Variation Within the “New Latino Diaspora”: A Decade of Changes Across the United States in the Equitable Participation of Latina/os in Higher Education

This study problematizes the common discourse that rapid and widespread Latina/o demographic growth in the United States is a driving force in realizing higher education equity gains. Using equity indices for students, faculty, and administrative leaders at the state level, we present a portrait of changes in Latina/o participation in higher education over the last decade and propose a classification scheme for understanding variation across states at the intersection of changes in both demographics and equitable participation. En este estudio se problematiza el discurso común del veloz y extendido crecimiento demográfico latino en los Estados Unidos como promotor de mayor equidad en la educación terciaria. A través de índices de equidad al nivel estatal de estudiantes, profesores y funcionarios administrativos, se presenta un retrato de los cambios en la participación de latina/os en la educación terciaria en la última década y se propone una clasificación esquemática de estados que facilita la comprensión de variantes que surgen de la confluencia entre cambios demográficos y participación equitativa

Best Laid Plans: How Community College Student Success Courses Work

Objective: Beyond understanding whether first-year student success interventions in community colleges are effective—for which there is mixed evidence in the literature—this study’s purpose was to uncover how they work to realize observed outcomes, including at times unanticipated undesirable outcomes. Method: This qualitative multiple case study used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to unpack interactions and tensions among programmatic-level features and individual-level experiences and actions. We conducted classroom observation, document analysis, and interviews with instructors and students in four student success courses across diverse contexts. Results: Regardless of particular designs and course emphases, we found in all cases a blurring of activity elements, wherein learning tools and learning goals were often coterminous, or instructors effectively took on the role of learning tools themselves, in the form of object lessons and mediators, for instance. Courses had a distinctive character as rehearsal for college that simultaneously created a welcoming peer environment but an uncertain learning and assessment environment. Contributions: Because of their nature as metacourses—college courses about college-going—success courses’ means and ends ultimately may be functionally inseparable, thus helping to explain their continual evolution and contested roles. Whereas such courses are typically justified as means to teach college skills, we found this utilitarian rationale to be insufficient to describe the experiential dimensions of social learning that participants reported. Instead, we found these courses reveal how college-going is an emergent social literacy, one that a single course is insufficient to fully realize

A Resource-Oriented Investigation into the Community College Matriculation and Persistence of U.S.-Educated English Language Learners

The purpose of this qualitative single case study with embedded units of analysis was to provide evidence of the personal, institutional, and community resources leveraged by U.S.-educated English language learners (US-ELLs) to matriculate and persist at community colleges and of how their educational experiences were shaped by community college policies and practices. By considering the experiences of multiple students through in-depth interviews and drawing on additional insight provided by interviews with institutional agents, this resource-oriented investigation into US-ELLs’ matriculation and persistence was designed to counter the prevailing deficit orientation that may limit educational opportunity for US-ELLs at community colleges. The study was guided by the following questions: 1) What resources do US-ELLs describe drawing on to matriculate, navigate through ESL and basic writing courses, and successfully complete a first-level college composition course at a community college? 2) How did students leverage these resources to expand their educational opportunities at a community college? 3) How did community college policies and practices for US-ELLs shape these students’ matriculation and course-taking experiences? Participants included seven US-ELLs who were enrolled in a large public community college in the Midwest and 11 faculty and professional staff members who worked with US-ELLs at that community college. Data was collected at the individual level through two interviews with each student participant and at the institutional level through interviews with the faculty and professional staff and through document review. This study found that three types of Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth were most salient for the student participants in this study: aspirational, linguistic and social capital. However, the ways in which US-ELLs leveraged these resources to support their community college matriculation and persistence was influenced by the institutional policies and practices they experienced in the course of matriculation and persistence. Community college policies and practices towards ELLs, specifically those surrounding assessment and placement and ESL course content, materials, and instructional methods, may be limiting the educational opportunities of US-ELLs. Advisor: Deryl K. Hatch-Tocaimaz

A Resource-Oriented Investigation into the Community College Matriculation and Persistence of U.S.-Educated English Language Learners

