Bridging the Gaps to Success – Promising Practices for Promoting Transfer Among Low-Income and First-Generation Students

This study, funded by TG, examines successful transfer strategies implemented at six Texas community colleges that continue to help low-income and first-generation students obtain their baccalaureate degrees. The study highlights what is working to increase transfer rates for low-income and first-generation students at each institution while gleaning a set of promising practices common to each of the schools that can inform other community colleges on how to establish successful transfer cultures. The report identifies the following three common themes — each consisting of institutional programs and policies — that contribute to higher-than-expected transfer rates:

• A Structured Academic Pathway;
• A Student-Centered Culture; and
• A Culturally-Sensitive Leadership. 

The study makes specific recommendations for replicating the three common core practices to create a culture of transfer, including tactics such as collaborative campus programming, structuring administrative offices as support and service centers, making data-driven decisions, rewarding staff and faculty who value students and developing a performance and accountability culture.