State and national initiatives focused on meeting student completion goals have been established for higher education to help produce a stronger workforce and meet economic labor market demands. Some of these initiatives have been centered around improving adult learner enrollment and completion. More adult learners are returning to higher…

In the 21st century, the exponential growth of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education and the corresponding critical need for STEM graduates in the profession have both outpaced the number of STEM graduates joining the workforce. This is a global problem, one to which the U.S. can relate. A literature review of research…

Across the United States, the primary and often, the only intervention employed to support the induction and development of beginning teachers is mentoring. Mentoring is particularly important for beginning teachers who work in under-resourced, hard-to-staff schools, exactly the type of school Black teachers are most likely to work in. While…

This study explores the issue of food insecurity within community colleges in Texas and highlights administrator's responses toward best and most promising practices and challenges in addressing food insecurity. The research was guided by complex adaptive systems theory and cynefin. Food insecurity among college students, especially community…

The declining retention rates of students are the current focus of community colleges throughout the United States, with two-year community colleges' retention rates dropping significantly. One reason for declining retention may be the lack of meaningful connections students have with faculty. Current literature lacks information about student…

Relationships between individual development and historical change are understudied, and yet an understanding of these relationships is foundational to understanding human development. The chapter provides a case study model for investigating individual-historical relations that coordinates archival, ethnographic, interview, and experimental…

The chapters in this issue are a clarion call for the science of learning and development to create productive, sustainable, and care-centered partnerships across academic fields that extend into partnerships with local communities. While applauding the wisdom of this communitarian aspiration, this commentary cautions that forming productive…

The Community Schools movement is growing across the country and is a non-partisan solution that promotes local decision making to accelerate student success. The Community Schools strategy has evolved as a vehicle for whole-child, whole-family, whole-community prosperity, through intentional school-family-community partnerships. This strategy,…

It is generally accepted by researchers, policy-makers and practitioners that progress in Indigenous education depends on working in partnership with Indigenous people, and that programs and services are best provided in partnership. The 2014-2016 Whole of Community Engagement initiative built a partnership of non-Indigenous researchers with…

The article presents the replicable model of Curriculum and Community Based Academic Learning with Research, Action and Service (CCBALwRAS) through a framework of '2 Cs', the 'curriculum' and the 'community'. It puts forth a support strategy for participatory community-based interventions by formally inducting higher education institutions (HEIs)…

Theoretically framed by public pedagogy, the study explores teachers' use of public sites for undocumented migrant children. The findings demonstrate that teachers utilized various non-school, informal, and public spaces including libraries/museums, open marketplaces, and public parks/squares as powerful platforms to foster children's learning,…

Research shows that while many students express interest in STEM, far fewer go on to complete degrees in these fields, with significant disparities across race and gender. Our latest report spotlights the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) Program, which is designed to address these disparities. Utilizing interviews with national…

This quantitative based applied research study examined data collected fromstudents who have withdrawnfromor completed aneducator preparation program (EPP) ina small rural public community college in WestVirginia. This study compared studentretention rates with Frontier andRemote (FAR) designation by home zip code. These data informedthe research…

Retention rates in higher education continue to be a prevalent issue especially for community colleges and will become a bigger issue in the current climate of enrollment loss. Much literature regarding student retention focuses on broad, overarching findings, but it is important to understand institution-specific retention factors. The purpose of…

Conducting graduate studies in an online program can be isolating for students. This qualitative case study explores the way one online doctoral cohort utilized a text-based communication channel to keep in touch and encourage each other throughout the dissertation writing and defense phase of their program. Using Social Presence Theory and Social…