The purpose of this qualitative single case study with embedded units of analysis was to provide evidence of the personal, institutional, and community resources leveraged by U.S.-educated English language learners (US-ELLs) to matriculate and persist at community colleges and of how their educational experiences were shaped by community college policies and practices. By considering the experiences of multiple students through in-depth interviews and drawing on additional insight provided by interviews with institutional agents, this resource-oriented investigation into US-ELLs’ matriculation and persistence was designed to counter the prevailing deficit orientation that may limit educational opportunity for US-ELLs at community colleges. The study was guided by the following questions: 1) What resources do US-ELLs describe drawing on to matriculate, navigate through ESL and basic writing courses, and successfully complete a first-level college composition course at a community college? 2) How did students leverage these resources to expand their educational opportunities at a community college? 3) How did community college policies and practices for US-ELLs shape these students’ matriculation and course-taking experiences? Participants included seven US-ELLs who were enrolled in a large public community college in the Midwest and 11 faculty and professional staff members who worked with US-ELLs at that community college. Data was collected at the individual level through two interviews with each student participant and at the institutional level through interviews with the faculty and professional staff and through document review. This study found that three types of Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth were most salient for the student participants in this study: aspirational, linguistic and social capital. However, the ways in which US-ELLs leveraged these resources to support their community college matriculation and persistence was influenced by the institutional policies and practices they experienced in the course of matriculation and persistence. Community college policies and practices towards ELLs, specifically those surrounding assessment and placement and ESL course content, materials, and instructional methods, may be limiting the educational opportunities of US-ELLs

Variation Within the “New Latino Diaspora”: A Decade of Changes Across the United States in the Equitable Participation of Latina/os in Higher Education

This study problematizes the common discourse that rapid and widespread Latina/o demographic growth in the United States is a driving force in realizing higher education equity gains. Using equity indices for students, faculty, and administrative leaders at the state level, we present a portrait of changes in Latina/o participation in higher education over the last decade and propose a classification scheme for understanding variation across states at the intersection of changes in both demographics and equitable participation. En este estudio se problematiza el discurso común del veloz y extendido crecimiento demográfico latino en los Estados Unidos como promotor de mayor equidad en la educación terciaria. A través de índices de equidad al nivel estatal de estudiantes, profesores y funcionarios administrativos, se presenta un retrato de los cambios en la participación de latina/os en la educación terciaria en la última década y se propone una clasificación esquemática de estados que facilita la comprensión de variantes que surgen de la confluencia entre cambios demográficos y participación equitativa

Content Validation of the Community College Student Success Program Inventory

This study reports on the content validation of the Community College Student Success Program Inventory (CCSSPI), a structured interview protocol for program personnel, designed to serve as a tool for researchers and practitioners alike to account for critical features of various types of student success programs in detailed and comparable ways across multiple sites. In all, 20 subject matter experts (SMEs) rated the relevancy and clarity of each item to ascertain essential program features. Content validity index (CVI) and scale-level index scores (S-CVI) were calculated. Results showed high to moderately high validity for items related to course goals, logistics, skills-focused curricular items, and academic and student services. Other contingent facets—collaborative and contextualized learning, co-curricular and community activities, ancillary instruction, and instructor role—were rated as less valid, depending on program goals. The instrument is recommended for use in multisite qualitative or mixed-methods research and institutional improvement

Best Laid Plans: How Community College Student Success Courses Work

Objective: Beyond understanding whether first-year student success interventions in community colleges are effective—for which there is mixed evidence in the literature—this study’s purpose was to uncover how they work to realize observed outcomes, including at times unanticipated undesirable outcomes. Method: This qualitative multiple case study used cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) to unpack interactions and tensions among programmatic-level features and individual-level experiences and actions. We conducted classroom observation, document analysis, and interviews with instructors and students in four student success courses across diverse contexts. Results: Regardless of particular designs and course emphases, we found in all cases a blurring of activity elements, wherein learning tools and learning goals were often coterminous, or instructors effectively took on the role of learning tools themselves, in the form of object lessons and mediators, for instance. Courses had a distinctive character as rehearsal for college that simultaneously created a welcoming peer environment but an uncertain learning and assessment environment. Contributions: Because of their nature as metacourses—college courses about college-going—success courses’ means and ends ultimately may be functionally inseparable, thus helping to explain their continual evolution and contested roles. Whereas such courses are typically justified as means to teach college skills, we found this utilitarian rationale to be insufficient to describe the experiential dimensions of social learning that participants reported. Instead, we found these courses reveal how college-going is an emergent social literacy, one that a single course is insufficient to fully realize