This study investigated stress levels and the sources of stress upon students enrolled at American River College (California), a community college of 20,000 students. Participants responded to a questionnaire measuring degrees of stress experienced in 43 life events within the past 12 months. Each individual's stress weights were then summed to…

This study at American River College (California) researches freshmen persistence as measured by the attainment of academic benchmarks. The percentage of freshmen at American River College who enroll in the fall and continue in the immediate spring semester is typically 60%. To gain additional information about persistence, the college studied…

This document addresses how well ARC's computerized placement tests (Compass) assist individuals in reaching informed decisions about enrolling in selected courses, including English composition, reading, mathematics, and ESL. The document addresses the question of whether Compass scores add any relevant information in the decision-making process…

A project was conducted at American River College, in California, to develop and apply a transfer eligibility measure as a companion to the college's transfer rate. The transfer eligible rate is calculated by dividing the number of transfer directed students by those who are transfer eligible. In the original model, transfer directed students were…

The transfer ready model was developed at American River College, in California, because of limitations with traditional methods for calculating community college to university transfer rates. The transfer ready model uses a percentage derived from a ratio of two student counts: the number of transfer ready students divided by the number of…

This report examines American River College (ARC), California, over a 5-year period from 1996-2001. It looks specifically at access, student assessment, overall student academic success, freshman success, performance in sequence courses, persistence, and rates for degrees, certificates, and transfer. ARC has experienced a 35.9% increase in…