Education Commons^™

We’Re Here: The “Outsider Within “The Lived Experiences Of Black Women Community College Students At An Hispanic Serving Institution, Sharaf Williams

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This qualitative research study sought to explore the lived experiences of Black women community college students as they pursued higher education at Hispanic-serving institutions. Students who were enrolled at a community college in the Inland Empire region of Southern California were interviewed in focus groups and one-on-one interviews. A hermeneutic phenomenology was used as the tool for analysis, and digital storytelling was used to provide a visual representation of the lived experiences of the students. These data points can be shared beyond the pages of this study. With limited research on understanding the unique needs of Black women students in …

A Framework For A Peer Mentorship Program To Promote Student-Athlete Success At Grand Rapids Community College, Brianna D. Greenough

Culminating Experience Projects

Research has shown community college student-athletes have a complex transition to their first year of college and there are many resources and programming available to support them. Navigating and learning how to adjust when entering college can be confusing and overwhelming, but the transition can be made easier with the help of an older student-athlete as a mentor. This unique population of students has differing needs from the general student population and requires some extra guidance to maintain their responsibilities. This project analyzed community college student-athletes’ needs, supportive resources, and peer mentoring programs. The desired subsequent outcome of this project …

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

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development 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 …

The Perspectives Of Head Start Employed Community College Students Who Earned An Associate Degree In Early Childhood Education Programs: A Phenomenological Study Exploring Challenges And Successes, Robyne E. Taylor

Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. federally funded Head Start programs serve more than one million low-income children and their families each year in education and health programs. Historically there have been few requirements for formal education for Head Start teachers. In response to research linking teacher education and outcomes for children, increased educational requirements were included in the program funding reauthorizations in recent decades. For a variety of reasons, community college early childhood education programs are a logical place for those already employed by Head Start to improve their qualifications. At the same time, these institutions tend to have low graduation rates, and …

Widening The Pathway To A Degree: The Impact Of Accepting Credit For Prior Learning At A Community College, Jessica Berek

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Credit for prior learning is a way to recognize previous experiences and knowledge as an equivalent to college level learning. Determining effective ways to accept credit for prior learning experiences can have a positive impact on students, including community college students, as they work to reach academic goals. This qualitative study aimed to understand the experiences of community colleges students who have received credit for prior learning on their academic transcript. Through interviews with students, benefits and barriers of credit for prior learning were discussed. Barriers to credit for prior learning included a lack of overall knowledge on the types …

Predicting Transfer Student Degree Completion At The University Of South Florida - Tampa Utilizing Pre-Matriculation Data, Danielle Busson Mcdonald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the ability of demographic and academic pre-matriculation variables to predict degree completion of transfer students at the University of South Florida –Tampa. The University is situated in a state with performance-based funding and with a high number of students who transfer from Florida College System community and state colleges to the university. Transfer students are predicted to become an additional population included in performance metrics thus increasing the need for the university to begin to analyze degree completion barriers to shape early intervention.

Participants in the study were 970 students who transferred …

Successful Community College Students: A Case Study Of The Path To Transfer, Nancy Gartland

Theses and Dissertations

Efforts to expand equity within post-secondary education, and to increase the number of people who acquire a college degree or certificate nationally, depend on community colleges. The rate of success for community college students, measured in persistence and completion rates, is relatively low.

In the U. S. in the fall of 2017, sixty three percent of the 5.9 million community college students attended part-time (NCES, 2019). Outside of class engagement is difficult for these students who spend limited time on campus. A program design that promotes a high level of engagement may contribute to student success. Thus, I set out …

A Case Study Of Equity And Student Experience In A California Community College, Agyeman Siriboe Boateng

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

In California community colleges, students of color reach educational milestones and culminating outcomes disproportionately less often than their peers. In the past decade, the state has committed renewed energy to refining student equity plan regulations requiring individual colleges to identify and develop strategies to close such gaps. This dissertation sought to focus on the intended beneficiaries of these efforts, asking how students themselves define and experience equity. Using semistructured, narrative interviews to explore the experiences of nine students of color at a California community college, this qualitative case was supported by institutional documents, participant observation, and interviews with college personnel. …

