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Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the first and most important step for students to receive their portion of the billions of grant aid dollars disbursed in federal student financial aid; however, every year many low income and community college students fail to complete the FAFSA. Over the past twenty years, surveys have shown four main reasons students do not complete the FAFSA: the complexity of the FAFSA, loan debt, "other," and no financial need. This article reviews current efforts, policies and practices aimed at increasing FAFSA completion rates at the national, state, and local levels. It also shows that many of these efforts are not assessed or evaluated for effectiveness. Special attention on FAFSA completion practices are made for financial aid administrators at a community and local level that focus on personal one-to one assistance, which research has found to be the most effective means of increasing FAFSA completion rates.

An important aspect of the community college mission is to educate working adults including those without a high school diploma or its equivalent. Three important changes are forcing community colleges to reevaluate how these services and activities are delivered as well as policies that govern this critical work. These shifts provide a new opportunity for community college leaders to reenvision how they engage local employers, working adults, and underprepared college students.

Historically, higher education research has focused on traditional students (i.e., recent high school graduates at a residential, 4-year institutions), but community college students are quickly becoming the new traditional student (Jenkins, 2012). In the fall of 2011, more than one third (36%) of all students enrolled in postsecondary education and almost half (46.7%) of all students enrolled in a public postsecondary institution were enrolled at a community college (Knapp, Kelly-Reid, & Ginder, 2012). However, community colleges have struggled to match the persistence rates at other institutional types. The 2011 2-year public community college national 3-year persistence-to-degree rate was 26.9% (American College Testing [ACT], 2011). The purpose of this paper is to review the literature regarding the most prominent theoretical frameworks for community college student persistence and suggest a new theoretical construct. The resultant framework is termed the Collective Affiliation Model because it views the student's sense of belonging with the college as only one of many senses of belonging in the student's life (e.g., family, work). The Collective Affiliation Model does not view student dropout as the student's inability to integrate into the life of the institution; rather, it views it as the institution's inability to collectively affiliate with the student. This model's strength is that it does not work from a student deficit model. Instead, it provides a new framework for researchers and practitioners to better understand and address student drop-out at community colleges.

Today, many full-time students spend one, two, or more additional years completing a 2-year associate or 4-year bachelor degree. In order to reduce this time frame, many institutions are utilizing a 15 to Finish campaign to encourage full-time students to enroll in 15 credits each semester. The first purpose of this study was to examine if there is a relationship between the number of credit hours enrolled in the first semester and the number of credits earned at the end of the first year. Concurrently, it examined how a student's initial academic momentum (i.e., the number of credit hours earned in the first year) relates to student persistence and degree completion. The second purpose was to determine if there was a relationship between a student's socioeconomic status and the number of credit hours enrolled in the first semester--and if it is feasible for low-income students, who primarily attend community colleges, to afford additional credit hours. The results showed that more students who earned 30 credit hours in the first academic year persisted to the second year and earned a degree than students who did not earn 30 credit hours. Also, the results showed that the majority of low-income community college students had enough Federal Pell Grant funds to pay for the additional tuition cost. Given these results, practical and policy implications are discussed.

Mathematics is the most common subject area of remedial need and the majority of remedial math students never pass a college-level credit-bearing math class. The majorities of studies that investigate this phenomenon are conducted at community colleges and use some type of regression model; however, none have used a continuation ratio model. The purpose of this study was to assess student persistence through the remedial math sequence and successfully passing a college-level credit-bearing math course using binary, cumulative, and continuation ratio logistic regression models at 2- and 4-year public institutions. Findings showed the pre-algebra grade was the strongest predictor of completing each course in the remedial sequence and passing a college-level credit-bearing math class. Also, continuation ratio logistic regression provided methodological advantages over binary and cumulative logistic regression.

In 2011-2012, more than 236.7 billion dollars of student financial aid was disbursed to undergraduate and graduate students at postsecondary institutions in the United States. Today, many groups and organizations are advocating for financial aid to increase student access and success as well as to assist the neediest students. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of the College Access Program (CAP) grant, which is a need-based state access grant, on persistence from the first to second year at Kentucky's 2- and 4-year public institutions using logistic regression and propensity score matching. A dependent full-time student who receives the CAP grant has 51% greater odds of persisting from the first to second year, but receiving the CAP grant was not statistically significant for part-time or independent students. These findings have practical and policy implications if institutional, state and federal financial aid is to align to increase student access and success.

At two-year public community colleges, the 2011 three-year persistence rate was 23.9%. From 1988 to 2006, between 40% and 60% of all first-time community college students were referred to and enrolled in at least one developmental education course. More students begin college underprepared in mathematics than any other subject area, and only about half of all students enrolled in developmental mathematics successfully completed such a course. In 2009, only 26% of Kentucky high school graduates reached the benchmark in mathematics; nonetheless, 74% "indicated an interest in obtaining a bachelor's degree or higher" (ACT, Inc., 2009, p. 5). For students in Kentucky and many other states to earn a degree, persisting beyond developmental mathematics is a necessity. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between demographic, academic, and work and family factors and persistence to the next semester for six cohorts of students enrolled in Basic Algebra at Kentucky's public two-year community and technical college system. Logistic regression analyses found academic and dynamic factors (i.e., work and family factors) were statistically significant predictors of persistence. Students who enrolled in a MT065 course delivered in person with an online component were more likely to persist, and statistically significant predictor factors varied based on fall-to-spring or spring-to-fall persistence.

