Education Commons^™

Grade Point Average (Gpa) As A Criterion For Admission To Two-Year Nursing Programs: The Impact Of Gpa Use On Student Learning, How Gpa Informs Program Admission Decisions, And What Ethical Frameworks Support Admission Decisions, Luke Green

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The use of grade point average (GPA) to guide and inform decision-making permeates many corners of the educational landscape, including admission decisions into collegiate academic programs. Using GPA in this way turns an individual academic measure into a commodity that can be used to settle a competition amongst applicants. The rationale for using GPA in this way often goes undiscussed by policymakers who select it as a criterion. Additionally, turning GPA into a commodity that unlocks academic opportunity runs the risk of affecting how students approach learning in order to get an advantage over those whom they are competing against. …

A Phenomenological Study Exploring Arab Muslim Students At Community College And Islamophobia, Dustin French

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Arab Muslim students continue to face various forms of islamophobia on campus despite efforts from the college to make campus more welcoming and inclusive. As Muslim students express concern about the rise of islamophobia on campus and bigoted rhetoric on social media, college leaders, administration, and faculty have an imperative role to play in curbing anti-Muslim sentiments, xenophobia, and racism across campus and in the classrooms. To address these concerns effectively and meaningfully, it is important for colleges to understand who their Arab Muslim students are and the challenges they face as college students amid islamophobia. This dissertation explored how …

Who Takes Dual Enrollment Classes? A Research Brief, David Naff

MERC Publications

This research brief from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) explores three questions: 1) What are Dual Enrollment classes? 2) Who takes Dual Enrollment classes? and 3) What strategies promote greater access to Dual Enrollment? An accompanying podcast episode is linked in the research brief.

Introductory Pages, Laura Owen, Christopher W. Tremblay, Diana Camilo, Patrick J. O'Connor Phd

Journal of College Access

No abstract provided.

Meeting Transfer Students Where They Are: A New Organizational Approach To Transfer Student Communication, Support, And Recruitment, Daniel Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Transfer students have long played a significant role in the growth and diversity of colleges and universities. Recent research points to a continuous decline in enrollment over the coming decade (Kelderman, Gardner, & Conley, 2019), and as tuition costs continue to increase and enrollment numbers decrease, institutions of higher education have begun turning to transfer students to fill their lecture halls and football stadiums. A key variable in higher education’s transfer recruitment blind spot is a fundamental lack of understanding of the structural and organizational changes needed to both attract and retain these non-traditional students (Tobolowsky & Cox, 2012). For …

Pandemic Repercussions: The Future Of International Education At Us Community Colleges, Heidi Fischer, Melissa Whatley

Educational Foundations & Leadership Faculty Publications

The disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic have both short- and long-term repercussions on higher education. To crystallize these impacts in a sector that was particularly vulnerable to the economic effects of the pandemic, this mixed methods study explores the intersection of international education and community college responses to the pandemic. Findings indicated that due to the pandemic, community college international education programs faced a reallocation of institutional resources, both financial and otherwise, which shapes the educational opportunities available to students and informs the institutional habitus of the US community college. This study’s findings have implications in the areas of international …

Leading In Gendered Spaces: Women Presidents' Perceptions Of Their Experiences In Community Colleges, Keri Moe

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Gender inequality in leadership is an ongoing challenge found in higher education, including community colleges. Since women remain underrepresented in leadership positions at community colleges, specifically as college presidents, the purpose of this study was to document and better understand the experiences of women in these roles by focusing on three research questions:

• RQ 1: How do women presidents describe their experience in male-dominated community colleges?
• RQ 2: How do gender identity and gender expectations of women impact the behavior of women community college presidents?
• RQ 3: How do women presidents navigate their role within male-dominated community colleges?

Through the …

Faculty Perception Of Inclusive Instruction At Three South-Central Community Colleges, Karen R. O'Donohoe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Enrollment rates for student with disabilities in higher education continue to rise, particularly in 2-year colleges, but graduation rates have not kept pace due to barriers not addressed by traditional disability supports (Black et al., 2014; NCES, 2019; Smedema et al., 2015). Inclusive instruction is a low-cost, high-impact solution that can be implemented on any campus (Black et al., 2014; Lombardi et al., 2013; Roberts et al., 2011). This quantitative study utilized a cross-sectional descriptive non-experimental research design that explored faculty self-reported attitudes and actions associated with inclusive instruction at three of the largest degree-granting, two-year institutions in a single …

Leadership Practices For Undocumented And Daca Students In The Heartland, Dalila A. Sajadian

Instructional Leadership Abstracts

Continuous demographic changes are shaping the future of higher education institutions and as a result, leaders in educational institutions must adapt to those changes. Community college leaders, in particular rural leaders, are in a unique position and need to constantly evolve to serve different students, including undocumented and DACA students. The US Department of Education (2015) estimates that approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools every year, however, “only 5 to 10% of undocumented students pursue higher education, and far fewer successfully graduate with a degree” (US Dept. of Education, 2015, p. 3). On June 15, 2012, President …

Understanding First-Generation Hispanic Student Experiences With Community College Campus Resources, Monica Medina

All Theses And Dissertations

Community colleges serve as an essential gateway to higher education for Hispanics. Although first-generation Hispanic (FGHC) students continue to enroll in community colleges, there is limited research to explain their experiences using campus resources. This study’s purpose was to contribute to the existing literature on FGHC students and determine if their use of campus resources helped them succeed. This study used the conceptual framework of academic engagement (Tinto, 1996). Nora’s (2003) and Nora et al’s (2006) student engagement theory as lenses to explain how FGHC students can have pre-college characteristics that can affect their social, academic, and overall goals for …

Building Bridges Not Walls: An Exploratory Study Of Student Involvement And African American Student Retention At Community Colleges, Brittney Rasjan Hernandez-Stevenson

Dissertations

African American students are attending college and working toward earning credentials, yet this population is persisting at lower rates compared to their White counterparts. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact that student involvement has on African American student persistence and retention at community colleges. A Sequential Explanatory mixed methods design was conducted with quantitative data from 743 African American KCTCS community college students that completed the 2019 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and qualitative data from 11 focus group interview participants. An ordinal logistic regression was used to analyze the data and the quantitative …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 4, 2021

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This is the complete volume 4 of the Journal of Communication Pedagogy.

Advances In Global Education And Research: Volume 4, Waynne B. James, Cihan Cobanoglu, Muhittin Cavusoglu

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This is the fourth volume of the Advances in Global Education and Research Book Series. This volume has the following parts:

• Part 1: Adult Education
• Part 2: Curriculum and Instruction Development
• Part 3: Educational Technology
• Part 4: Education in Other Specialties
• Part 5: English as a Second Language
• Part 6: Global Competence
• Part 7: Higher Education and Educational Leadership
• Part 8: Inclusive Education
• Part 9: International Education
• Part 10: PreK-12
• Part 11: Research Methods in Education

ISBN: 978-1-955833-04-2

Adult Education

• Teaching for knowledge transfer: Best practices from a graduate-level educational psychology distance learning program
  • Bobby Hoffman
• A study on the …

Understanding The Experience Of Mid-Level Community College Change Leaders, Kelley L. Conrad

Dissertations

This qualitative study investigates the phenomenon of leading major change as a midlevel administrator or faculty member at a Michigan community college. Specifically, this study explores how three leaders experienced their roles in implementing the guided pathways strategic change initiative, how they describe the emotional aspects of leading change, and how they made sense of their experiences. One overarching research question guided this study: How do guided pathways leaders at Michigan community colleges experience their roles in the strategic change process?

The results of multiple, in-depth interviews are presented as three profiles, one per participant, using their own words to …

A Narrative Study Of The Experiences That Disrupt Or Terminate Entry In The Community College Presidential Pipeline For African American Women, Dana G. Stilley

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Organizational structures, beliefs, and values in higher education are influenced by the deep-seated characteristics of patriarchy, dominance and racial and gender bias, upon which higher education was founded. These factors continue to impact the ascension of African American women to college presidencies. Current challenges facing community colleges include a gap in executive leadership and the underrepresentation of African American women in the presidential pipeline.

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to better understand the experiences that disrupt or terminate the journey to a presidency for African American women in senior level positions at community colleges. The goal was to …

Grounded Roots Applied To Women Presidents In The California Community Colleges System, Penny Shreve

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory mixed methods study was to identify and describe what exemplary female presidents in California community colleges do to stay grounded and maintain physical, emotional, intellectual, social, vocational, and spiritual health.

Methodology: This mixed methods study identified and described the perceptions of 16 women presidents in the California Community Colleges system regarding strategies they use to remain grounded in their current positions. Respondents were purposively chosen based on specific criteria. Data were gathered through the Stay Grounded survey from 16 participants and interviews with 5 of the participants. Quantitative data were tabulated to determine mean …

My Ncia Journey, And Why It Matters, Jody Tomanek

Instructional Leadership Abstracts

Have you ever had that moment in life where you know it is time to move on from something, yet it is so hard to officially break away? I am having that moment right now as a member of the NCIA board. This Instructional Leadership Abstract will be different from others, but in keeping with the mission of NCIA, contains information to support you as a community college instructional administrator.

NCIA has been a part of my professional life for the last 20 years. I first became familiar with NCIA when I was an administrative assistant working for a VP …

Intrusive Academic Advising Student-Athletes At A Division Iii University, Robert Holmes

Dissertations

Abstract

There are many factors that affect the graduation of collegiate student-athletes. Factors include student-athlete characteristics, academic advising, engagement, and relationships. These factors affect student-athlete retention at the university. Student-athletes must navigate their academic and athletic success with assistance from academic advisors and other university support systems. The ability of the student-athlete and the academic advisor to communicate and cultivate a relationship that is built on regularly scheduled meetings, sharing of the student-athlete’s personal goals, suggestions for personal and professional improvement culminating in trust is paramount to the success of the student-athlete. This research focuses on the relationship between the …

Equity By Design And Delivery Model In Online Learning: Educator And Student Perceptions And Behaviors As Leading Indicators Of Systemic Change, Miebeth Bustillo-Booth

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

The purpose of this study is to explore educator and student perceptions of and behaviors in the Equity by Design and Delivery (EDD) model and its online courses as leading indicators of systemic change. The EDD model is a pilot intervention to eliminate opportunity to learn gaps at the program level in a mid-sized northwestern college in the United States. It shifts instructional behavior from individual efforts to collective approaches to limit quality variances in online courses, theorized to be a major contributor of missed opportunities to learn at high levels, by developing and delivering reliable quality courses based on …

A Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Perceptions Of Single Mother College Students, Jamaica Delmar

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

As parenting students are an underserved subset of the growing nontraditional college student population in the United States, this study aims to understand and illuminate the experiences of single mother students while in pursuit of a post-secondary credential. This research is motivated by the following research questions, viewed within the context of a participant's identities: How do single mother college students perceive institutional support services? How do single mother college students experience their interactions with faculty? What institutional systems are in place that pose the biggest barriers to persistence and degree completion for single mother college students? A phenomenological qualitative …

Correlation Between Servant Leadership And Organizational Commitment Within An Academic Health Center, Cheryl Bellamy

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

Correlation Between Servant Leadership and Organizational Commitment

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of a study of the relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment. The study included a convenience sample of 84 full and part-time employees of a health professions education unit within an academic health center. Participants were surveyed using the Executive Servant Leadership Scale (ESLS) to assess servant leadership and the Klein Unidimensional Target-free (KUT) instrument to assess organizational commitment. Data analysis was conducted using Kendall’s tau-b and Spearman’s rho. Results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between servant leadership and organizational commitment.

Keywords: Servant …

Predictive Measures Of College Academic Success For Secondary Students At An Hispanic Serving Institution, Steven Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of one of the latest Texas legislative efforts to increase the college readiness of Texas high school graduates. The study assessed whether students falling under this mandated measure of college readiness are as successful in their college level math and English courses as students who pass the Texas Success Initiative Assessment. Using a secondary data set, a set of binary logistic regression models were developed to analyze the predictive value of six variables in determining student success in their first college level math or English course. Descriptive statistics were used …

Andragogy For All? A Look At Arkansas Community College Students' Preferences For Andragogical Assumptions, Emilee Sides

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community colleges are tasked with juggling multiple missions. They provide open access to education for adults in their community, work with industry partners to educate the local workforce, and provide relevant programming to the communities they serve. When compared with students at four-year institutions, community college students are older, more ethnically and racially diverse, come from lower socioeconomic statuses, and less academically prepared.

Like other community colleges across the country, one of the primary goals of Arkansas community colleges is to help their students succeed. Unfortunately, the state has historically performed poorly in regard to educational outcomes. To get the …

Influence Of Student Characteristics, Class Size, And Instructor Characteristics In Online Student Success, Melody K. Edmonds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this non-experimental quantitative case study was to compare the academic success of community college students over three academic years (2016-17 through 2018-19) before the onset of COVID-19 based on final grades and the influence of student factors, class size, and faculty characteristics using archival data from selected online and on-ground classes at a Middle Tennessee community college. Student factors reviewed include gender, full-time or part-time status, and age (traditional or non-traditional status). Instructor characteristics reviewed included full-time or part-time (adjunct) teaching status and tenure or non-tenure status of faculty. Institutional data for this study consisted of 44,568 …

Key Performance Indicators Of Health Cte Students At For-Profit Colleges And Public Community Colleges, Souraya Hajjar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The advent of for-profit colleges to the higher education scene in the U.S. has challenged public community colleges on all levels; financial, academic, and consumerism. Research has shown that key performance indicators are more favorable at public community colleges than at for-profit colleges. Determining size and type of colleges, ethnicity and gender differences that contribute to total graduation rate of health Career and Technical Education (CTE) students will add to the limited research on the relationship between these constructs and provide information to prospective health CTE students about college enrollment. The study aims to examine institutional performance variables to assist …

Preceptorship Within Accredited Nutrition And Dietetics Programs: A Pragmatic Mixed Methods Study, Angela K. Brekken

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this pragmatic mixed-methods study was to identify the factors that impact a nutrition professional’s preceptorship decision and potential solutions to combat preceptor shortages within accredited nutrition and dietetics programs. Homan’s social exchange theory provided the theoretical framework that if perceived costs of preceptorship outweigh the perceived benefits, then the activity will cease.

Phase one of the study included an online mixed-methods questionnaire. Phase two included a qualitative focus group and interview with self-identified volunteers from phase one. Quantitative analysis through SPSS included descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (one-way ANOVA). Qualitative data for both …

Pine Technical And Community College Policy Alignment Project, Amy Kruse

Leadership Education Capstones

The purpose of this project is to create an easily navigated campus policy and procedure process by aligning these documents with governing standards.

Academic Advisors’ Experience With Academic Entitlement: A Phenomenological Study, Felicia A King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Academic entitlement is on the rise in higher education. Research on academic entitlement typically focuses on faculty and behavior inside the classroom. Academic entitlement affects the college as a whole, both inside and outside of the classroom. This phenomenological study explored academic entitlement within student affairs, specifically, academic advisors' experience with academic entitlement. Additionally, the study focused on a large community college, whereas previous studies were situated within 4-year colleges and universities. The phenomenological study aimed to determine what academic entitlement behaviors were present in academic advising and examine how academic advisors reacted to the academic entitlement behaviors. Twelve academic …

Promise, Potential, Opportunity: Successful Hbcu Presidential Fundraising Strategies, Felicia D. Blow

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

With roots going back to the early 1830s and up to today, African-Americans continue to choose Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) for their post-secondary education needs. To understand the fundraising strategies utilized at HBCUs, this dissertation examines the efforts of a targeted group of HBCU presidents who have excelled in the philanthropic enterprise of fundraising for their institutions, achieving success in ways their fellow presidential peers have not. Due to a multitude of issues, HBCUs have historically been underfunded, and many are facing challenges from a resource development perspective. Because of this chronic issue, the area of fundraising strategies …

Barriers To Post-Secondary Success, Douglas Swanson, Najeana Henderson, Maritza Sloan

Dissertations

This study reviews factors that prior studies have identified or failed to consider as barriers to post-secondary success. The three main areas include academic success for Latinx students after high school, organizational systems and their impact on African-American students’ postsecondary readiness, and what workers think of their high school education with regards to career preparedness.

Five factors are identified as major barriers for Latinx students to continue in a higher education system. A survey of former students from Saint Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, metroplex area identified 56 Latinx students that participated in an initial survey. This led to a …