Breaking The Cycle For A Better Life: Understanding The Decision-Making Process That First-Generation, Community College Students Experienced When Making College Major And Career Choices, Francisco Ramirez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Choosing a college major and career are the most critical decisions that college students make and students are expected to make these impactful decisions early in their academic careers. First-generation, community college students are a group that are especially affected by this early decision process as they require the knowledge and experience to make informed decisions. Their parents often lack the experience to guide them through this process since they are unfamiliar with being a college student and providing the necessary support in this area. These barriers cause stress among these students and inefficiencies in the decisions that they make. …

Analyzing Two-Year College Student Success Using Structural Equation Modeling, Jessica Taylor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

The goal of this study is to more fully understand the scope of community college student success using the principles of mindset, engagement, and college readiness. Using structural equation modeling ensures this study is able to measure the combined effects these concepts have on student success, group differences, and the combined model of student success. Findings suggest student success can be significantly impacted by self-belief and mindset behaviors that can outweigh the initial effect of academically under-prepared students. Groups included in this study are non-traditional students, minority populations, first generation students, and Pell eligible students.

Community College Stigmatization: Perceptions Of Vertical Transfer Students At The University Level, Melissa Laird

Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study fills a void in research by investigating the experiences of 10 vertical transfer students regarding perceptions of community college stigmatization. Prior studies have explored reasons for transfer student university attrition, and negative stereotyping has been found to have an adverse effect on various populations. However, no known research has been conducted on how transfer students perceive others view them in light of their community college attendance. Therefore, the purpose of this case study was to examine whether vertical transfer students believed there was a stigma connected to community college attendance, and, if so, how they described that …

The Role Of Virtual Communication Platforms In Academically Supporting Post-Secondary Students, Eldora M. Fosmire

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

While many consider college students to be digital natives, who are at ease with multiple forms of technology, many of these students do not adapt these skills for academic purposes. Retention concerns for college students often prompt support staff to seek out and adopt technology approaches to promote completion. This study provided a virtual learning platform to deliver academic support and sought to promote learning community interaction for rural and urban post-secondary students. A subset of vocational major programs that prepare students for employment after completion served as a participant pool. However, participants in the study chose not to use …

Community College Students’ Perceived Value Of High School Career And Technical Education Program Experiences, Martin Douglass

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

The goal of this qualitative, narrative inquiry study was to explore the voices of community college students who have taken Career and Technical Education (CTE) while in high school, investigate if they perceived value from their high school CTE classes, and determine how those experiences impacted their high school and college educations (cf. Association for Career and Technical Education, 2016; American Institutes for Research, 2013; Southern Regional Education Board, 2008). The central research question for the dissertation was: What value do local community college students believe their high school Career and Technical Education program participation provided? The screening survey had …

A Longitudinal Comparison Of Quality Of Life In Rural Counties With And Without Community Colleges, John Edward Jablonski

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

An ex post quasi-experiment was conducted to compare the quality of life in counties where community colleges were established to the quality of life in similar counties where no colleges had been established. Twenty-eight pairs of rural counties were studied. The first county in each pair was chosen such that the only institution of higher education there between 1960 and 2010 was a community college that was founded in the 1960s. The second county in each pair was chosen as a control from the same geographic region, with similar population and similar per capita income in 1960 and no institution …

The Influence Of Academic Momentum And Associate Degree Credit Requirements On Community College Student Degree Completion, Daniel Knox

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study addresses gaps in the theoretical and policy literature by examining the relationship between associate degree program credit requirements and four student outcomes: associate degree attainment, time to degree, final associate degree grade point average, and persistence. Using student unit record data, a longitudinal quantitative study of a cohort of community college students was conducted for the observational period of fall semester 2011 through winter semester 2016, in order to determine if community college students enrolled in academic programs with higher minimum credit requirements have different outcomes than students in programs with lower minimum credit requirements.

Understanding The Perceptual Divide Between Students With Disabilities, Faculty And Administration In An Open Enrollment Environment, Jennifer Robin Wrage

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Due to civil rights legislation, advances in technology, disability support services on college campuses, medication therapy and increased public acceptance of disabilities, students with disabilities are one of the largest minority group on college campuses (Pryor, Hurtado, DeAngelo, Palucki, Blake, & Tran 2010). According to the 2016 U.S. National Center for Education Statistics Fact Sheet, “11.1% of the college students attending college in the 2011-2012 academic year reported a documented disability.” The U.S. Department of Education also indicates that nearly “60% of students with disabilities attend two-year schools due to their open enrollment policies” (U.S. Department of Education 2002).

