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)