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This analysis explores student outcomes related to taking developmental English (i.e. reading and/or writing) and math classes in three community colleges in three different states, using institutional data from 7,898 students who began college in the fall of 2009 (Cohort 1) or fall 2010 (Cohort 2). We examine the outcome trajectories of students at each college, considering their enrollment in developmental courses in their first term at college as well as other variables. Several factors helped students persist into the second term of college, and a subset of these was also significantly related to continued persistence, graduation, and higher overall grade point average (GPA). Older students, White/non-Hispanic students, and occupational students were more likely to graduate. These groups, and women, also had higher cumulative GPAs. Math ability at the time of college entrance was a powerful predictor of student success. The utility of reading placement as a predictor, and the utility of developmental English, reading, and writing (DERW) classes as an intervention, were both limited to retention into the second term and/or second year. Financial aid and tutoring were much more clearly related to student success than was developmental coursework.

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Introduction: While a considerable amount of extant scholarship describes the importance of and strategies for improving the postsecondary pathways of Black engineering students, most literature is contextualized within 4-year institutions. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to illuminate Black engineering students' experiences at community colleges in order to understand ways in which they engage different types of 2-year institutional support. Methods: We draw from data obtained through a series of focus groups and interviews facilitated between fall 2018 and fall 2019 with 13 engineering undergraduates.

Results: Findings include evidence of important connections with faculty at 2-year colleges, such as positive engagement with them inside the classroom, as well as during office hours and general advising. In addition, we describe support from academic advisors regarding transfer pathways, as well as from campus staff who helped identify scholarships or other valuable resources on campus. Conclusion: We offer implications and conclusions that highlight the tremendous capacity of community colleges to support and educate future Black engineers. We also discuss the significance of underrepresented students of color working closely with faculty, adding that research to date notes that these interactions [are] often tenuous for underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities. Finally, we discuss ways in which our results can inform the broader landscape of undergraduate engineering education, which - like other STEM fields - has often created unwelcoming and competitive environments that lead to student attrition for students from all demographic backgrounds.

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Objective: The process by which students decide to stay in college has been primarily based on models that are independent of geographic context. This article describes the local labor market in which community college students are situated and discusses the multiple and complex ways these labor markets impact student decisions to persist and graduate. Method: Using institutional data and U.S. Census Data for 2010, this article argues that the process students use to decide to enroll and persist in community college needs to account for geographic context. Applying ArcGIS mapping, we layout students' location, local labor market data, and the educational attainment data of a Houston area community college to map the geography of opportunity for these students. Results: The geography of opportunity signifies the educational or occupational opportunities afforded to individuals that are influenced by geography. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that research addressing persistence would benefit from acknowledging the geographic context of the higher education institution.

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Objectives/research question: This study aims to explore who transfers between 2-year colleges (lateral transfer students) and how these students fare in terms of degree attainment. More specifically, this research explores two research questions: (1) What are the predictors of lateral transfer? (2) Is lateral transfer associated with degree attainment outcomes, time to earn a degree, or cumulative loan debt by the sixth year?

Methods: Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students 12:17 data, I compared lateral transfer students to students who never transferred (non-transfer students) to identify the predictors of lateral transfer and examine degree attainment outcomes. I used multinominal logit, logistic regressions, and inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment matching models.

Results: Lateral transfer students were more likely to be female and take college courses in high school than non-transfer students. Six years later, lateral transfer students were more likely to earn all types of college credentials, except for an associate degree, complete a degree more quickly, and still attend college if they had not yet earned a credential than non-transfer students. However, lateral transfer students took out a greater amount of federal loans than non-transfer students.

Conclusions: Given the positive degree attainment outcomes, policymakers, and practitioners should reconsider the role of lateral transfer in the college completion agenda and pay more attention to why students make lateral transfers and the nature of their college pathways. This study suggests that lateral transfer has great potential to improve persistence and graduation for students who start their education at a community college.

