Objectives: This study seeks to unravel how community college STEM transfer-intending students navigate upward transfer pathways and how institutions can provide effective support and networks to enhance their experiences. Specifically, it aims to clarify how students’ self-efficacy intertwined with different forms of support within and outside of college impacts the likelihood and timing of transfer. Methods: Using structural equation modeling to analyze survey data and 6-year student transfer outcomes from three 2-year institutions colleges, this study investigated the relationship among students’ engagement with transfer support, networks, and services, transfer self-efficacy, and transfer outcomes. We also examined how that relationship varies between racial/ethnic groups. Results: Our findings suggest that greater transfer self-efficacy is associated with shorter transfer times to a 4-year institution for all students. The findings also revealed prominent racial inequities, showing that while transfer self-efficacy and transfer support services benefit everyone, students of color do not receive the same self-efficacy boost from institutional and personal networks as white students do. Contribution: This study generates new knowledge toward improving community colleges’ transfer function by locating students’ use of supports, networks, and services to boost their self-efficacy to ensure their progress toward vertical transfer and an eventual baccalaureate degree. Our findings also hold implications for how to foster an equitable and just STEM transfer pathway, especially how to resolve potential racial disparities within this unique and pivotal transfer process.

Objective: Scholars theorize the benefits of intentionally designed transfer partnership alliances for facilitating the success of transfer students. The aim of this study was to understand how students who move from a community college to a baccalaureate-granting institution with and without the support of a transfer partnership program describe their transfer experiences and their access to transfer capital for navigating this transition. Methods: An interpretive qualitative analysis of 28 interviews was conducted using open coding methods and deductive analytic memos. These analyses compared 13 students who took part in a transfer partnership program with 15 students who transferred to the same baccalaureate-granting institution without the support of this program. Results: Participants from the two groups described their transfer experiences in very different ways. Those who took part in the transfer partnership program perceived a streamlined transition that alleviated the need for preexisting transfer capital. By contrast, students who transferred without the support of this partnership program described their experiences as more arduous, filled with unexpected challenges that disproportionately impacted first-generation college students, compared with their continuing-generation peers. Notably, transfer partnerships did not eliminate inequality based on generational status; instead, evidence suggests certain challenges may reemerge as students begin upper-division coursework following program completion. Contribution: These findings demonstrate how transfer partnerships can alleviate inequality between students based on generational status. Implications for research are discussed alongside implications for expanding transfer partnership alliances, relationships, and resources within and across institutions designed to promote transfer student success.

Objective/Research Question: Community college graduation rates are typically quite low, and developmental mathematics enrollment and coursetaking patterns may constrain academic outcomes. To identify ways in which community college graduation rates may be improved, decision trees were utilized to examine the STEM coursetaking patterns of N = 5,065 students who matriculated in remedial mathematics. Methods: The research design was guided by Tinto’s academic and social integration framework, which provided an analytical lens for identifying how decision trees facilitate academic decision making when academic and social integration is limited. Decision trees identified course sequence rules to predict graduation, which can be used to formulate course pathways for community college advisors and their students. Results: Nine rules from the decision tree were identified, which could be used to advise community college students in coursetaking that aligns with career aspirations. The most important variable predicting graduation was completing College-Level Mathematics, which included Algebra II, Statistics, Precalculus, and survey mathematics courses. General education sciences courses such as Astronomy, Geology, Environmental Science, and Marine Biology were the most important science courses predicting graduation. Conclusions/Contributions: Results suggest the importance of College-Level Mathematics in providing the skills necessary for students to be successful in subsequent STEM coursework and persist to graduation. Designating specific academic pathways may improve social and academic integration and graduation rates, providing continuity as students work with different advisors to choose majors and plan course sequences. Transparent, accessible enrollment planning fosters programmatic consistency and student agency in selecting coursework that will maximize their success.

Purpose: This conceptual piece applies what we know about student success to introduce a faculty model of success called the Faculty Pathway to Excellence. The model elevates faculty voices in the conversation of student success in community colleges. Method: We collected qualitative data from interviews with faculty at two community colleges and focus groups with faculty from six community colleges to help inform a faculty-focused framework. Proposed model: By changing the conversation to a more comprehensive perspective of faculty success, the model emphasizes the connections, establishment, navigation and leadership, and teaching and learning excellence of faculty members throughout their career trajectories. We define faculty success as faculty retention, faculty satisfaction/sense of belonging, faculty productivity, and ultimately student success (e.g., learning, retention, completion, transfer). Contributions: The development of this Faculty Pathway to Excellence suggests a wider variety of strategies by administration to attract, support, and retain faculty. It also has the potential to help faculty members envision and prepare for the multiple and non-linear pathways in academia. Understanding faculty and their career progression is critical to advance student success conversations. Finding ways to enhance faculty growth and development across all career stages helps students and faculty succeed.

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic literature review is to examine policy and practice recommendations, along with calls for future research, aimed at addressing food insecurity for community colleges across the U.S. Argument/Proposed Model: This article will provide a detailed methodology for the systematic literature review, as well as the findings gathered from a range of peer-reviewed articles on this topic. The authors analyzed six significant themes that surfaced from the current literature related to policy and practice at the federal, state, local, and institutional levels. Conclusions/Contributions: Six chief themes are discussed in-depth, including but not limited to: important tools and approaches for marketing and communications, data-driven decision-making, and the augmentation of food support with other public benefits and institutional resources. These thematic findings address the issue of food insecurity on community college campuses, and also offer a range of techniques and areas for consideration. This systematic literature review offers a compilation of policy and practice recommendations steeped in actionable strategies for researchers, policymakers, campus leaders, and practitioners alike. The strategies can be implemented and/or tailored to meet the needs and nuances of any community college population.

