African American Transfer Tipping Point

This research aims to identify key factors influencing transfer success among high-leverage African American/Black learners in the California Community Colleges system. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the project seeks to identify “tipping points” that facilitate their transfer success. The study was designed to answer two critical sets of research questions:

1. Where along the academic continuum are we losing the greatest proportions of African American/Black students who leave without transferring? Conversely, where are the tipping points that signal students’ transition from being unlikely to reach their transfer goal to being significantly more likely to do so?

2. What are the factors (both academic and non-academic) that contribute to African American/Black students’ likelihood of reaching the tipping point? Which programs and practices are associated with greater persistence to and through the tipping points and, ultimately, the transfer gate?

View resources for this project

Project Team Information

Lead(s): Dr. Darla Cooper, Dr. Katie Brohawn

Team Member(s): Alyssa Nguyen, Michelle White, Dr. Daisy Segovia

Advisory Members: (Name, Position, Organization at the time of membership)

• Natalie Aceves, Educational Director, Transfer Center Norco College
• Dr. Arynn Auzout, Partnership Relations Coordinator, CCC Transfer Guarantee Agreement to Historically Black Colleges & Universities
• Anita Bailey, Program Director, Umoja Community
• Dr. Antonio Banks, Director, Black and Males of Color Success Compton College
• Dr. Julianna Barnes, Chancellor, South Orange County Community College District
• Dr. Lisa Cooper Wilkins, Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs City College of San Francisco
• Dr. Keith Curry, President, Compton College
• Audrey Dow, Senior Vice President, Campaign for College Opportunity
• Nzingha Dugas, Executive Director, Umoja Community, Palomar College
• Sydney Farwell, Transfer Student involved in TTG project, Fresno State
• Dr. Michelle Fowles, Dean, Institutional Effectiveness, LA Valley College
• Dr. Su Jin Gatlin Jez, Executive Director, California Competes
• Dr. Marcell Gilmore, Educational Research Assessment Analyst, Mt. San Antonio College
• Dr. Frank Harris, Co-Director of the Community College Equity Assessment Lab (CCEAL)/Professor of postsecondary education,  San Diego State University/Center for Organizational Responsibility and Advancement (CORA)
• Dr. Aisha Lowe, Vice Chancellor, CCC Chancellor's Office
• Dr. Valerie Lundy-Wagner, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Research and Data CCC, Chancellor's Office
• Dr. Christopher Nellum, Deputy Director, Research and Policy Education, Trust-West
• Ken O'Donnell, Vice Provost, Academic Affairs, CSU Dominguez Hills
• Anthony Onwuegbuzia, Transfer student, Compton College, transferred to CSU Dominguez Hills
• Gerald Richardson III, Student Senate Legislative Affairs Director Reg VI and student in Ventura County CCD, Student Senate
• Dr. Wendy Sedlak, Strategy Director, Lumina Foundation
• Sabrina Sencil, Director, Research and Equity, Cosumnes River College
• Dr. Jennifer Taylor-Mendoza, Vice President, Instruction Skyline College
• Dr. Scott Thayer, President, African American Male Education Network and Development (A2MEND)
• Dr. Eric Wada, Academic Senate: C-ID Curriculum Director, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC)/Los Rios Community College District
• Diamund White, Student Senate Legislative Affairs Director Reg III and student at City College of SF, Student Senate
• Dr. Luke Wood, Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Education, VP for Student Affairs & Campus Diversity, Co-Director of the Community College Equity Assessment Lab (CCEAL), San Diego State University/Center for Organizational Responsibility and Advancement (CORA)
• Helen Young, Project Director, CCC Transfer Guarantee Agreement to Historically Black Colleges & Universities

Funder(s):
Lumina Foundation