Steps to Success: Analyzing Milestone Achievement to Improve Community College Student Outcomes
October 2009
IHELP’s newest report offers a framework, based on the research literature, for guiding educators in using available knowledge and tools to improve student outcomes. Using data for the California Community Colleges, the report illustrates the framework, which consists of milestones, or intermediate educational achievements that students reach along the path to degree completion, and indicators of success, or academic patterns students follow including remediation, gateway courses, and credit accumulation. The report shows how the framework can be used to diagnose where and why students fall off the path to success, to suggest appropriate interventions, and to improve accountability in community colleges.

Community College Student Outcomes: Limitations of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and Recommendations for Improvement.
August 2009
IHELP’s report on the IPEDS analyzes the value and effectiveness of the system for understanding student outcomes in community colleges. The report discusses the system’s shortcomings such as the limitation of the graduation rate data to full-time students, the difficulty in discerning student intent in order to report on the appropriate outcomes, and the limitations for using the data to make comparisons across colleges. Recommendations are made for improving the data collected and for better use of the data.

Student Progress Toward Degree Completion: Lessons from the Research Literature
September 2009
This report reviews the research literature on student success to identify intermediate outcomes, sometimes called “milestones,” along the college pathway that give students momentum toward degree completion. It points to academic behaviors and patterns that have been found to predict student progress and success that can, therefore, be tracked to identify where and why student progress stalls and how changes to policies and practices might increase degree completion. The report was prepared as background for upcoming reports on milestone achievement among community college and university students.

Crafting a Student-Centered Transfer Process in California: Lessons from other states
August, 2009
This report tackles the difficult challenge of making transfer more comprehensible and less frustrating for California’s community college students. The study examines transfer policies of eight states, identifies some key dimensions of emerging policies, and offers recommendations for more student-centered transfer policies that would increase transfer success and lead to more college educated Californians to help meet workforce needs.

It Could Happen: Unleashing the Potential of California's Community Colleges to Help Students Succeed and California Thrive
February, 2008
(click here for foldout insert)
This report integrates our work over the last year on how to increase student success. It proposes a specific agenda for policy change that could lead to significant and lasting increases in student success.

Moving Forward: Increasing Latino Enrollment in California's Public Universities November, 2007
This report examines issues of UC/CSU eligibility among under-represented minority high school students, with a specific focus on the growing Latino population. The report describes a simple model that can be used to estimate the impact of eligibility increases among Latinos. (click here to see the model)

Invest in Success: How Finance Policy Can Increase Student Success at California's Community Colleges
October, 2007
(click here for Executive Summary)
This report analyzes the degree to which state finance policies for the community colleges align with state priorities - such as access, completion and affordability. It concludes that there is considerable misalignment; therefore, funds are not invested as well as they might be to accomplish state goals. Alternative approaches to finance are explored, and a new approach is suggested to replace traditional (and ineffective) performance funding with "investing in success."

Beyond the Open Door: Increasing Student Success in the California Community Colleges
August, 2007
(click here for Executive Summary)
This report provides detailed analyses of factors related to student success, connects those factors to state and institutional policies, and offers recommendations for policy reforms. It includes a qualitative analysis of the CCC assessment and placement process.

Rules of the Game: How State Policy Creates Barriers to Degree Completion and Impedes Student Success in the California Community Colleges, February 2007
This report finds low completion rates among degree-seeking students and identifies several areas of state policy that inadvertently create barriers to student success. It offers general recommendations for how changes to state policy in these areas can increase student success.

Diminished Access to the Baccalaureate for Low-income and Minority Students in California: The Impact of Budget and Capacity Constraints on the Transfer Function, May 2005
This article was published in the journal Educational Policy (vol. 19, no. 2)

Effect of Racial/Ethnic Composition on Transfer Rates in Community Colleges: Implications for Policy and Practice, September 2004
This article was published in the journal Research in Higher Education (vol. 45, no. 6)

Ensuring Access with Quality to California Community Colleges, May 2004
The Institute was a contributing author to this report published by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The report integrates enrollment projections for community colleges with in-depth interviews with educators, analyzes the scope of current access problems, and makes recommendations aimed at avoiding even greater problems over the next decade.

Diminishing Access to the Baccalaureate through Transfer: The Impact of State Policies and Implications for California, April 2004
This report discusses the reasons behind a narrowing transfer pathway from community colleges to universities in California. It raises questions policymakers should consider in targeting scarce resources to generate the best educational outcomes for Californians.

Capacity Constraints in California's Public Universities: A Factor Impeding Transfer?, September 2003
This report examines the issue of capacity constraints in California's public universities, and whether limited capacity is a factor impeding the success of the community college transfer function.

California Community College Transfer Rates:  Policy Implications and a Future Research Agenda, February 2003
This statistical study identifies factors that explain observed differences in transfer rates among California's community colleges.

Milestones and Indicators of Success: A Framework for Improving Student Outcomes
Presentation to the National Association of System Heads (NASH) Access to Success (A2S) Leading Indicators Project, November 11, 2009

Political and Policy Barriers to Basic Skills Education in the California Community Colleges. Presentation to the American Educational Research Association, April 14, 2009

Policy Matters: Creating the Best Conditions for Community College Student Success
Presentation to a seminar sponsored by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), April 10, 2009. Click here to listen to a podcast of the presentation.

Designing Policies to Increase Student Success, Presentation to Pennsylvania's Achieving the Dream Student Success Forum, October 10, 2008

Community College Transfer: Obstacles and Barriers. Presentation to Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, Teachers College, Columbia University, September 15, 2008

A Call for Change? Increasing Student Success at California Community Colleges. Presentation to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Education and Workforce Development Committee, May 23, 2008

Levers of Change: Role of Financial Aid and Institutional Reform in Promoting Student Success at California Community Colleges. Presentation to the College Access Foundation, May 20, 2008

From Access to Success in California's Community Colleges: No Time to Waste. Presentation at the Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley, February 12, 2008

Untapped Opportunities: Designing Policies to Increase Student Success
Presentation to the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, November 1, 2007

Beyond the Open Door: Leveraging Institutional Change through State Policy Reform
Presentation to the Community College Leadership Development Initiatives (CCLDI), October 11-12 and November 2, 2007

Increasing Opportunities for Student Success: Changing the "Rules of the Game"
Presentation to the Community College Leadership Development Initiatives' Policy Seminar on Quality and Affordability in California's Community Colleges, May 9, 2007

Student Success in the California Community Colleges: Why does it matter? How do we know? What do we do?
Presentation to the Community College League of California's annual Trustees conference, May 6, 2007

Using Data for a Change: Three Conversations
Presentation to the joint conference of the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges and the California Community Colleges Chief Information System Officers Assocation, March 26, 2007

Latino College Success and the California Dream
Presentation to Greater Los Angeles Chicano-Latino Administrator, Faculty & Staff Community College Assocation, March 24, 2007

Latino Student Access and Success: Research Findings and Policy Implications
Presentation to NALEO Education Leadership Initiative, California Statewide Policy Institute on Higher Education Access and Success, January 16, 2007

"The Cockeyed Optimist": Student Success Research or "What Kind of Fool am I?" Presentation to the California Community Colleges Chief Instructional Officers' fall conference, November 3, 2006