Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies (DELPS) assistant professor Lyle McKinney has been elected to the Board of Directors for the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC). McKinney will be serving in the role of treasurer for the next three years. CSCC includes university-based researchers and community college practitioners who further scholarship on the community college enterprise.

The CSCC Board of Directors is currently working on several initiatives aimed at strengthening the connection between empirical research and institutional practice. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in a leadership capacity for CSCC over the next three years and assist with these efforts to improve community college student success,” said McKinney.

McKinney told us that CSCC is searching for ways to increase participation among graduate students.  “This is a great opportunity for our students in the M.Ed. in Higher Education as well as the Ph.D. in Higher Education programs to serve a national research association,” he said.

"I am grateful for the opportunity that Dr. McKinney has to serve the CCSC." said DELPS department chair Anthony Rolle.  "His high level of intelligence, research productivity, and practical administrative experiences will be an asset to the CCSC as the organization continues to grow."

McKinney’s research includes examining the role of the community college in helping improve the lives of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Community colleges provide a pathway out of poverty and into the middle-class for millions of citizens; but far too many students who enroll in these institutions drop out before reaching their educational goals. In recognition that most community college students come from lower-income households, one strand of McKinney’s research examines the ways in which federal and state financial aid policies, as well as personal decisions about how to pay for higher education, impact these students’ educational experiences and outcomes.

Additionally, several of McKinney’s current projects utilize longitudinal student unit record data to more carefully examine how course-taking patterns effect degree completion and transfer among community college students. The overarching goal of his scholarly agenda is to inform, and help shape, public policies and institutional practices that dramatically increase the rates of community college student success.

The Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) is an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and a project of the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (www.centerforcommunitycolleges.org).