Community College Education Administration Commons^™

Examining And Exploring Online Instructors' Professional Development Experiences, Attitudes, And Perceptions In A Post-Secondary Education System, Jena R. Hartley

Dissertations

Effective professional development for online instructors is critical to student and organizational success. The online instructors’ knowledge transfer on workplace performance outcomes positively or negatively impacts student and organizational success. This study explored online instructors’ professional development experiences, attitudes, and perceptions. The research questions guiding this study were: What are the online instructors’ experiences and attitudes about professional development? How do online instructors perceive the quality and impact of professional development experiences? How do the online instructors’ experiences, attitudes, and perceptions impact knowledge transfer and workplace performance outcomes? Participants in this study were from one post-secondary system in Mississippi. The …

Community College Student Success During Covid-19 Pandemic Based On Class Modality, Rebecca Aslinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this non-experimental, quantitative, comparative study was to determine whether there were significant differences in Introduction to Education grades as measured by GPA among community college students between 2018-23 with the change of class modality due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This study examined differences in Introduction to Education grades as measured by GPA at three community colleges from 2018-23. Archival data were used for this study. The population for this study consisted of all students enrolled in the Introduction to Education course at three institutions. Both in-person and online classes were examined during the time before, during, and …

A Qualitative Study Of Iranian Efl Teachers’ Perceptions Of A Digital Diversified Education, Seyed Mohammad Reza Marvasti Zadeh, Azizollah Dabaghi Varnosfadrani Advarnosfadrani, Mohammad Amiryousefi

The Qualitative Report

Because Iran is a country of learners of diverse languages, socio-economic classes, genders, and ages, digital diversified education seems appropriate to address needs in English language education. However, there is a notable gap in research on teachers’ perceptions about this type of education. To fill this gap, this study aimed to investigate the perspectives of Iranian teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) regarding a diverse digital education. Data were collected via an open-ended survey with 30 EFL teachers, both male and female, who were selected through convenience sampling. Analysis revealed several key themes, including the utilization of diverse …

Emotional Intelligence And Self-Direction Orientation: An Examination Of Non-Academic Factors In Post-Pandemic Community College Students In Kansas And Missouri, Ashley Rader

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Post-pandemic learners face academic and non-academic challenges due the educational disruption caused by the COVID-19 virus. ACT college admissions test scores dropped to a 30-year low in 2023, falling the most significantly and rapidly during and after the pandemic (ACT, 2023) and recovery from these childhood and adolescent learning deficits has not been seen to date (Betthäuser et al., 2023). Research on non-academic factors, not as widely studied as academic factors, is crucial to understand where these learners’ deficits further lie. Two of those factors – emotional intelligence and self-direction orientation – were the key concepts of interest in this …

Their Stories, Our Testimony: A Narrative Inquiry Into The Remote Teaching Experiences Of Community College Clinical Nurse Educators During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Catherine E. Fenner

Doctor of Education Program Dissertations

This narrative inquiry explored the lived experiences of clinical nurse educators who taught at community colleges during the COVID-19 global pandemic, contributing to the growing body of literature about what nurses endured during the pandemic. The pandemic and the ensuing havoc it caused occurred when the profession faced significant staffing shortages. In the early months of 2020, when the virus was spreading rapidly, many states issued stay-at-home orders requiring nursing programs to pivot to remote learning platforms. Teaching hands-on skills, communication techniques, and time management strategies through virtual and remote pedagogy was a time of confusion for nurse educators, who …

"Every Direction We Turn, It’S A Wall”: North Carolina School Counselors And Their Advocacy And Support For Undocumented Students’ Access To Higher Education, Wendy Eberhart Cook

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

High school counselors in North Carolina assist with post-secondary planning for all their students, including the approximately 3,000 undocumented students who graduate from North Carolina schools each year (Zong & Batalova, 2019). Access to post-secondary education is difficult to attain for undocumented students (Groce & Johnson, 2021), especially true for undocumented students in North Carolina, a state considered hostile to this student population due to tuition and financial aid policy (Mansfield & Hernandez, 2024). Undocumented students also face a fear of deportation, food insecurity, lower socioeconomic conditions, and language barriers (Abrego, 2006).

