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Tags:July 2026Community colleges operate at the intersection of broad public missions, fiscal constraints, and...
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Tags: Programs and PracticesJuly 2026For over two decades, Kansas colleges and universities required most students, regardless of major...
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Tags: Programs and PracticesJuly 2026Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) is one of the 10 individually accredited colleges that...
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Tags: AccessJune 2026Anne Arundel Community College (AACC) and the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington...
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Economic Development
June
2026
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Graduating high school students across the nation are faced with deciding whether to continue their education or enter the workforce. Many seek higher education in order to improve career opportunities and gain economic prosperity and social mobility (Blackwell & Pinder, 2014). The College Board claims that the average annual income for individuals who have a baccalaureate degree is $53,976. The unemployment rate among these graduates is 4.7 percent, which is lower than the U.S. unemployment rate of 6.7 percent (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). While these statistics look promising, the...
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When looking at national data about American students who are identified as English language learners (ELL), overlapping definitions from two prominent sources are important to note. The U.S. Census Bureau uses the American Community Survey (2013) to obtain information about factors that disproportionately affect ELL students and their families. The survey compares statistics between "native" and "foreign" households, definitions which are determined by where the householder was born. Not all children whose parents were born outside of the U.S. are identified as ELL. However, when...
Tags: Programs and Practices
For over two decades, Kansas colleges and universities required most students, regardless of major, to pass College Algebra in order to earn a degree or certificate. But according to the Mathematical Association of America (Saxe & Braddy, 2025), approximately 50 percent of students in the course failed to pass with a C grade or above each year.
Math educators at Johnson County Community College (JCCC) recognized the same trends among their students. Course completion figures and other data indicated that College Algebra posed a significant obstacle for many JCCC students, particularly...
September
2016
As higher education evolves to accommodate new forms of learning and new workforce needs, skills are being assessed across an ever-widening range of activities within the learning landscape. Campus-based and online degree programs; professional certificates; competency-based education; open online courses; professional development initiatives; cocurricular and extracurricular activities; and programs in service learning, information literacy, and entrepreneurship are just some of the higher education settings in which competencies worth recognizing are demonstrated or observed. Digital badges...
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Students of color, males in particular, face significant challenges in higher education. African American male students, on average, are less successful than other racial/ethnic groups, including African American women. Compared to Asian/Pacific Islander or White/Non-Hispanic students, they are less likely to succeed in both developmental and college-level coursework and are more likely to drop out. Latino students are the least likely of all racial/ethnic groups to transfer. African American students and Latino males have the lowest persistence rates (Elgin Community College, 2010).
Students...
August
2020
Oakton Community College’s Cannabis Dispensary and Patient Care Specialist certificate program is the direct result of a single interaction between a senior Oakton administrator and an Oakton alumnus. The alumnus worked for a medical cannabis dispensary and expressed the need for educated patient care specialists who were able to interact with chronically ill patients—in other words, those with job skills that go beyond being a “weed enthusiast.”
Students and alumni can positively impact curriculum and academic programming as members of career advisory committees and by playing a role in...