Wheelhouse publishes timely, readily understood and actionable
briefs for decision-maker audiences statewide, including
community college administrators and trustees, the California
Community College Chancellor’s Office and Board of Governors, the
Office of the Governor, the State Legislature and media covering
higher education.
We also serve as the hub for a statewide network of
researchers whose work informs and connects to our mission. Our
annual Scholars’ Retreat brings together academics from SDSU,
Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, USC
and select non-California universities for research
collaboration, peer feedback and learning.
To cultivate the next generation of California Community
Colleges-focused scholars, we include graduate students working
with our affiliated scholars at these institutions and sponsor an
annual summer research
fellowship for doctoral candidates whose work touches the
CCCs.
Featured Research
Navigators of Critical Reform: California Community College
Counseling Faculty as Agents of Change in Implementing AB 705
(Acevedo, 2022)
Understanding the Student-Centered Funding
Formula (Linden, 2022)
Pandemic-Period Enrollment and Persistence in California
Community Colleges (Linden, Kurlaender, Martorell and
Carrell, 2022)
Benefits and Opportunities: California’s Community College
Baccalaureate Programs (Hoang, Vo and Rios-Aguilar, 2022)
Leading as Myself: California
Community College CEO Reflections on Personal and Institutional
Growth Across a Year of Racial Reckoning (Bush, Cooper,
Escobar, Kurlaender and Rodriguez, 2021)
A Rising Tide: Dual Enrollment is Growing Among California High
School Students (Wheelhouse, California Education Lab, and
PACE, 2020)
ADTs at Year 10 (Baker, Kurlaender, Friedmann,
2020)
2023
Working as Designed: A Causal Analysis of AB 705 Shows Increased
Rates of Transfer-Level Course Taking and Passage (Alice Li,
2023)
More than just
money? Early outcomes of Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC)
College Promise Program in New Directions for Community
Colleges (Claudia Escobar, Elizabeth Zeiger Friedmann, and
Silvia Tovar, 2023)
Enlace Comunitario Identifying Opportunities to Enhance Community
College Outreach and Recruitment of Latinx/a/o Students
(Mayra Nuñez Martinez, Marcela G. Cuellar, Sherrie Reed and Celia
Esposito-Noy 2023)
Toward Belonging in the Community College Classroom: Lessons from
the Learning for Equity Ascend Research Network (LEARN)
(Escobar, 2023)
2022
Navigators of Critical Reform: California Community College
Counseling Faculty as Agents of Change in Implementing AB 705
(Acevedo, 2022)
Understanding the Student-Centered Funding
Formula (Linden, 2022)
Funding Incentives for CCCs: Impacts of the SCFF on Financial Aid
Receipt (Linden, 2022)
Pandemic-Period Enrollment and Persistence in California
Community Colleges (Linden, Kurlaender, Martorell and
Carrell, 2022)
Benefits and Opportunities: California’s Community College
Baccalaureate Programs (Hoang, Vo and Rios-Aguilar, 2022)
Pioneering The Community College Baccalaureate in California: The
Experience of West Los Angeles College
(Aguiar, Dones, Quiñones, Rios-Aguilar, Chavac and
Cruz, 2022)
2021
Progress and Potential: Considering the Question of Racial Equity
in CA AB705 (Melguizo, Cooper, Kurlaender, Bensimon, 2021).
A Foot in the Door: Growth in Participation and Equity in
Dual Enrollment in California (Kurlaender,
Reed, Grosz, Mathias and Hughes, 2021)
Leading as Myself: California
Community College CEO Reflections on Personal and Institutional
Growth Across a Year of Racial Reckoning (Bush, Cooper,
Escobar, Kurlaender and Rodriguez, 2021)
Everybody Pulling in the Same Direction: The COVID-19 Shift
to Online Delivery of Instruction and Student
Services (Hart, Xu, Hill and Alonso, 2021)
Course Closed: Using Waitlists to Study the Effects of Course
Shutouts on Community College Students (Robles, Gross and
Fairlie, 2021)
Financial Aid for
California Community College Students (Kurlaender,
Martorell, Friedmann, 2021)
A
Portrait of Student Parents in the California Community Colleges:
A New Analysis of Financial Aid Seekers with Dependent
Children (Reed, Grosz, Kurlaender and Cooper, 2021)
Like a Juggler: The Experiences of Racially Minoritized Student
Parents in a California Community
College (Huerta, Rios-Aguilar, Ramirez
and Muñoz, 2021)
Higher Learning Inside: An
Exploration of the Demographic Make-up of Incarcerated Persons
Taking Postsecondary Courses in California (Britton,
Friedmann and Adan, 2021)
2020
A Rising Tide: Dual Enrollment is Growing Among California High
School Students (Wheelhouse, California Education Lab, and
PACE, 2020)
ADTs at Year 10 (Baker, Kurlaender, Friedmann,
2020)
Turning on a Dime: California
Community College Transformation in Response to
COVID-19 (Cooper, Hart, Kurlaender, Rios-Aguilar,
Rodriguez and Sublett, 2020)
Toward a More Perfect
Institution: Reflections from California Community College
Leaders on Racism, Anti-Blackness and Implicit
Bias (Bush, Cooper, Kurlaender and Rodriguez, 2020)
A Leg Up on College: The Scale and
Distribution of Community College Participation Among California
High School Students (Friedmann, Kurlaender, Li and
Rumberger, 2020)
2019
Starting off on the Wrong Foot: Math Misalignment and STEM
Outcomes in California Community Colleges (Park, Ngo and
Melguizo, 2019)
Who’s on Line One? The Delicate Juggling Act of Community College
CEOs (Cooper and Benson, 2019)
Why do Some Students Fail to Receive Pell Grants? (Friedmann
and Martorell, 2019)
2018
Associate Degrees for Transfer: A Snapshot of Progress
Across CA Community Colleges (Baker, Kurlaender and
Friedmann, 2018)
College Quality: The Promises and Pitfalls of Measurement
(Kurlaender, Carrell and Jackson, 2018)
Money Left on the Table: An Analysis of Pell Grant Receipt Among
Financially-Eligible Community College Students in California
(Martorell and Friedmann, 2018)
Text Me: The Promise of Strategic Nudging to Increase Student
Awareness and Access to Financial Aid (Rios-Aguilar,
Martinez, Graves, Lopez, and Deil-Amen, 2018)
2017
A Missed Opportunity for Equity? Early Observations on CA’s
Community College BA Pilot (Cuellar and Gandara, 2017)
Associate Degrees for Transfer: Early Effects on Degree
Completion in CA Community Colleges (Baker, 2017)
Talk to Me: What California Community College Trustees Want
from their CEOs (Cooper, 2017)
2016
Tough Job if You Can Keep It: What California Community College
CEOs Say About Their Challenges and Longevity (Cooper, 2016)