Student Success Podcast: For Higher Ed Professionals

Dr. Kevin Walters, president of Allan Hancock College, discusses why the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) metrics miss the real story of community college students. He shares a clearer way using the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond data to count success that includes transfers, certificates, persistence, and the systems that help more students finish. He also unpacks strategies that have increased student succ...

Dr. Al argues that our society, with its advanced systems, still runs on primitive wiring, which explains today’s fear, cruelty, and attacks on education, science, and expertise. He makes the case that educators are quiet resistors who push the pendulum toward progress through daily, deliberate practice.

• educators as stewards who shift norms through practice
• human evolution limits against complex systems
• manipulation e...

Dr. Al breaks down how a loud few can distort narratives, stall reform, and make campuses feel toxic while most educators work hard for students. He shows how to replace blanket blame with specific accountability, evidence, and courage so truth can guide decisions.

• pattern of toxicity driven by a small few
• harm of blanket blame across groups
• distortion of messages and weaponized silence
• fear, bullying, ...

Community colleges lose a staggering number of students before they even show up in official retention data. For this episode, I interviewed Dr. Rita Karam of RAND Corporation. She and her colleagues at RAND examined this often-overlooked group across 15 colleges in California, Texas, and Kentucky. The findings? More than 60% of students are lost between application and census date, with the majority leaving due to a mix of persona...

Artificial intelligence isn't coming for higher ed. It’s already here. In this episode of the Student Success Podcast, I sat down with Brent Warner, a faculty member at Irvine Valley College, to unpack the practical implications of AI for college faculty and students. This wasn't a “robots will replace us” conversation. It was an honest, grounded look at what educators should consider right now.

Here are five key takeaway ...

Learn practical strategies to teach with purpose, innovation, and heart. Let’s get one thing out of the way: Yes, Kelly Spoon is a math faculty member. But no, this isn’t just a “math thing.” Whether you teach biology, sociology, English, or automotive technology, you’ll benefit from what she brings to the classroom. Kelly Spoon of San Diego Mesa College isn’t just teaching derivatives—she’s reshaping how students experience learni...

Learn how geographic distance shapes transfer outcomes, and what colleges can do about it.  When we talk about student transfer success, conversations often focus on GPA, support services, or articulation agreements. But what if one of the biggest factors is something as simple—and as complex—as distance?

In this episode of the Student Success Podcast, Dr. Darla Cooper and Dr. Daisy Segovia from the research & planning nonprofit...