Community College Research Articles

The Role of Multiple Measures in Community College Developmental Mathematics

Objective: Developmental education provides postsecondary students requisite skills to take credit-bearing coursework. Yet, racial disparities exist in which students are most likely to be placed into developmental education. The present study investigates how multiple measures of students’ mathematics background ameliorate racial disparities in developmental math outcomes among U.S. community college students. Methods: The High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 was used to identify sample participants ( n = 3,650) who attended a 2-year postsecondary institution (community college) within 3 years of high school graduation. A series of logistic regression models were employed with developmental math outcomes as dependent variables predicted by multiple measures of student’s math background and demographic covariates. Results: Compared to White students, Black and Hispanic students had poorer developmental math outcomes; however, inclusion of multiple measures of high school math experiences reduced racial disparities. Multiple measures significantly reduced developmental math enrollment by 13% for Black students and 15% for Hispanic students, improved developmental math passing rates for Black students by 25% and Hispanic students by 25%, and improved passing rates for the first college-credit bearing math course for Hispanic students by 73%. Conclusion: The present study highlights how multiple measures of students’ math background might be an important lever for more racially-equitable placement processes. For Black and Hispanic students, the most influential high school measures were high school math GPA, highest high school math course, and math motivation. More work is needed to fine-tune how multiple measures can be used to increase access and equitable outcomes for students.

“Measuring bones”: A cross-disciplinary experiential learning event to increase awareness that math is everywhere

Community colleges serve a substantial percentage of college-age students in the United States, many of whom arrive with negative attitudes toward mathematics, despite there being many STEM-related fields available to community college graduates. The current paper summarizes the creation of a day-long activity that assists students in developing applied mathematical skills in a format that aligns with the experiential learning theory. Students at a community college in Texas are learning math by engaging with a popular topic, crime scene investigation, through an annual event, established in 2017, called NVCsi. Students interact with hands-on activities that combine forensics, mathematics, and other disciplines. The implementation of the event is described so that other colleges can develop their own experiential learning event. Planned data collection for future event cycles are described, as are limitations and constraints of the NVCsi event with a discussion of planned modifications.

Latinx Immigrant-Origin Community College Students: Examining Persistence and Transfer Through a Funds of Identity Framework

Objective: The study aimed to understand how Latinx immigrant-origin community college students draw upon their funds of identity to persist and transfer. Methods: Utilizing a multimethodological qualitative approach, self-portraits and testimonios were collected from 20 Latinx immigrant-origin California community college students in spring 2022. All participants planned to transfer to a 4-year college in the fall. Data analysis included deductive, inductive, and axial coding. Results: Family ties shaped students’ aspirations and persistence while the development of new funds of identity help define their community college journey. In addition, culturally affirming courses and programs that aligned with students’ funds of identity supported persistence and transfer during challenging moments. Finally, students’ academic interests and career exploration operated as motivating factors to help them reach their future goals. Contributions: The results from this study demonstrate the need for community colleges to recognize and affirm Latinx immigrant-origin students’ diverse identities. Community colleges also need to ensure that programs and services align with students’ lived experiences.

OCR concerned with college's treatment of pregnant student

Case name: Letter re: Hinds Community College, No. 06212198 (OCR 04/03/24).

Recruiting and retaining BIPOC teachers: project HEART

Abstract We are a team of experienced teacher educators working with various licensure programs: teaching English to speakers of other languages, literacy, primary, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In the summer of 2020, as faculty in a college of education in an urban area in upper Midwest, we participated in a grassroots faculty-led initiative around interrogating teaching and learning structures in pursuit of equity and social justice. Following that initiative, we have embarked on a project to increase the recruitment and retention of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) teachers. The team project is cross-institutional and consists of faculty, staff, and leaders from an urban university, a large urban school district, and the local community college. Using improvement science and an equity literacy framework, we explore ways to strengthen our interconnected pipeline to recruit, train, employ, and support BIPOC teachers. With the spirit of collaboration and shared beliefs, we aim to dismantle unjust and inequitable practices and create racially just and sustainable communities for BIPOC students and teachers. This article will share how we operationalize the three pillars of our project (collaboration, shared beliefs, and sustainability) to diversify our teacher preparation programs and increase representation within the teaching community.