Today, community colleges are challenged to maintain their historical identity of open access while increasing student success. This challenge is particularly salient in the context of performance-based funding models. These models create student achievements, which determine institutional levels of state funding. Therefore, these new student success metrics are important to the fiscal health of community colleges. In an effort to better identify the likelihood of meeting these metrics, some scholars have suggested "leading indicators." The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of leading indicators on transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion for community and technical college students at Kentucky's two-year public institutions for groups based on student characteristics. Logistic regression analyses showed that leading indicators do predict transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion, but with varying levels of affect. Earning 30 credit hours by the end of the first year, passing a summer class and completing a college-level English class had the greatest effect on transfer to a four-year institution and associate degree completion. For performance-based funding models to be most effective and fair, policies and practices should consider precollege factors in their models. Also, these findings have implications for institutional level policy-making and practices.

The designation "low income" is often assigned to students who are Federal Pell Grant eligible; however, family incomes for these recipients range from $0 to as high as $60,000 (Baum & Payea, 2011). Over 93% of all zero expected family contribution (EFC) students have a family income of $30,000 or less and constituted 67.4% of all Federal Pell Grant disbursements in 2009-2010. Given the wide range of family incomes, state need-based grant eligibility requirements, and current fiscal constraints, the purpose of this study was to compare predictors of student first- to second-year persistence, for zero and nonzero EFC students at two- and four-year institutions, as suggested by Davidson (2013). Logistic regressions showed differences between students at two- and four-year institutions as well as zero and nonzero students. Using a zero EFC as a criterion for low income could prove a valuable alternative to Federal Pell Grant eligibility for state and institutional policy makers when allocating need-based financial aid. In doing so, consideration must be given to this student population's particular needs and factors that best foster student success.

Research has shown that community college and other low income students have the most need regarding the financial aid process. Community college students are less likely to complete the free application for federal student aid (FAFSA) than students at public and private four-year and for-profit institutions. Surveys have shown that the complexity of the FAFSA and lack of information are two primary reasons students do not start the financial aid process. The purpose of this article is to highlight an additional barrier in the financial aid process that is currently under-researched, but is salient for student access and success at community colleges[#x02014]verification. This article reviews the current literature related to FAFSA simplification, information, and verification. In light of the literature review, the article concludes with suggested research questions and practical suggestions for community college financial aid practitioners.

In 2011, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported that, in the 24 to 54 age range, the United States ranked thirty-fourth among all for individuals with a postsecondary credential. For the United States to increase in rank, adult students, who are projected to increase by 1.9 million in postsecondary enrollment by 2021, must obtain a degree. The purpose of this study was to determine leading indicators from first-term academic behaviors and outcomes for term-to-term and year-to-year persistence as well as degree completion of undergraduate adult students at four-year traditional institutions. Using a statewide data set, a number of factors directly contributed to student persistence and degree completion. First-term credit ratio can provide institutions and policymakers a metric to gauge adult degree completion and information regarding for whom to provide intervention strategies to increase persistence.

Community colleges have maintained a mission and commitment to open access. Likewise, Federal Pell Grants have historically served as a primary means for low income populations to afford higher education. Thus, community college students and Federal Pell Grants are important parts of the American higher education landscape and a mode of social and individual transformation (Baime & Mullin, 2011). In 2006, Romano and Millard asked the question, "If community college students are so poor, why do only 16.9% of them receive Pell Grants?" The authors put forth the question to financial aid professionals and based on their responses posited seven possible answers. The purpose of this paper is to expand on some of the previous answers and provide the following additional explanations: (a) lack of information; (b) verification; (c) financial aid office's workload; and (d) student employment. Romano and Millard (2006) concluded Federal Pell Grant rate cannot be used to determine low income at community colleges. When considering this new information, a zero expected family contribution (EFC) is suggested to be used when awarding institutional and state need-based aid, which would ensure funding to the lowest income students. When a zero EFC is used to define low income, data shows there are more low income community college students than their four-year counterparts. This does not negate the fact that many of the aforementioned issues are salient and important for community college students, but depending on how low income is defined determines a critical aspect of why community college students are so poor.

Community college leaders often look to institutional researchers to provide information to better inform their decision-making process, which guides local policy making and practice. The purpose of this paper is to acquaint community college institutional researchers with a data visualization technique called classification and regression tree (CART) analysis and demonstrate how it may be used to communicate student degree completion findings to internal and external audiences. The CART analysis provides a data-driven pictorial representation of how successful community college students are at earning an associate degree based on demographic, financial and academic variables. Using a statewide dataset, this study found grade point average, being an underrepresented minority, KEES, earned credit ratio, age, enrollment intensity, Federal Pell Grant, and gender were statistically significant variables of associate degree completion. Implications of these findings and the application of this technique are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]