This chapter aims to extend conversations around educational equity by emphasizing the role of community college contexts as a mediator between policy reform and student experience. Narratives of Tennessee (TN) Reconnect Grant recipients indicate that community college contexts related to advising and student support services and enrollment,…

Bringing metacognition onto college campuses is a transformational experience for students and faculty as well as their institutions. In this chapter, we share a collection of metacognitive activities and describe their value in and outside of the classroom based upon our experiences in the community college setting. These activities are easily…

Drawing from examples of career development initiatives implemented by SAGE 2YC Faculty Change Agents, this chapter illustrates the role of career development in supporting the success of all community college students and guides faculty, administrators, and professional societies on how to advance student career development on a variety of…

This article describes the change process at East Los Angeles College (ELAC) to address the unique barriers that Latinx students face in transferring to 4-year institutions. Since 2014, California Community Colleges have had an unprecedented opportunity to target disparities in academic outcomes through the Student Equity Policy (SEP) and its…

This article examines how states and community colleges can streamline the transfer process through an innovative national program known as Interstate Passport. The program enables block transfer of lower-division general education attainment based on a set of learning outcomes rather than on individual courses and credits. The article shows how…

Community colleges serve the largest percentage of under-represented, under-prepared, and under-resourced students yet they are often underfunded in state budgets. This article demonstrates challenges and opportunities for community college leaders in state and federal political advocacy from the perspective of a community college state system…

Higher education governance of community colleges is understudied. Driving an increased focus on community college coordination and oversight at the state level are the role of access from dual enrollment to adult learners, the need to smooth the transfer function of community colleges, jobs requiring educational attainment beyond high school, and…

This article tells the story of the #EndCCStigma social media campaign and podcast. Created by a community college president, this grassroots effort to elevate the public perception of community colleges is comprised of a Twitter hashtag, a news aggregation algorithm, and a podcast series. In addition to delving into the concept of…

The article describes enrollment, retention, and institutional expenditures on instruction, academic support, and student services at community colleges in Tennessee and Oregon after these states implemented Promise scholarship programs. This article highlights that college attendance and choice among recent high school graduates changed after the…

Public 2-year colleges were designed to serve students coming primarily from their local communities, hence explaining their "community college" title. This study focuses on an understudied factor capable of altering the local workforce impact of community colleges while also potentially strengthening their 4-year steppingstone function:…

While limited, research centering LGBTQ students and experiences at the community college indicate students experience microaggressions, feelings of isolation, and a lack of curricular inclusivity at their community college institutions. With a lack of clarity around nondiscrimination policies at the federal level, coupled with a lack of…

While community colleges enroll high proportions of disabled students, limited research exists on considerations that college personnel should account for in meeting disabled students' varied needs and strengths. This article explores the impacts of policies and processes on disabled community college students and presents five policy-related…

Community colleges are a critical access point to higher education for undocumented students, yet undocumented community college students often report feelings of "constrained inclusion" due to the limitations created by their citizenship status (Negrón-Gonzales, 2017). In this article, we review existing research on undocumented…

This study evaluated the connection between community college faculty engagement in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and student success by investigating the frequency of individual community college faculty members engagement in activities that comprise the SoTL categories of classroom research and pedagogical content knowledge.

Fostering a sense of belonging for community college students is a shared responsibility among all institutional areas, including academics, student services, and student life. This article presents a collaborative tutorial initiated and sustained by academics and support services that addressed the needs of students cycling through writing…