University–Community Collaborative School Violence Prevention Program during Out-of-School Time

University–Community Collaborative School Violence Prevention Program during Out-of-School Time

Shifting to the online environment: exploring virtual and in-person collaborations between community college libraries and writing centers

Community college libraries and writing centers are natural partners due to their shared goals regarding academic support and student success, as well as their joint focus on the interrelated processes of writing and research. Research has shown that libraries at four-year institutions and writing centers collaborate in many ways, but little research has been conducted on collaborations at community colleges and whether these collaborations have moved to a virtual setting. Given the rise in online education at community colleges and students' need for developmental education in writing, this study used a qualitative survey approach to gain a better understanding of virtual and in-person collaborative efforts between writing centers and community college libraries. The survey was distributed via listservs and direct emails, with participation limited to those working at two-year institutions with writing centers. Survey findings demonstrated that library and writing center staff are implementing a variety of virtual and in-person collaborative efforts, such as student trainings, individual student appointments, the joint creation of online resources, and campus outreach. Practical implications for academic libraries and future directions for research are also discussed.

Community College Articulation Agreement Websites: Students’ Suggestions for New Academic Advising Software Features

ABSTRACT Articulation agreements provide more transparency about how community college courses will transfer and fulfill university requirements. However, the literature displays conflicting results on whether articulation agreements improve transfer-related outcomes; perhaps one contributor to these conflicting research results is the subpar user experience of articulation agreement reports and the websites that host them. Accordingly, we surveyed and interviewed California community college transfer students to gather their suggestions for new academic-advising-related software features for the ASSIST website. ASSIST is California’s official centralized repository of articulation agreement reports between public California community colleges and universities. We analyzed the open-ended survey and interview data using structural coding and thematic analysis. We identified four themes around students’ software feature suggestions for ASSIST: (a) features that automate laborious academic advising tasks, (b) features to reduce ambiguity with articulation agreements, (c) features to mitigate mistakes in term-by-term course planning, and (d) features to facilitate online advising from advisors and student peers.

Developing a societal impact evaluation framework for sustainable European University Alliances

European University alliances, formally introduced in 2019, are rapidly expanding, as more than 400 million euros have been dedicated in 2023 by the European Commission to foster international collaborations to promote new forms of development within and beyond university communities. By undertaking interventionist research on UNITA – Universitas Montium, one of the largest European alliances, representing 160.000 students, this paper aims to illustrate how a university alliance is tasked with developing an internal assessment methodology to account for the societal benefits created by the project for the academic and civil communities. The elaboration of the assessment tool to assess the contribution to higher education and societal sustainable communities has brought researchers to discover etic and emic implications, revealing the existence of an accountability layer in which the international alliance directly engages with rural and mountain communities in marginalized areas. This research marks a significant advancement in the field of higher education sustainability, providing both a novel analytical perspective on the benefits of university alliances for the development of local sustainable communities and a methodological tool for their assessment.

Participatory research in energy justice: guiding principles and practice

This perspective explores the imperative role of participatory research (PR) in advancing energy justice. We argue that using PR methods and principles at the intersection of energy and equity is a critical research advantage. Here, we contend that PR frameworks are integral to bridging the gap between energy justice theory and practice, emphasizing the need to move beyond decontextualized principles to address specific injustices related to race, class, gender, and coloniality. We present three energy justice case studies that used participatory approaches in diverse contexts: Amazon, Brazil; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; and Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA. These cases showcase the versatility of PR methods in understanding and addressing unique energy challenges within local communities. We highlight guiding principles of PR, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing community needs, respecting diverse expertise, building trust, designing for transparency and accountability, choosing appropriate methods, adapting and being flexible, and aiming for long-term collaboration. Lastly, our perspective suggests future directions for participatory energy justice research, including the potential for PR to inform multiscalar policy, practice, and advocacy. We underscore the importance of collaborations between university researchers and community organizations through citizen science, emphasizing the need for diverse disciplinary perspectives to effectively address complex energy justice challenges.