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Objective: This article explores the experiences of 32 first-generation immigrant and refugee students as they transition into and out of community college. The challenges students face and the resources on which they draw in their educational pursuits are viewed through Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital. Method: This project utilizes an applied ethnographic approach that primarily elicited participant-observation and interview data. Results: Findings demonstrate that prospective community college students articulated uncertainty about the college process and concern over the quality of community colleges. Current and former community college students validated these concerns as they described their struggles to overcome both in- and out-of-school challenges. In many cases, such obstacles resulted in the leveling of previously high aspirations. Contribution: Although the growing number of immigrant and refugee students in the United States are disproportionately represented at community colleges, little is known about their experiences in these institutions. This article adds to our understanding of immigrant and refugee students' experiences in community colleges through their own words.

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Community colleges enroll nearly half of the students enrolled in public undergraduate programs and a disproportionate number of first-generation, low-income, underprepared and minority students. The new national completion agenda has brought both visibility and pressure to these open-access institutions, which have completion rates of less than 25 per cent for first-time full-time students and even lower rates for part-time students. While interventions to improve success tend to be focused on the first year, a surprisingly large number of students successfully complete more than one year of college credits yet leave without completing a credential or transferring. This study focuses on these 'nearbies', successful students close to completion who leave higher education. Results indicate students have varied reasons for departing, demonstrate behaviors at odds with their espoused value of earning a certificate or degree, and need support and encouragement throughout their time at the college. Personal relationships are particularly important in fostering a sense of connection.

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Objective - This study probes the reasons for high attrition rates and sense of community among students enrolled at a technical institution serving low-income students in Bogota, Colombia. Although sense of community on campus is the strongest predictor of a student's thriving, scholars in higher education have studied mainly minority students' sense of belonging, which is just one of the four elements of sense of community. In contrast, this study examines the sense of community among students who are marginalized from the broader social context but who are not a numerical minority at their institution. Method - [The authors] developed an ecological retention model for students in technical careers to identify factors unique to the study's context. [They] used an embedded and descriptive case study where students were the unit of analysis and multiple sources of data including interviews with administrators, instructors, and students as well as focus groups with students, institutional documentation, and field notes. Results - The broader socioeconomic conditions of Bogota have deep consequences for students and shape the institutional culture and climate. [The authors] also found that students are not thriving and are at risk of leaving the institution, due in part to a weak sense of community. Conclusion - This study contributes to the understanding of student retention through sense of community and in contexts foreign to most of the previous research on student retention. This knowledge is significant for guiding policies and practices for the retention of students worldwide.

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Community colleges are grappling with low rates of degree completion and transfer. The City University of New York's (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) aims to improve graduation rates by providing a range of comprehensive support services to community college students in select majors. Using student-unit record data, [the authors] employed propensity score matching to examine short-term and three-year outcomes from ASAP's first cohort, as well as logistic regression to identify program factors related to graduation. [The authors] found that ASAP participation was significantly positively related to retention, credit accrual, transfer, and degree attainment. Regression analyses indicated that a key influence on graduation is participation in advisement sessions. This study provides evidence that encouraging academic momentum via structured and comprehensive support can significantly improve community college graduation rates. It also provides evidence that ongoing and intrusive advisement can encourage positive academic outcomes among community college students.

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Career and technical education (CTE) students pursuing occupational associate’s degrees or certificates differ from students seeking academic majors at 2-year institutions in several ways. This article examines several theoretical models of student persistence and offers a conceptual model of student success focused on CTE students in community colleges.

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Objective: Traditional-age students attending a rural community college in Kentucky's Appalachian region were interviewed, along with faculty members and administrators, to identify phenomena serving as sources of encouragement or as barriers to retention from the point of entry to the point of transfer. Method: Students' perspectives were collected in a qualitative study and were analyzed using a theoretical foundation of Tinto's integration theory, enhanced with Kegan's cognitive development theory and Bourdieu's concepts of capital, habitus, and field. Results: Findings revealed three major factors affecting decision-making processes about persistence: (a) community's and family's values of education provide the essential push to attend and complete college, (b) students are challenged with overcoming the pull of family obligations, and (c) students struggle to make the cognitive leap necessary to master college-level coursework. Contributions: The results emphasize the importance of each college investing resources to understand the specific needs of that institution's students, students shaped by their region's culture and other defining traits, and customizing retention practices and programs to meet those unique needs. This study also adds to the limited research on persistence in Appalachian community colleges.

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