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

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development 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 …

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

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development 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 …

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

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development 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 …

Conventionalizing And Axiomatizing In A Community College Mathematics Bridge Course, Mark Alan Yannotta

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation consists of three related papers. The first paper, Rethinking mathematics bridge courses--An inquiry model for community colleges, introduces the activities of conventionalizing and axiomatizing from a practitioner perspective. In the paper, I offer a curricular model that includes both inquiry and traditional instruction for two-year college students interested in mathematics. In particular, I provide both examples and rationales of tasks from the research-based Teaching Abstract Algebra for Understanding (TAAFU) curriculum, which anchors the inquiry-oriented version of the mathematics bridge course.

The second paper, the role of past experience in creating a shared representation system for a mathematical operation: …

An Assessment Comparing Community College Students’ Computer Self-Efficacy And Task Based Computer Knowledge, Amy Nicholson Stewart

Dissertations

This quantitative research study explored the relationship between students perceived computer self-efficacy and actual knowledge of computer related skills in computer hardware/technology, windows, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and whether gender, race, and education level affected the research findings.

The participants in this study were students enrolled in an introductory computer concepts course at a community college located in the southeastern region of the United States. The computer course was a required for all students to receive an Associate of Arts and Associate of Applied Science degree. Data was collected in traditional face-to-face class sections and consisted of a pre- and …

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

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development 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, …

The Impact Of Participation In A First-Year Seminar On Increased Usage Of Campus Resources, Academic And Social Integration And First-To-Second-Semester Persistence At A Two-Year Community And Technical College., Kaye Lafferty 1964-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student attrition has been a focus of college administrators for many years and will remain a critical concern for higher education (Bean, 1985; Tinto, 1987). The problem of student attrition is more severe at community colleges than at four-year institutions (Andreu, 2002; Lundberg, 2002; McCabe, 2000). Many institutions are implementing first-year seminar programs to increase persistence during the first year of college. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether participating in a first-year seminar course will increase a student’s academic engagement and attachment to the environment, usage of campus resources and participation in campus events, use of the …

Persistence Factors For Adult Women Learners At A Northeast Community College, Andrea Hemmerich

Higher Education Student Work

Community colleges have been the long-standing institution type for students seeking a post-secondary education because of their relatively low cost and open access philosophies. Particularly, adult or non-traditional women learners have chosen the community college route over the past few decades (Cohen & Brawer, 2008). Motivations to enroll, persist and graduate, vary, depending on factors internal and external to the college and are often dissimilar to their traditional aged counterparts. Given this difference and increasing enrollment numbers, understanding the lived experiences of adult women learners is critical for individual institutions and the larger higher education community. This exploratory study sought …

Factors Contributing To The Educational Success Of Single-Mother Welfare Recipients At An Urban Southwestern Community College: Case Studies Of Six Success Stories, Rhonda Rose Faul

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study gave voice to the issues, needs, and concerns of economically disadvantaged single mothers and determined the motivational and institutional factors that helped lead them to their successful completion of a community college degree or certificate program while at the same time coping with the challenges of financially surviving on meager public welfare assistance, raising their children, and meeting welfare-mandated work activity requirements. While American society has a long tradition of regarding higher education as a means of achieving long-term financial security and self-sufficiency, current welfare policy unfortunately adds additional obstacles for welfare recipients who may be motivated to …

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 …

Beyond Nepantlã¡ : An Exploration Of Factors That Affect The Academic Success Of Chicano, Lilia Zabalza Chavez

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

Social Support And Persistence Among University Transfer Students Attending A Community College: A Grounded Theory Study, Stanley Burdette

All Dissertations

This study explored the role of social support in relation to the persistence of community college students enrolled in a university transfer program at a single institution. Student persistence rates in community colleges are low in comparison to other sectors of higher education. To explain community college student persistence, past researchers relied on theories of student retention that were developed from data collected in traditional four-year colleges and universities. Although the dominant theories of student retention emphasized social integration and involvement, the role of social support as related to persistence in community colleges was not adequately explored. The purpose of …

Demystifying Success : Critical Reflections Of African-American California Community College Students About Factors Leading To Scholastic Success During The First Year, Robert Lee Snowden

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable

The Sound Of Ink : A Bakhtinian Analysis Of Expressive Intonation In Written Feedback On Essays Of First And Second Language Community College Students Of English Composition, Robertson Scott Erskine

Doctoral Dissertations

unavailable