16S rRNA Analysis of Electrogenic Bacterial Communities from Soil Microbial Fuel Cells

Electrogenic bacteria present in bioelectrical devices such as soil microbial fuel cells (SMFCs) are powered by the oxidation of organic and inorganic compounds due to microbial activity. Fourteen soils randomly selected from Bergen Community College or areas nearby, located in the state of New Jersey, USA, were used to screen for the presence of electrogenic bacteria. SMFCs were incubated at 35–37 °C. Of the 14 samples, 11 generated electricity and enriched electrogenic bacteria. The average optimal electricity production by the top 3 SMFCs was 152 microwatts. The highest electrical production was produced by SMFC-B1C and SMFC-B1B, with 162 and 152 microwatts, respectively. Microbial DNA was extracted from the biofilm grown on the anodes, followed by PCR analysis of the 16S rRNA V3–V4 region. Next-generation sequencing was performed to determine the structure and diversity of the electrogenic microbial community. The top 3 MFCs with the highest electricity production showed a bacterial community predominantly composed of bacteria belonging to the Bacillota and Pseudomonadota phyla with a significant presence of Euryarcheota members of methanogenic archaea. SMFC-B1C showed a more diverse electrogenic community, followed by SMFC-B1B and SMFC-B1. When analyzing the top 10 bacteria in the SMFCs, 67 percent belonged to the class Clostridia, indicating that anaerobic conditions were required to enrich electrogenic bacterial numbers and optimize electrical production. The ongoing optimization of SMFCs will provide better production of electricity and continuous enhancement of microbial activity to sustain longer operational times and higher levels of electrogenesis. The characterization of electrogenic microbial communities will provide valuable information to understand the contribution of different populations to the production of electricity in bioelectrical devices.

Pengembangan “Desa Wisata Kampung Koi” Latukan sebagai Upaya Penguatan BUMDesa melalui Pengembangan Kelompok Pembudidaya dan BUMDesa Latukan, Kabupaten Lamongan

Latukan Village is one of the villages in Lamongan Regency with Independent Village status in the 2020 Building Village Index (IDM). Independent Village has the highest status in the IDM assessment scale published by the Ministry of Villages. Through the Empowered Village Program, Latukan Village seeks to build a village icon by constructing the Latukan “Koi Village”. However, the complete design concept regarding the development of Latukan Village as a Kampung Koi Tourism Village has not yet been formed optimally. Therefore, it is essential to prepare strategic development steps, which include elements of Koi Fish Cultivation, Post-harvest Management, Transportation, Marketing Management, the establishment of recreational and educational parks, as well as human resource development, in this case, the Koi Fish Cultivator Group and the Harvest Management Group. The solution is to create a development design for the Kampung Koi Tourism Village as part of the BUM Desa business unit. For this reason, the Brawijaya University Community Service team designed an activity to build a stronger and more sustainable Latukan Village Icon. Service activities consist of identifying the status of the problem and planning solutions, forming a koi fish cultivator group and making portable spawning ponds, strengthening the role of BUMDesa, village government, and cultivators through focus group discussions and comparative studies, and koi fish cultivation and breeding training. All activities have been conducted and compiled in scientific publications and mass media. In its implementation, this activity involved five students concentrating on fisheries cultivation and fishery product technology.

Factors Associated With Economics Course Performance at a Large Associate Degree-Granting Institution

Economics courses are often offered at community colleges and other institutions that primarily confer associate degrees. Despite this, little research has been conducted on performance in economics courses focusing on students attending these institutions. I use multinomial logistic models to determine which factors are related to performance in both introductory macroeconomics and introductory microeconomics at a large institution that primarily confers associate degrees and finds several factors associated with performance in these courses. Among the findings are that citizenship status, foreign-born status, and gender are associated with academic performance in economics courses as noncitizens, foreign-born, and male students outperform their citizen, U.S.-born, and female counterparts in certain circumstances. Additional results show that in-person classes are associated with higher pass rates and lower withdrawal rates.

