Xiaodan Hu

Student parents make up a substantial share of community college enrollment, yet the support that exists is often dispersed across offices. In this article, we review and summarize research on the importance of student services for community college student parents. We then document how one institution, Dallas College, is creating a data infrastructure to identify student parent characteristics and needs to build holistic support programs (e.g., drop‐in childcare, scholarships, benefits assistance) that empower student parents for college success. Because the Center for Student Parent Success remains in development, we document institutional intent and design logic as these initiatives unfold. By centering educational equity for student parents with diverse identities, this article provides practical implications for community colleges seeking to build comparable capacity.

Retention, persistence, and completion are distinct, yet interconnected concepts used by policymakers, educational leaders, and researchers to assess college student progress and institutional accountability. We organize theoretical frameworks addressing the complex factors addressing these outcomes into three concentric layers: the Core (psychological and motivational drivers), the Orbit (integration, engagement, and institutional support), and the Galaxy (structural, cultural, and developmental contexts). Vertical transfer is conceptualized as a strategic pathway to a bachelor’s degree, contributing to retention, persistence, and completion in postsecondary education. Within the Core–Orbit–Galaxy structure, we examine theoretical frameworks for understanding vertical transfer students’ experiences and outcomes. While previous research on transfer, retention, persistence, and completion has informed policies and practices promoting college completion, the increased focus on initiatives such as the College Completion Agenda has led to unintended outcomes and complex tensions. We propose several data-driven, evidence-based, and advocacy-oriented strategies to address these challenges and advance the completion agenda.

In summer 2023, Texas launched the FAST initiative to fund free dual credit courses for high school students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Drawing on a sensemaking framework, this qualitative case study examined how ten high school dual-credit practitioners in one Texas metropolitan area understood and implemented the policy during its first year. Findings indicate that while community colleges and leaders supported implementation, high school staff faced communication challenges due to limited capacity and training. Despite these barriers, practitioners used different strategies to raise awareness among students and families. The study highlights both the promise of the FAST initiative and the on-the-ground complexities of implementing a policy to expand access to college in high school settings, offering a real-time account of policy implementation and extending sensemaking theory to cross-sector settings that characterize dual-credit policies.

Objective: This study examines whether New Jersey’s state-funded merit-aid program, which was designed to benefit community college students, including first-time full-time student enrollment, associate degree completion, and transferring out. We compared STARS to programs in other states by applying a typology that categorizes state-funded merit-aid programs by whether they are designed to be inclusive of community college students. Methods: Using institution-level data between 2001 and 2021, we used propensity score matching to select comparable community colleges to be included in the untreated group, as well as difference-in-differences and event study approaches to test our hypotheses about the relationship between STARS program adoption and community college outcomes. Results: We found that New Jersey’s STARS programs increased White students’ enrollment and associate degree completion in community colleges relative to community colleges in states with merit-aid programs that disproportionately favor 4-year students. However, we did not find the same relationship for non-White students. It was unlikely that the enrollment increase was the result of community colleges siphoning off enrollments from other higher education sectors. Additionally, we did not find any evidence that STARS reduced students transferring out before completing credentials. Conclusions/Contributions: By examining a unique merit-aid program focused on community college students, we discuss implications to adopt and design more equitable financial aid policies to support community college enrollment, completion, and transfer. Our results help advance current scholarship by considering tensions among access, social mobility, and merit, while studying whether merit-aid programs can serve as an equitable mechanism for improving community college outcomes.

Scholars consistently document a national surge of dual enrollment in the U.S., butprograms are developed at the state level and build on existing public colleges anduniversities within each state. This exploratory study examines public four-yearuniversities as providers of dual enrollment alongside geographically proximatecommunity colleges that also offer dual enrollment programs. Guided by the concept oforganizational fields, we aim to identify predictors of whether public four-yearuniversities provide dual enrollment programs and the size of these programs. Usingcross-sectional data, our correlational findings suggest that public four-year universitiesare less likely to offer dual enrollment programs when more and larger dual enrollmentprograms are offered by in-state and within-proximity community colleges. Yet, whenstates formally authorize public four-year universities to offer formal dual enrollmentprograms, those institutions tend to enroll more high school students in college-levelcourses. We offer directions for future research based on our exploratory findings.

This study examines whether and which aspects of statewide merit-aid policies influence students’ enrollment, retention, and completion outcomes at public four-year institutions, before exploring the influence of discontinuing merit aid on student outcomes. Using a novel dataset capturing details of merit-based aid policies for public four-year institutions over nearly two decades, we find suggestive evidence that merit-aid adoption is related to postsecondary enrollment, retention, and completion outcomes, with considerable variation among student populations and certain policy designs. Exploratory analyses pertaining to the influence of discontinuing statewide merit aid reveal a null influence on postsecondary enrollment, retention, and graduation outcomes.

Given the surge of dual enrollment programs in the United States, this study focuses on the relationship between public four-year universities’ offering of dual enrollment programs in the context of in-state and within-proximity community colleges offering similar programs. This study is guided by the classic supply and demand perspective in higher education to understand public four-year universities’ behaviors in offering dual enrollment programs and the size of these programs. Using a national dataset, we found that public four-year universities, especially non-doctoral institutions, do not seem to compete with nearby community colleges to offer similar dual enrolment programs. However, non-doctoral public four-year universities are responsive to student needs in dual enrolment in state overall, and they supplement community colleges’ role to supply dual enrolment programs when needed.

This study examines the relationship between earning dual credits and college students’ scholarships and grants packages and levels, focusing on low-income students. Using nationally representative data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, I used a quasi-experimental approach to reduce selection bias of DE credit-earning coupled with regression models. The findings indicate that first-year college students with earned DE credits are about 1.5 times more likely to receive scholarships and grants, especially for merit-based aid. On average for the full sample, DE students receive $1,229 more in total scholarships and grants when compared with non-DE students, with $586 more in need-based grants and $502 in merit-based grants. However, for students with low-income backgrounds, having earned DE credits is only positively associated with an increased $1,107 in total scholarships and grants and an increased $658 in need-based grant when compared with non-DE low-income students.

In 2016, Illinois initiated a statewide transitional math program to support students to be academically ready in college-level math before graduating from high school. This qualitative study focuses on the perspective of community college faculty and administrators on the statewide implementation of transitional math programs. We find that a successful partnership between high schools and community colleges is perceived as key to designing, implementing, and improving transitional math programs to ensure effective teaching and learning. However, community college leaders perceived that it remains unclear how transitional math programs impact student success, college enrollment, and educational equity. We provided practical implications for both transitional math programs and the broader developmental education reform.