Despite the many barriers undocumented students face, school …

Workforce Education And Labor Market Demands For North Carolina Community Colleges, Christina Anne Bunch

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

In response to evolving labor market demands, community colleges play a crucial role in providing accessible, high-quality education that addresses regional workforce needs. However, they face challenges such as declining enrollments, misalignment with local market needs, and limited resources for curriculum adaptation. These obstacles threaten the ability of community colleges to prepare students for the rapidly changing workforce. This study examines how workforce development administrators collaborate with local industry partners to align programs with labor market demands, ensuring community colleges remain relevant and adaptable. Grounded in Human Capital Theory, which links education and economic growth, this qualitative study focuses on …

Principals' Perspectives Of The Impact Of Faculty Engagement, Self-Efficacy, And Resiliency On First-Year African American College Student Retention, Hattie Marie Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This study examined principals’ perceptions of the impact of faculty engagement, student resiliency, and student self-efficacy on the retention of first-year urban and rural African American college students. The aim of the study was to determine why students from this demographic leave their higher education institutions after the first year. In the United States, about 30% of students, regardless of race or ethnicity, drop out of college after the first year. Further, given 6 years, about 50% of students drop out before obtaining a degree. Researchers have identified African American students as having a high college dropout rate. This …

Dancing With Identity: How Women In It Navigate Leadership Construction, Amy Barry

Instructional Leadership Abstracts

Women are underrepresented in the information technology sector and experience pervasive gender bias in the typically male-dominated organizations. Barry explores how women navigate and shape their leadership identities within such an environment.

Perceptions Of Using Multiple Measures For Student Placement At Rural Virginia Community Colleges, Whitney Bowling

Ed.D. Dissertations

Remedial courses have been part of the college landscape in the United States since at least the 1800s when nearly 250,000 students were placed into remedial courses. Traditionally, students who enrolled in remedial courses were placed into that course solely based on one test score. Students who enrolled in traditional remedial courses were more likely to not graduate than their peers placed into college-level English and Mathematics courses. This research aims to understand the rural Virginia community college English and mathematics professors’ perceptions of implementing and using multiple measures to place students into first-year English and mathematics courses. The data …

An Examination Of The Perceptions Of Campus Safety Among Full-Time Faculty At Virginia Community Colleges, Hailey Ann Hermosa

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The view that colleges are generally safe has been challenged by threats of violence on campuses across the country, causing fear among stakeholders. Community college faculty are not immune to crime-related fear on campus; however, the research has largely ignored this population. This research serves to fill that gap.

The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to examine perceptions of campus safety among full-time faculty at Virginia community colleges. An electronic Likert-type scale survey was disseminated to a sample of 472 full-time faculty throughout seven Virginia community colleges of varying sizes. Of those, 135 (28.7%) voluntarily participated in the …

Twenty Years Of Community-Based College Success: Oral Histories From Practitioners, Partners, And Peer Mentors Supporting City University Of New York (Cuny) Students, Benjamin J. Carey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For the past twenty years, community-based college success programs have supported a generation of young people entering all twenty-five City University of New York (CUNY) Colleges. As the country’s largest urban university system, CUNY has historically been a major engine of economic mobility for young people in New York City. However, gaps in academic preparation and navigational support have weakened student persistence and graduation rates. Community-based organizations (CBOs) that have provided college access support to New York City public school students since the 1980s began to extend their services into college to provide targeted interventions and improve student outcomes. Grounded …

Why Not Community College As A Pathway To A Degree, Gretchen Jorndt Reyes

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to understand if Gen X parents are motivating their Gen Z students' college choice not to attend community college. The few studies that focused on parent involvement in choosing a community college did not focus on the generational differences between parents and their children when it came to college choice, they also did not focus on whether parents influenced their children to attend community college or not (Bers, 2005; Bers & Galowich, 2002).

The study explored Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior and how his theory and the college choice process are intertwined during the college …

Factors Impacting Bsn Degrees In Community Colleges In Illinois And Exploring Community Colleges To Address Nursing Education Reform: A Mixed Methods Study, Lovelle Reynolds

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the implementation of Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs in Illinois community colleges, focusing on Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) faculty perceptions. Utilizing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the study first conducted a survey among full-time ADN faculty across Illinois community colleges to assess their support for BSN program offerings. An overwhelming 85% of respondents supported or strongly supported this offering, recognizing the potential benefits for meeting the complex demands of modern healthcare roles. Following the survey, in-depth interviews with volunteered faculty members provided deeper insight into the implementation challenges. These challenges included the need for …

Borderland Voices: Exploring The Educational Journey Of Transfronterizx Students, Families, And Educators For Enhanced Engagement And Empowerment, Sobeida Velazquez

Dissertations

Transfronterizx students and their families cross the U.S.–Mexico border for academic, economic, social, cultural, and linguistic reasons. Socioeconomic disparities, deportation, and work have propelled some families to live in Mexico and enroll their U.S.-born children in U.S. schools to provide more socioeconomic opportunities in the United States. Educators of transfronterizx students are uniquely tasked to work with these nontraditional students. Moreover, transfronterizx students and their families have distinct needs in U.S. schools; as such, there is a need for further research on the transfronterizx experience in the U.S. K–12 system. This qualitative narrative inquiry study aimed to understand the experiences …