A multi-tiered mentoring community approach to research experiences for local students from disadvantaged and underrepresented minority backgrounds

IntroductionA research and mentoring program was developed to provide local first-generation students, students returning to school after a professional experience, and underrepresented minority students resources and relationships to guide them toward a STEM degree from a four-year university.MethodsA multi-tiered mentoring community was formed including direct mentoring from graduate students and faculty advisors, peer mentoring among undergraduate students from different colleges and universities, and high school students to increase the accessibility of research opportunities for this demographic. Local students were recruited from Northwest Arkansas Community College and Upward Bound to combine community college and high school students in a novel manner. The programs were integrated whenever possible to emphasize peer mentoring, including mentoring lunches, research meetings, presentation sessions, conference presentations, and professional development mentoring sessions.ResultsOn the post-program survey, students indicated the community formed in the program supported their STEM identity development, provided them with quality relationships, and developed skills valuable to completion of a STEM degree. This identity development was further evidenced by the students presenting their work at a conference and obtaining additional research positions after the summer program ended.ConclusionThe post-program scores and continued efforts of different demographics of students to pursue STEM highlight the versatility of the multi-tiered mentoring community model to serve students from different ages, backgrounds, and demographics.

A Case Study Comparison of Undergraduate Education and Engineering Majors’ Understanding of Community Engineering

ABSTRACT As we prepare teachers to provide students with opportunities within STEM education, authentic experiences should guide the instruction. Unfortunately, due to the novel integration of engineering into national reform documents, there is a dearth of documentation on elementary preservice teachers’ engineering ideas as they align with student goals (e.g. enrolling in an engineering program). As teachers must provide authentic science experiences to help frame the work of scientists for students, creating authentic engineering experiences should frame the work of engineers. Thus, it is important to foundationally investigate how elementary preservice teachers’ ideas about engineering reflect those of novice engineers. This research uses multiple case study to investigate and compare teaching and engineering majors’ understanding of engineering within their communities. Additionally, while there were some similarities across groups, engineering majors were more likely to speak to the science behind the artifacts represented in the photo novellas they authored, and the preservice teachers found a larger variety and diversity of engineering elements. Findings indicate that these groups have fundamentally different perspectives on engineering and how it is manifested within the communities. This has implications for upper tiers of education as elementary teachers lay broad engineering foundations, while middle, high school, and community colleges must methodically highlight engineering disciplines to provide more authentic experiences, highlighting the connections between engineering, science, and math.

Factors Associated with HPV Genital Warts: A Self-Reported Cross-Sectional Study among Students and Staff of a Northern University in Nigeria.

The menace of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections among low- and middle-income countries with no access to a free HPV vaccine is a public health concern. HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Nigeria, while the most known types of HPV genotypes being transmitted are the high-risk HPV-16 and 18 genotypes. In this study, we explored the predictors of self-reported HPV infections and HPV genital warts infection among a population of students, non-academic staff, and academic staff of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) University located in Lapai, Nigeria. We also assessed their knowledge about HPV infections and genotypes, and sexual behaviors. An online cross-sectional study was conducted by setting up a structured questionnaire on Google Forms and it was distributed to the university community via Facebook and other social media platforms of the university. The form captured questions on HPV infection, and knowledge about HPV infection and genotypes, as well as the sexual health of the participants. All variables were described using frequencies and percentage distribution; chi-squared test statistics were used to explore the association between HPV infection (medical records of HPV infection) and the participants' profile, and a logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the factors associated with HPV genital warts infection among the population. This study reveals those participants between the ages of 26-40 years (81.3%) and those currently not in a sexually active relationship-single/divorced (26.4%)-who have self-reported having the HPV-16 and -18 genotypes. Moreover, participants between 26-40 years of age (OR: 0.45, 95%CI: 0.22-0.89) reported themselves to be carriers of HPV genital warts. Therefore, this study reveals the factors associated with HPV infection and genital warts peculiar to IBB university students and staff. Hence, we suggest the need for HPV awareness programs and free HPV vaccine availability at IBB university.

