There has been little research on institutional effectiveness at community colleges. A key challenge is how to compare colleges that serve students with widely varying characteristics. Using transcript-level data on over 150,000 Florida community college students, we estimated the effect on the graduation, transfer, and persistence rates of…

Excessive college course withdrawals are costly to the student and the institution in terms of time to degree completion, available classroom space, and other resources. Although generally well quantified, detailed analysis of the reasons given by students for course withdrawal is less common. To address this, a text mining analysis was performed…

Although an association between high-impact experiential learning (HIEL) practices and university students' attainment of employability skills has been documented, factors related to implementation of HIEL practices such as faculty stages of concern, barriers faced, and resources needed from the institution to enhance implementation of HIEL…

Public universities are currently facing a challenge in determining how to deliver quality instruction in the face of severe fiscal constraints. With recent technological advances, courses streamed over the Internet (i.e., lecture capture) are now becoming common. However, little research has been published that specifically examines student…

This article introduces a short-term, three week international student teaching internship as a transformational learning experience opportunity. The program has been in operation since 2007. The development and administration of the program, including the relationship between the home and host colleges is presented as well as a discussion on the…

University honors programs emerged in the 1920s, growing to over 1,000 programs in existence today. Honors programs provide enhanced educational opportunities to students who excel academically. University honors students are experts who effectively apply metacognitive knowledge, strategies, and experiences to enhance academic behavior. Although…

In this article, the author introduces a service-learning component that enabled her to create a meaningful university-school relationship. This reciprocal relationship allowed her students to contribute over 1,500 hours of academic tutoring for culturally and linguistically diverse children in central Florida, benefiting not only children, but…

Community partnerships serving young children and families take many forms. This article presents six community partnerships that are engaged in innovative and creative approaches to learning. These programs have varied goals, but they share a common focus on linking community resources to enhance learning opportunities for the children and…

According to a 2000 community college study by Miami Dade College (FL) President Emeritus Robert McCabe, 41 percent of students entering community colleges are underprepared in at least one basic skill area. A three-year study of community college students, published in 2009 by the National Center for Education Statistics, reported that 41 percent…

Active-duty personnel, reservists, veterans, and their spouses or dependents represent 30% of the 10,000 students at the University of West Florida (UWF). With base realignment activities, a rise in the number of troops returning from deployments, and an increase in military-affiliated students on campus, the needs of veterans and their families…

Based on research conducted in a three-year, mixed-method, multi-site National Science Foundation, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) Project, this book offers a comprehensive look into how engineering department culture and climate impacts the successful retention of female and under-represented…

Prerequisite courses are essential tools in many university curricula, but some educators have suggested that they may be detrimental if applied too stringently to exclude students from courses. A measure of the value of prerequisites is whether or not they promote student success. The strongest way to test the value of prerequisites is to compare…

The conceptual foundation for remedial education is straightforward: students are tested to determine whether they meet a given level of academic proficiency for college-level classes. For those who do not meet this level, deficiencies in skills are addressed through some form of supplementary instruction, most often remedial courses. The study…

In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in…

This article describes two art-based service-learning experiences that can serve as models for an authentic community-university partnership by challenging college students' sense of place through an examination of "others'" places. College students face displacement in adjusting to a new location and a new direction in life, while youth…