Ripple Of Hope: Understanding The Lived Experience And Academic Achievement Of Latinx Students At Arrupe College And Dougherty Family College: A Case Study, Richard P. Virgin

Dissertations

One of the most common and important entry points into higher education for Latinx and other underrepresented students is through community college. However, national completion rates for Latinx community college students have been trailing their white peers. This gap in academic achievement has prevailed since the 1990s. The trailing rates of degree completion for Latinx students can lead to lower lifetime salary earnings, lack of career advancement, greater risk of losing employment, and an increased chance of living in poverty. However, a successful community college model may be seen as a disruptor in the educational sector due to its much …

Subjective Experiences From The College Remedial Student, Deborah A. Quinones

Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to write individual narrative stories about the subjective experiences of six students who entered college and had to take at least one remedial course their first semester. A subjective experience refers to the emotional and cognitive impact of the personal account of an experience (Subjective Experience, n.d.). The participants, including the researcher, were students who entered college for the first time without the minimum requirements for college enrollment; therefore, each was considered a remedial college student. The students were required to take remedial courses in math, writing, and /or reading before taking any credit …

Conditions Affecting Adjunct Teaching Performance: A Descriptive Study, Terry Baggett

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Colleges and universities have been undergoing long-term structural changes and among these is the ever-increasing reliance on adjunct faculty. The most important goal of higher education is student success and faculty are one of the biggest influencers of student learning success. As a result, factors affecting faculty can also have secondary effects on students. The purpose of the study is to describe various conditions within selected institutions that are affecting adjunct faculty instructional performance as perceived by adjunct faculty themselves.

This study used a survey methodology with a descriptive design. Results from four community colleges and one university were collected …

Guided Pathways: How Early Major Declaration Impacts Student Graduation Rates, Chris Mcbeath

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing graduation rates continues to be a high priority for administrators at community colleges nationwide. While several factors affect graduation rates, many researchers focus on how a student’s status as declared or undecided may impact their likelihood of graduating. This study aims to examine the potential relationship between matriculating with or without a major declared and degree completion. There exists a perception that an early decision about a major is a critical step in ensuring students graduate. Many institutions require or strongly encourage students to declare a major before enrolling in their first semester. Previous research about undeclared students and …

Organization Of Change: The Journey From Probation To A Successful Accreditation Review, Erin Dail

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Regional accreditation, seen as a necessary hurdle by many in higher education, is required to participate in Title IV funding. However, several studies indicate that the current accreditation process is broken. Institutions with more resources, both in staffing and funding, and more academically ready students are at an advantage for favorable accreditation outcomes. Those institutions serving the most at-risk students rely on Title IV funding the most and may be participating in a process in which they are less likely to succeed. This study seeks to explore the experiences of Accreditation Liaison Officers (ALOs) at Higher Learning Commission (HLC)-accredited community …

Understanding The Role Of First Year Experience Courses In The Persistence, Retention, And Completion Of Latinx Hsi Community College Students, Luis Ortega

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this single phenomenological case study was to examine the importance of an FYE or College 101 seminar and why this topic matters to Latinx students’ success. The research took place in a two-year Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) located in the Southwest part of the United States. The overarching question was: How can First-Year Experiences (FYEs) or college seminars bridge the gap of retention, persistence, servingness and completion for Latinx students in higher education?

A total of 18 Latinx students were interviewed and provided valuable information about their experiences to assert the study findings. Four major themes were …

"There Is Power In Being Out": A Three Article Approach Celebrating The Experiences Of Queer University Leaders, Andrew R. E. Lorenzana

Dissertations

Institutions of higher education were historically built to serve a wealthy, White, straight male student population and the leaders of these institutions still largely reflect these demographics. This project specifically aims to celebrate and amplify the life and career of university administrators who identify within the LGBTQ community. Mainly through the use of a portraiture methodology, this three-article study attempts to examine the ways in which LGBTQ identity and career influence one another.

Worldmaking and narrative will be used as a theoretical frame to help analyze the ways in which the telling of a queer individual’s story makes the world …

A "Quic" Way To Quality Improvment, Rosalie Mince, Michelle Kloss

Instructional Leadership Abstracts

QUICs (Quality Improvement Cycles) serve as concise and valuable summaries of important work being done at Carroll Community College (located in central Maryland, United States).

The steps in the Reflective Improvement Cycle are: Define/Redefine; Design; Implement; Analyze; Modify/Maintain

Reflections from one QUIC often lead to follow-up inquiries the next year, and often, innovative ideas from one area are replicated and customized for other areas. The QUIC process would be easily replicable by instructional administrators at other institutions of higher education, requiring minimal resources beyond the time of a champion at the institution to launch the effort and catalog completed reports.

Can High School Gpa Predict College-Level Course Success At Community Colleges?, Joseph M. Bergman

Dissertations of Practice

ABSTRACT

CAN HIGH SCHOOL GPA PREDICT COLLEGE-LEVEL COURSE SUCCESS AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE?

Joseph M. Bergman, Ed.D.

Department of Counseling and Higher Education

Northern Illinois University, 2024

Xiaodan Hu, Director

In an effort to find a more convenient, lower-cost college readiness measure to increase access to college-level courses for more students without increasing student stress and sacrificing student success, Aurum Community College piloted the use of high school GPA as a college readiness measure while continuing to use the established standardized placement exam. Based on the placement measure used, this quantitative study examined student success in an introductory college-level composition course, …

It Takes A Village: Understanding Community College Chief Diversity Officers’ Experiences With Mentoring Relationships, Keith R. Barnes Dr.

Dissertations of Practice

This interpretive phenomenological analysis explores community college CDOs’ experiences with mentoring relationships. Seven CDOs employed at community colleges in the US Midwest Region participated in a semi-structured interview to share how they made meaning of their mentoring experiences and their impact on their career and psychosocial development. The findings highlighted two pivotal moments when the community college CDOs in the study received mentoring experiences to form an evolutionary process: the onboarding phase, when the participants sought mentoring relationships from the institution, and the sustaining phase, when the participants were more self-directed in securing high-quality mentoring experiences. The findings illuminated five …

Intrinsic Motivators For Participation And Persistence In Intercollegiate Athletics, Kevin Saal

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Since its inception, intercollegiate athletics’ conflicting existence vacillates between a history of rich, co-curricular and developmental experiences for young people, and a multi-billion-dollar industry transformed by limitless commercialization, expense and exploitation. The “professionalization” of intercollegiate athletics and blurring of motivational factors influencing participation and persistence threatens its holistic academic and developmental purpose (Duderstadt, 2000, p. 78). This dissertation provides a review of motivational theories, in addition to summarizing numerous contextually relevant intrinsic and extrinsic regulators impacting human behavior. Through a quantitative research methodology this study proposes research broadly investigating intrinsic motivation, seeking to develop a better understanding and establish …

The Personal Is Political: School Board Members’ Motivation For School Governance, Andrew Lobdell

Dissertations of Practice

Understanding the motivation behind school board members' governance is crucial for ensuring the effectiveness of public schools. This research aims to analyze the motivations of five newly elected board members and compare them with past research on governance and motivation. The leadership qualities of school superintendents also impact governance and can influence board members' motivations for running and serving their communities. Similarly, board members' motivations can affect how superintendents lead their districts and prioritize different topics. The research is divided into three papers. Paper 1 reviews existing literature and is organized into three distinct sections that explore school board governance, …

“Hopes And Fears”: What Do Writing Center Administrators Think Of Merging With Or Converting Into A Learning Center?, Jenny Goransson

The Writing Center Journal

This article shares findings from a survey study (n = 73) focused on writing center administrator (WCA) perceptions of two phenomena we see on many secondary and postsecondary campuses in recent years: writing centers expanding to become learning centers, and writing centers consolidating or merging with other tutoring services on campus. Through analysis of the qualitative, open-ended survey responses, the study revealed that WCAs’ views of these trends are greatly impacted by local conditions and levels of autonomy, as well as WCAs’ beliefs about expertise. Also, consolidation and expansion are seen by WCAs as shifting writing center identity in …

Student Loan Debt: Exploring The Economic Influences On Federal Student Loan Default For Students That Attended Public, Two-Year Institutions, Brian Perry

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Over the past 30 years, a shift occurred in higher education that saw more of the burden for paying for postsecondary education placed on students. Combined with rising tuition and fees, this has led students to take on increasing amounts of student debt. Despite the historic rise in student loans, surprisingly little attention has focused on those students who default on their student loans. Additionally, the academic literature on student loans has predominately focused on traditional students at four-year institutions, despite the fact that nearly half of all undergraduates attend public two-year institutions. Finally, those studies that include economic factors …

Mapping The Historical Discourse Of A Right-To-Read Claim: A Situational Analysis, Mursalata Muhammad

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation project used an interpretivist qualitative research design to study how the right-to-read claim made by seven teenagers attending Detroit public schools in 2016 reflects, addresses, or describes contemporary discussions about educational access. Using situational analysis (SA) as a theory/method, the entirety of the claim comprises the situation of the social phenomenon being studied, not the people. This research combines critical race theory (CRT) with Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems and uses situation analysis to map historical discourses to conduct a study that examines the history of a present situation of inquiry as presented by this question: How does the 2016 …