Community colleges and minority serving institutions play important roles in the U.S. higher education system. These open and predominantly broad access institutions serve more first-generation, low-income, post-traditional, and racially and ethnically diverse student populations than any other sector. Institutional leaders will increasingly need…

This chapter urges researchers to use a "spatial lens" to identify mismatches between educational offerings and the local labor market for middle-skill careers. Students who are unlikely to relocate for a job will benefit from occupational credentials aligned with geographically local and available careers. The proposed spatial research…

Two-year colleges are an increasingly used but understudied pathway to STEM degrees for women from historically underserved backgrounds. This chapter discusses the community college promise in solving the gender gap in STEM attainment, as well as related research findings and directions.

Community colleges have been challenged to increase their graduation, transfer, and general success rates. Because they serve the largest proportion of nontraditional students and students of color, their participation in programs to enhance the number of college graduates contributes to social equity and justice. One of the biggest obstacles has…

This chapter describes the establishment of the Minority Male Community College Collaborative (M2C3), a research and practice center at San Diego State University. M2C3 partners with community colleges across the United States to enhance access, achievement, and success among men of color. This chapter begins with a description of the national…

This chapter describes a new conceptual framework that informs research on factors influencing transfer in STEM fields of study from 2-year to 4-year institutions, presents a new survey instrument based on the framework, and offers directions for future research in this area.

Pulling together work on the DQP and Tuning, the author presents four possible frameworks to view engagement with the DQP using the case of transfer and faculty development as examples along with four potential dilemmas IR offices may face when undertaking work with the DQP.

In the current era of accountability, tracking student achievement and success is of the utmost importance in higher education. While measuring student success may be particularly important to community colleges, it may also be especially complex in light of their multiple missions. This chapter discusses indices and other measures to gauge…

Marketing is an essential component of an effective enrollment management plan. The broad mission of a comprehensive community college requires multiple, targeted communications campaigns. Institutional research can contribute to marketing success at all phases of decision making.

The community college environment is complex and dynamic, requiring constant monitoring. To ensure that workforce education, a core component of community colleges' missions, remains aligned with colleges' environments, responsive to employers' needs, suited to students' interests and abilities, and current in content and technology, it is…

The system office for community college institutional research (SOCCIR) plays a role in the drama of higher education that states must orchestrate to help community college systems operate effectively and efficiently over the long term. But how exactly does the SOCCIR enable a state to accomplish what the separate institutional research (IR)…

This chapter describes the system office for community college institutional research in California. As the system IR office for the largest community college system in the nation, it is often looked to as a leader for other states and community college IR systems. The author notes the office's administrative environment, its staffing and…

This chapter discusses Washington State's Student Achievement Initiative, a new performance funding system for community and technical colleges. Its purposes are to improve public accountability by more accurately describing what students achieve from enrolling in state colleges each year and provide incentives through financial rewards to…

This chapter describes the system office for community college institutional research (SOCCIR) for the State of Florida. The Division of Florida Colleges has a long history of providing reports that contain information on issues of interest to both the individual members of the system and the public. Fact books have been produced by the office for…

This chapter describes the system office for community college institutional research for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. What makes this System Offices for Community College Institutional Research (SOCCIR) somewhat different from the others reviewed in this volume is that the Minnesota system IR office has responsibilities for both…