Food and housing insecurity among community college student‐veterans

AbstractIn this manuscript, the authors examined the rates of food and housing insecurity experienced by student‐veterans enrolled at community colleges in fall 2020. The results of a multi‐institutional survey of student‐veterans at 113 community colleges suggested that 37.6% of community college student‐veterans experienced food insecurity and 52.5% of community college student‐veterans experienced housing insecurity. Additionally, 17.8% of community college student‐veterans experienced homelessness in the past year. The results also suggest that community college student‐veterans who experienced food and housing insecurity had lower grade point averages, higher rates of clinically significant generalized anxiety disorder, and higher rates of clinically significant major depressive disorder. Examples of strategies to support community college student‐veterans experiencing food and housing insecurity are included.

How the Austerity Agenda Disappeared Over a Million California Community College Students: A Faculty Perspective

The largest system of higher education in the nation, the California Community Colleges (CCC) has disappeared more than one million students in the past 15 years, a 35% decrease in its student body since 2008 despite California’s population increase. This dramatic shrinking of the CCC system was not an accident. It was manufactured by a vast neoliberal policy network and funded by edu-philanthropist foundations, with the goal of disrupting, defunding, and dismantling public education. Tracking faculty and student advocacy against so-called student success policies, this article concludes that edu-philanthropist foundations have created decades of policy designed to shrink and disinvest from California’s community colleges. Building on the literature documenting neoliberal educational reform within the public sector of the United States, this article is based on original ethnographic research and leadership experience within local and statewide faculty organizations, including participation in the CCC governance and legislative processes from 2007 to 2022. The article calls for the nation’s community colleges to build a coalition that will educate the public about the 50-plus-year neoliberal project to defund public education; expose the philanthrocapitalist takeover of community colleges; and advocate for reinvestment in the millions of students who need the community colleges the most.

Nurturing a Sense of Belonging in LGBTQIA2S+ Community College Students

Background/context: Challenges faced by community college students have both intensified and transformed since COVID-19 hit in spring 2020. As colleges transitioned operations online and are still gradually returning to in-person teaching and learning, they have had to experiment with how to help students maintain some sense of connection to their peers, their learning, and their schools. This task is complicated in a community college setting because of the size and diversity of student populations; supporting particular populations such LGBTQIA2S+ students calls for additional layers of ongoing reflection. Purpose: Amid increased backlash and a surge in legislation against LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, community colleges face the challenge of helping this marginalized part of our student population feel confident that they belong on campus. In reflecting on efforts by my college to support LGBTQIA2S+students before, during, and after the pandemic, I show how a focus on increasing feelings of belonging are instrumental in retaining LGBTQIA2S+ students.

College for All and the Struggles to Make It Work: Community College Student Feedback Data on Obstacles to College Completion

Background/Context: There is a misalignment in contemporary society between the assumption that all high school graduates can and should attend college and the lack of funding and support to make that happen. This is especially apparent at community colleges that enroll disproportionally low-income students, who deal with a variety of obstacles including a lack of family support, academic issues, and financial struggles. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The aim of this project is to better understand the life circumstances that contribute to students dropping out of community college before completing a degree. Research Design: I surveyed community college students on precollege planning, in-college experiences, and reasons for leaving before earning a degree. I assessed the associations of these circumstances with dropping out, using Pearson Chi-square tests, and applied logistic regressions. Conclusion/Recommendations: Students who dropped out of college were less likely to discuss their college plans with their parents; they struggled academically and financially and found themselves isolated and without assistance more often than those who stayed.