The COVID-19 pandemic forced most community colleges across the country to radically shift the ways in which they provided instruction to a majority of their students. Over the last three years, these institutions have learned how to better support students who take online courses. However they are continuing to investigate and understand how…

Throughout higher education, there is increasing concern about students who experience food insecurity, housing insecurity, and difficulty meeting other critical needs. The pandemic exacerbated these challenges and led to lower enrollment across all higher education sectors. Community colleges experienced a steepest decline between 2019 and 2021.…

To help students realize their goals, community colleges across the country are working toward redesigning the student experience utilizing the guided pathways framework. Guided pathways is an institution-wide approach to student success that is based on giving students clear, coherent, and structured educational experiences that build in a…

Research suggests that hearing how students perceive their experiences (positive and negative) can allow institutions to reevaluate their approaches and assumptions about what is working (or not) on their campuses and develop strategic plans that respond to this information. In early 2022, the Center for Community College Student Engagement…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most students did not start college in the Fall of 2020 surrounded by other students who were also excited for the journey they were about to collectively undertake. Instead, for the large majority of students, their only interactions with their college campuses were through computer screens--and even for the few who…

To understand the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community college students, the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) added a special-focus module to the 2021 administration of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement. In March 2021, CCCSE released a report highlighting the impact of the pandemic on…

The majority of community college students work while attending college, and many work because their financial situations dictate that they do so. In fact, 29% (N=341,825) of 2019 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) cohort respondents report working for pay more than 30 hours per week. Yet, working and attending college…

A challenge that community colleges continue to face is how to strengthen the education they provide in ways that lead to increased college completion and equity in student outcomes. Information gleaned from the Center's survey research and student focus groups over nearly two decades has produced the awareness that substantial improvement in…

This document provides information on methodology that accompanies the main report, "Teaching and Learning Within a Guided Pathways Framework: A Playbook." Contents include: (1) About the Survey; (2) Data; (3) Recoded Variables; (4) Analyses; and (5) Results. [For the full report, see ED610562.]

Guided pathways is a whole-college reform model through which institutions change the experience for all students both in and outside the classroom throughout their entire journey through college. It is designed to help colleges improve rates of student completion, transfer, and attainment of jobs with value in the labor market. Instituting the…

"Preserving Culture and Planning for the Future: An Exploration of Student Experiences at Tribal Colleges" aims to share a narrative of the students who attend these unique institutions. Over 1,000 students across 25 tribal colleges responded to the 2017 Survey of Entering Student Engagement ("SENSE"), which collects…

Academic mindset encompasses individuals' beliefs about the ways learning and intelligence work. These beliefs frame students' thinking, influence how they interpret events, and ultimately affect their success. This report provides results from the first large set of data on mindset in community colleges. These data suggest that understanding the…

Advising is powerful because it attends to core elements of each student's success: setting academic goals based on transfer and/or career interests, developing an academic plan to attain those goals, and staying on track until those goals are met. Each of these big-picture tasks encompasses dozens of smaller ones which include: (1) Raising…

The data contained in this report provide new connective tissue and insight into students' lives and the ways in which their financial concerns coincide with their academic work and their ability to succeed. The report focuses on the financial health of community college students, including their perceptions of their current financial…

This report is for students who wish to be full-time, but because of competing demands in their lives, attend part-time. Community colleges have long known that full-time students are more likely to complete college than are their part-time peers. In fact, a number of new completion efforts focus on full-time attendance throughout college.…