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Combining Cognitive And Noncognitive Assessments To Predict First Year Gpa And Persistence In Community College Students, David Harris Larman

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Standard assessments of cognitive ability have been the preferred method of assessing the probability of student achievement at community colleges, but there is a growing trend in the use of noncognitive factors to assess student potential. Factors related to a student’s race/ethnicity and family income have been shown to be correlated with placement tests scores and high school grades. There is a gap in the literature about the use of noncognitive measures in conjunction with standardized placement tests to predict the achievement and persistence of community college students. The purpose of this study was to examine the strength of cognitive …

Baccalaureate Degree Attainment Of Students Who Transfer With Or Without A Transferable Associate's Degree, Janina Arrington

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify how demographic characteristics (age, gender, and race) impacted baccalaureate degree attainment for transfer students who transferred from a large, public community college located in an urban area in the Southeastern U.S. to two large public universities also located in urban areas in the Southeastern region of the United States. The study also assessed transfer services and support services for transfer students received at a large, public four-year research institution in the same region.

The quantitative phase of this study employed descriptive statistics to analyze the length of time to baccalaureate degree …

A Qualitative Exploration Of First-Generation Student Experiences At A Rural Community College, Rebecca Margrete Evans

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

First-generation students comprise 36% of U.S. community college enrollments but struggle to remain in school to earn a college credential. First-generation students are less likely to enroll in college and have a higher probability for attrition than continuing-generation students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how first-generation students attending a rural community college located in the Southeastern United States perceived that their experiences impacted their academic and nonacademic success. This study replicated and extended the Stansberry and Burnett (2014) study that explored the experiences of first-generation students attending a large, diverse research university.

This phenomenological study utilized …

Faculty Employment Status And Student Characteristics As Predictors Of Student Success In Modularized Developmental Mathematics, Leonda Williams Keniston

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Approximately two-thirds of incoming community college students are considered academically unprepared for college-level work and lack adequate literacy and mathematical skills needed to learn at the postsecondary level. To address these realities, individual community colleges and state-wide systems have responded by redesigning developmental curricula and course structures into modularized programs that accelerate student progression through developmental sequences. Simultaneously, community colleges are hiring more adjunct faculty to meet the ever-growing demand to educate students in these programs.

Data were collected for a study of the Virginia Community College System 2012 developmental math redesign to primarily examine the effects of adjunct faculty …

Resiliency Of Community College Students With Adverse Childhood Experiences, Laura Elizabeth Brogden

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as defined by Drs. Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda are prevalent in the general population of the United States. These childhood traumas are strongly related to risky behaviors and poor health outcomes. The results of childhood stress may influence students at community colleges. This study of community college students with identified adverse childhood experiences will describe their perceived experiences in community colleges as they relate to their success and completion. This study is done in a framework of resilience in order to identify factors which may be influential in students’ progress and completion. Keywords: community college, …

Effect Of A Mindfulness Intervention On Community College Students' Writing Apprehension And Writing Performance, Megan E. Britt

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This experimental study used a quantitative data collection strategy to examine whether a mindfulness intervention, a three-minute breathing exercise marked by focused attention on the sensations of breath, would affect writing anxiety and writing performance measures. The researcher compared Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension surveys and narrative writing samples from 277 students enrolled in a freshman composition course at a southeastern community college, half of whom practiced the mindful-breathing technique at class onset.

Quantitative results revealed students in the mindful-breathing group experienced a statistically significant decrease in writing apprehension and mechanical error scores from pre- to post-measures when compared to controls. No …

The Influences Of Interaction On The Satisfaction, Achievement, And Retention Of Developmental Community College Students, Elizabeth Copeland Wilmer

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of social and academic interaction, demographic characteristics, social and academic adjustment, and learning communities on the satisfaction, achievement, and retention of developmental English community college students.

The literature presented discusses the retention theories of Tinto, Astin, and Bean and their overlapping ideas on persistence. A common thread among these theories is the role of academic and social interaction on the personal development, satisfaction, achievement, and retention of students. Learning communities represent one academic structure that has proven effective in increasing the level of academic and social interaction. Unfortunately, the existing …

An Examination Of Relationships Of Reading And Writing Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Standardized Placement Test Scores, And Diverse Community College Students' Perceptions Of Those Relationships, Ann Woolford-Singh

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

Social cognitive theory explains the role that one's level of confidence plays in the accomplishment of a specific task. According to Bandura (1982, 1995), self-efficacy beliefs should align with performance. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing standardized placement test scores of diverse community college freshmen. Additionally, this study sought to understand the sources of these students' reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs through the descriptions of experiences they feel have influenced those beliefs.

There were three major research questions: (1) What is the strength of the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing …