Education Commons^™

Effects Of Gatekeeper Course Modality, Age, Gender And High School Gpa On Kaplan Subject Area Exam Scores, Vernon Hoffman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The question of equivalency regarding course modality has plagued and intrigued educators for as long as multiple modalities have existed. In the modern world of academia, the two prevailing modalities are face-to-face or traditional courses and online courses. A multitude of factors have contributed to the increase in online course offerings, including increasingly dependable technology and fiscal pressures on institutions of higher learning.

A great deal of scholarly research has compared modalities using within-course measures such as course grades and comprehensive final exams. Most of these studies have found the two modalities equivalent. However, a dearth of research exists which …

Chief Academic Officers And The Aacc's Leadership Competencies, Josh Philip Lavorgna

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Chief Academic Officers (CAOs) hold one of the most vital senior leadership positions at community colleges. Typically thought to be the second person in charge, directly under the president, their impact on the community college is crucial. CAOs have historically been considered the next in line to the president, and community college presidents were often CAOs before assuming their first presidency. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) publishes Leadership Competencies for hopeful and current community college leaders. This study examined the perceptions of community college CAOs regarding the AACC Leadership Competencies for Aspiring Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), or presidents. …

Someone Like Me: The Impact Of Engagement On High Achieving First Generation Community College Students In California’S Central Valley, Emily Berg

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this comparative phenomenological study was to describe how the impact of engagement factors between high achieving Central Valley, California first generation community college students enrolled in college honors programs and high achieving Central Valley first generation community college students who are not enrolled in college honors programs compares with regard to engagement factors of interaction with faculty, interaction with student peers, time on the college campus, participation in oral and written reports, the application of critical thinking skills, and other student identified factors related to disruption in their lives on their academic achievement in college.

Methodology: …

“Helping Me Learn New Things Every Day”: The Power Of Community College Students’ Writing Across Genres, Tanzina Ahmed

Publications and Research

Although community colleges are important entry points into higher education for many American students, few studies have investigated how their students engage with different genres or develop genre knowledge. Even fewer have connected students’ genre knowledge to their academic performance. In the present article, 104 ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse students reported on classroom genre experiences and wrote stories about college across three narrative genres (Letters, Best Experience, Worst Experience). Findings suggest that students’ engagement with classroom genres in community college helped them develop rhetorical reading and writing skills. When students wrote about their college lives across narrative genres, they …

The Impact Of Moderate Physical Activity And Student Interaction On Retention At A Community College, Anne Leavy-Prial

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Student retention and persistence are key to student success. Therefore, it is of great concern to community college leaders that their students are retained. In addition to having the best interest of students in mind, community college leaders feel the pressure of performance-based funding to produce increased retention and graduation rates. Over the past several years, retention rates at community colleges in the United States have hovered below 50% (National Student Clearinghouse, 2019). The researcher of the current study implemented a very low-cost initiative with the intent of increasing retention at a community college.

The purpose of this study was …

Community College Faculty And Administrators' Perceptions Of Civic Engagement In General Education, Eric Thomas Vanover

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The President’s Commission on Higher Education (1947) firmly established civic engagement as a principle function of higher education. The report emphasized college-level learning as a democratic function by producing informed, active citizens essential to the future of American democracy. Chickering (2008) argued the United States faced a critical lack of engaged citizenship and in A Crucible Moment (2012), this concern was declared an outright emergency. In recent years many colleges and universities have re-embraced civic engagement as an important component of general education. Although the establishment of community colleges was a direct result of the Truman Commission’s report, the literature …

Student Success Coaching In Virginia Community Colleges, Angela Lawhorne

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Community college students face many barriers when they start college, especially if they are from first-generation families, are low-income, or identify as a minority. Retention and completion for these at-risk students are relatively low compared to those with higher socioeconomic backgrounds (Bettinger & Baker, 2014). To improve these statistics and promote academic persistence, some Virginia Community College System (VCCS) colleges have implemented student success coaching under the Chancellor’s College Success Coach Initiative (VCCS, 2011). This entails not only assisting students with academic coaching, but also with career, financial, and personal matters that may affect their academic success. The researcher sought …

Paving The Way: Enhancing The Transfer Admission Practices At The University Of San Diego, Andrew Alsoraimi-Espiritu

M.A. in Higher Education Leadership: Action Research Projects

The purpose of this study is to examine how the University of San Diego’s (USD) Office of Undergraduate Admission can better serve prospective students from local community colleges by striving towards a Transfer Receptive Culture (Jain, Herrera, Bernal, & Solórzano, 2011). Using my positionality as an admissions counselor at USD, I explored the following question with current and prospective transfer students, as well as local community college partners: how can I enhance the practices of my department to better support transfer students during the pretransfer phase at USD? My findings indicate that the transfer path to USD is hectic and …

Determinants Of Faculty-Student Engagement For Southeast Asian Men In Community College: An Exploratory Analysis, Soua Xiong, J. Luke Wood

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The purpose of this study was to examine determinants of faculty-student engagement for Southeast Asian men in community colleges. Using data derived from the Community College Survey of Men (CCSM), this study investigated faculty-student engagement for 140 Southeast Asian men attending community colleges in the United States. Five groupings of predictor variables were examined: background/defining, campus ethos, environmental, academic, and non-cognitive factors. Backwards multiple linear regression was employed to identify variables with significant contributions to the model. The final model converged on the eighth iteration and significantly predicted the outcome, accounting for 38% of the variance in faculty-student engagement. Findings …

Community College Student Success: Connections To Student Perceptions Of Faculty Behaviors, And Classroom Motivators, Victor A. Henry Ubiera

Dissertations

This study explored how community college students perceive certain faculty behaviors, its relationship with students’ classroom motivators and how the perception of those behaviors and motivators predicts students’ persistence and academic success. The statistics about the low rates of completion in higher education institutions is an issue that researchers and educational organizations are concerned about (Apolinar, 2013; Kolodner, 2015). Addressing this issue, a body of inquiring is focusing on the student-faculty relationship (Kezar & Maxey, 2014) revealing that faculty behaviors and student motivation are related to several students’ outcomes (Lancaster & Lundberg, 2019; Wilson & Ryan, 2013). However, less is …

Does Attending Community College Save You Money?, Kelly Nilan

All Zyzzogeton Presentations

Community colleges are inclusive institutions that make higher education available to students. The cost of attending a community college is much less than a four year university. The average annual tuition of a community college in 2017 was $3,660 compared to the average annual tuition of a four year public in state college of $10,230. Students looking to minimize education debt could save tuition cost by going to community college first. However many students do not realize that successfully transitioning from a 2 year college to a 4 year one and graduating in a timely fashion can be a challenge. …

How Do Student And Secondary School Characteristics Explain College English I Completion In A Rural Arkansas Community College?, Jessica Rohlman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community colleges serve diverse populations that may not be as academically prepared as at four-year institutions. Accountability of higher education institutions is ever-increasing in importance, so understanding the contributing factors to student success is critical. Students bring a unique set of characteristics to the community college, including individual traits and secondary school experiences. Many studies have examined these characteristics at large urban or mid-western institutions, but few in rural settings. Rural areas of the United States have lower rates of educational attainment than other areas, which often translates to lower incomes. It is the mission of community colleges to train …

The Impact Of Teacher Methodology Training For Higher Education Faculty Members, Nicole R. Baker

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Many college programs are designed to graduate individuals who are experts in their field of study, but not necessarily individuals who are trained in how to teach. This quantitative, quasi-experiment study examined college faculty member’s level of training in the area of teaching practices and methodology. The relation to student satisfaction, current course performance, attendance, the belief in the need for training, and faculty member’s sense of efficacy in teaching was explored. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to organize the data using a one-way ANCOVA to analyze the impact the level of training had on …

Community College Student Organizations And Hispanic Students' Gpa, Retention, And Graduation Rates, Joanne Alvarez

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Although the Hispanic population continues to grow throughout the United States, Hispanic students still have some of the lowest college retention and graduation rates. Administrators at post-secondary institutions need evidence for effective strategies to recruit, retain, and graduate Hispanic students. The current study was created to determine if there was a difference in grade point averages (GPA), retention, and graduation rates between two specific groups. The first group consisted of 506 self-identified Hispanic students engaged in at least one community college student organization versus 506 self-identified Hispanic students not engaged in any campus organization. A quantitative study was conducted to …

Streamlining Time Spent In Alternative Developmental Mathematics Pathways: Increasing Access To College-Level Mathematics Courses By Altering Placement Procedures, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

Developmental mathematics, which is designed to prepare students for college-level mathematics courses, can be a barrier to students’ success. In the United States, the majority of students placed into developmental mathematics courses fail to complete the developmental sequence. Alternative mathematics pathways offer some benefits when integrated with “just-in- time support” or expedited instruction on specific prerequisite concepts needed solely for the current lesson. This study compares two statistics courses taught at a public community college: a complete course taught in one semester and a two-semester version with just-in-time developmental content integrated into the course. The study found that students placed …

Implementing Information Literacy (Il) Into Stem Writing Courses: Effect Of Il Instruction On Students’ Writing Projects At An Urban Community College, Miseon Kim, Mercedes Franco, Dugwon Seo

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study was to implement information literacy (IL) into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) writing courses at an urban community college, investigate if students’ information literacy (IL) skills were improved through library one-shot instruction, and determine if there was an association between IL skills and students’ writing performance. Students in the experimental group attended the library instructional class and students in the control group had no library class. Students’ research papers were scored using the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) Information Literacy VALUE Rubric to grade the effectiveness of the library instruction (Association …

Maintaining Peer-Based Faculty Evaluation: A Case Study Involving Student Surveys Of Teaching, Laura Murphy, Leah M. Akins

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

Bargaining regarding faculty evaluation is challenging in an environment in which administrators throughout higher education have successfully imposed corporate-style forms of evaluation and supervision that many have come to accept as normal, despite their incompatibility with principles of academic freedom and peer-review. Student surveys of teaching are increasingly central to this management strategy, despite the growing body of evidence indicating bias against historically marginalized groups in student survey results. This paper presents a case study of contract negotiations undertaken in 2016 at Dutchess Community College (SUNY) in Poughkeepsie, New York. During these negotiations the college administration sought to expand the …

Students' Performance, Satisfaction And Retention In A Hybrid And Traditional Face-To-Face Science Course, Principles Of Biology I, In A Community College, Abdallah Mohammad Matari

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Hybrid teaching, comprised of both in-class and online teaching, is rapidly becoming a favorite mode of teaching and learning. Online and hybrid courses on have become more and more appealing to both higher education institutions and the students they serve. In particular, hybrid teaching has an increase appeal to community colleges as they serve a diverse student population with varied academic levels, cultural background, and personal responsibilities. Hybrid courses promotes flexibility in course scheduling options for students and enables institutions to accept more students without worrying about physical classroom space concerns. This study explored and compared students’ learning outcomes, satisfaction, …

Skilled Trade Education In America, Brent Tracy

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This project explores the idea of whether incorporating skilled trade education into colleges and universities would lead to more people pursuing the skilled trades as a career. The research question is: Would incorporating skilled-trade education into colleges and universities in America lead to more people pursuing careers in the skilled trades?” The hypothesis is that incorporating skilled trade education into colleges and universities will lead to more American students pursuing skilled trade education and careers in the skilled trades.

The purpose of exploring this is to address the shortage of skilled tradespeople in the United States. In order to determine …

Exploring The Effects Of An Afrocentric Learning Community On The Retention Of African American Students In Community Colleges: A Quantitative Study, Andre Crenshaw

Theses and Dissertations

The majority of African American students who begin postsecondary educational pursuits do not graduate within 6 years, resulting in one of the lowest postsecondary completion rates in America. As of Fall 2019, the degree applicable retention rate for African American students in California community colleges was 62%, compared to all students 87.65%. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to examine whether a learning community positively affected retention and success rates of African American students in community colleges, comparing outcomes with cohort Fall 2016 with cohort Fall 2019. This analysis applied Tinto’s Student Integration Model Theoretical Framework with supporting …

Exploring Community College Stigma: A Phenomenology Of The Lived Experience For Community College Transfer Students Attending The University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Eric M. Michael

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Despite impressive statistics related to community college transfer student achievement, negative perceptions and stigma attached to attending community college persist. The problem addressed by this phenomenological study is the community college stigma experience for transfer students attending the most highly-ranked public university in Massachusetts: UMass Amherst. This dissertation pioneers use of a conceptual framework built from the elements of stereotype threat to illustrate experienced community college stigma; Specifically, it begins to address the forty-year-old unsubstantiated contention of William Neumann and David Riesman, that there is less stigma attached to attending community college in California than in Massachusetts. Broken down to …