at an independent community college located in northeastern New Mexico. The purpose of the study was to examine the association between student retention and program utilization. The research question was to determine…

Prior to the Guided Pathways movement, a litany of research in community colleges showed that course placement was inaccurate and ineffective. This article argues that placement might be redesigned, addressing erroneous assumptions about student success in service of pathways. This new placement would integrate three main areas of student success…

The country, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Virginia Community College System initiatives all promote generative AI within education. It is a topic of great concern and interest for higher education instructors, yet at the same time many faculty members feel uncertain about effectively integrating it into class material. To further add pressure…

This study investigates the impact of dual enrollment on college enrollment rates among high school students in Kentucky. Although dual enrollment programs have been widely promoted as a strategy to improve postsecondary access and outcomes, evidence regarding the causal effect of dual enrollment on postsecondary access is limited. By leveraging…

This study utilized role mapping, a reflective exercise where participants visually represent their various professional and personal roles. We conducted role map-elicited interviews with 13 community college faculty to understand how they experienced the year 2020. Using role theory and reflection as theoretical frames, we highlight how role maps…

The rapidly evolving educational landscape allows, and often demands, the integration of innovative digital approaches into the curriculum. Whether the course is conducted in-person, online, or hyflex, synchronous or asynchronous, the wide range of available digital tools and platforms now offer multi-faceted learning experiences designed to…

The problem addressed in this study was nontraditional community college students were at-risk of not completing their degrees. The purpose of this study was to explore the first-year completion strategies of nontraditional students at an urban Louisiana community college through the lens of their self-efficacy beliefs. I employed qualitative…

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are one of the fastest growing groups at the community college, and supporting faculty members who teach students with ASD is a challenge for college leaders. Faculty members need a knowledge base about these students as well as the pedagogical practices that lead to their success. There have been no…

The recent expansion of 7-week course offerings at Tennessee's community colleges prompted an in-depth, mixed-methods examination of the impact of these courses. This third policy brief delves deeper into the impact of 7-week courses by using qualitative research methods to investigate how these courses shape the experiences of students, faculty,…

The demand for colleges across the world to convert their courses to an online format has increased with the number of learners enrolled in at least one online course increasing each year (Seaman et al., 2018). Unfortunately, a study by Garris & Fleck (2020) found that many students complained that when their courses transitioned to an online…