Objective: The COVID-19 global pandemic has created severe, long-lasting challenges to college students in the United States (US). In the present study, we assessed mental health symptomatology (depression, anxiety, life stress), academic challenges, and economic stress during the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. Method: A total sample of 361 college students (Mage = 22.26, SD = 5.56) was gathered from a community college (N = 134) and mid-size public university (N = 227) in Southwest US, both designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions. Results: Pearson and point biserial correlations indicated associations between mental health symptomatology, academic challenges, and economic stress, including expected delays in graduation. Multivariate analysis revealed that community college students had statistically significantly higher scores on anxiety F(1, 312) = 5.27, p = .02, = .01 than 4-year university students, as well as key differences with respect to academic challenges. Chi Square analyses revealed that Latinx families experienced greater economic hardships, including job loss or reduced work hours (χ2 (1, N = 361) = 28.56, p = .00) than other ethnic/racial groups. Conclusions/Contributions: Findings revealed that community college students faced disparately negative mental health symptomatology, academic challenges, and economic stress during the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. Further, Latinx students' families experienced significant economic hardship that may have impacted students' academic progress and future planning.

Introduction: While a considerable amount of extant scholarship describes the importance of and strategies for improving the postsecondary pathways of Black engineering students, most literature is contextualized within 4-year institutions. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to illuminate Black engineering students’ experiences at community colleges in order to understand ways in which they engage different types of 2-year institutional support. Methods: We draw from data obtained through a series of focus groups and interviews facilitated between fall 2018 and fall 2019 with 13 engineering undergraduates. Results: Findings include evidence of important connections with faculty at 2-year colleges, such as positive engagement with them inside the classroom, as well as during office hours and general advising. In addition, we describe support from academic advisors regarding transfer pathways, as well as from campus staff who helped identify scholarships or other valuable resources on campus. Conclusion: We offer implications and conclusions that highlight the tremendous capacity of community colleges to support and educate future Black engineers. We also discuss the significance of underrepresented students of color working closely with faculty, adding that research to date notes that these interactions often tenuous for underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities. Finally, we discuss ways in which our results can inform the broader landscape of undergraduate engineering education, which—like other STEM fields—has often created unwelcoming and competitive environments that lead to student attrition for students from all demographic backgrounds.

Objective: This article explores entrepreneurial leadership behavior from the vantage point of mid- and senior-level administrators who lead international education initiatives at U.S. community colleges. Administrators’ choices are examined to understand how they develop and use strategies for targeted problem solving within their institutional context. Research questions posed in this study include: (1) How, if at all, do community college international education leaders (CC-IELs) self-identify as entrepreneurs? (2) What characteristics embody a CC-IEL entrepreneurial leader? (3) How are CC-IELs navigators of institutional contexts? Methods: Semi-structured interviews are used to investigate the perspectives and entrepreneurial leadership skills and behaviors of 14 CC-IELs. A narrative analysis approach allowed these leaders to reflect on their perspectives and narrate their decision-making process. Results: Findings indicated that the CC-IELs in this study identified as entrepreneurial leaders, used characteristics such as collaboration to build a culture of innovation, and strategically utilized relationships with stakeholders to ground themselves as navigators of institutional contexts. Contributions: This article contributes to the understanding of an under-studied group of leaders in community colleges, specifically those who lead international education programs. It also provides insight into the entrepreneurial dimensions of CC-IEL leadership roles.

Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the potential co-occurrence of basic needs insecurity and mental health problems among community college students. These barriers to student success are gaining significant attention from college leaders and scholars, but they are often addressed in isolation, ignoring the potential reinforcing nature of these challenges. Method: We use data from a national survey of community college students to examine the relationship between experiences of basic needs insecurity and mental health problems, and investigate the support systems that students rely on for help. Results: Findings indicate that students who experience basic needs insecurity are substantively and significantly more likely than their materially secure peers to report depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, planning, or attempt, even after accounting for background characteristics. Those with both food and housing insecurities are even more likely to report mental health problems and the likelihood is positively associated with severity of material hardship. Given limited institutional supports, students often rely on friends or family for emotional and mental support. Receipt of social support is higher among those with mental health challenges, but it also varies by students’ basic needs security status. This suggests that students facing the dual challenges of basic needs insecurity and mental health problems may have exhausted this important social resource. Contributions: This study raises awareness about the prevalent co-occurrence of basic needs insecurity and mental health problems, and encourages a more integrated institutionalized approach to serving students.

Objective: Dual enrollment has become a significant portion of community college enrollment throughout the country. Some scholars have argued that dual enrollment implementation can be used as a viable policy lever to achieve the certificate and associate degree obtainment outcomes identified in Reclaiming the American Dream, a large-scale policy framework driving the community college completion agenda. However, research on dual enrollment participation and credential completion is just starting to emerge with little focus on associate degree and certificate obtainment. To fill this gap, this study investigates the relationship between dual enrollment and credential completion, paying close attention to associate degree and short-term certificate obtainment. Methods: A quantitative analysis was conducted with data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to ascertain the relationship between taking college classes in high school and post-secondary credential obtainment. Disaggregated completion percentages were collected both 3 and 5 years after students began at a post-secondary institution, and binary logistic regression models were constructed to calculate the odds of post-secondary credential obtainment when taking dual enrollment courses. Results: Overall, dual enrollment students have increased odds of completing any post-secondary credential compared to non-dual enrollment students. When disaggregated by credential type, dual enrollment students have diminished odds of completing an associate degree or certificate, compared to increased odds of completing a bachelor’s degree. Contributions: This study adds to the growing literature surrounding dual enrollment and post-secondary credential obtainment by demonstrating that dual enrollment is not a viable policy lever to achieve the credential obtainment goals of the completion agenda.