Using Graphic Elicitation to Explore Community College Transfer Student Identity, Development, and Engagement

The focus of this paper is to illustrate the use of graphic elicitation, in the form of a relational map, to explore community college transfer student (CCTS) identity, development, and engagement at four-year institutions. Using graphic elicitation illuminated aspects of CCTSs that they may not have been able to otherwise verbalize, and was used in combination with interview questions designed to capture participants\u27 development and engagement, investigating how they made meaning of their institutional experiences. A constructivist grounded theory approach was applied, given the lack of available literature pertaining to CCTSs in these areas. This paper draws upon and contributes to the current graphic elicitation literature and provides a detailed outline of the study’s research design and thorough justification of the use of a relational map. The interview questions and relational maps worked in tandem to uncover theoretical themes that contributed to findings. The study\u27s methodological approach, design using graphic elicitation, and limitations are discussed in addition to potential future research using graphic elicitation techniques

Building Institutional Research Knowledge and Skills Through Communities of Practice Networks

The demands on and expectations of Institutional Research (IR) departments at colleges and universities have continued to expand over the years, yet there have been no studies on cost effective ways to develop and maintain the knowledge and skills needed by professionals in the field. Using a survey and social network analysis, this study explored the impact of participating in an Institutional Research (IR) affinity group on the development of the three tiers of organizational intelligence and the strength and nature of the social network that exists among the participants. The findings suggest that communities of practice, such as the IR affinity group, can aid the development and maintenance of some of the skills and knowledge related to the three tiers of organizational intelligence in the field of IR. The study also highlights how social network analysis can be used to explore communities of practice and approaches for professional development

A Growing Culture of Evidence? Findings From a Survey on Data Use at Achieving the Dream Colleges in Washington State

Achieving the Dream (ATD) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving outcomes among community college students, especially low-income students and students of color. A central ATD strategy is to promote a “culture of evidence,” in which colleges collect, analyze, and make decisions based on information about students in order to inform improvements in practice. This report examines the use of data on students by faculty, administrators, and student services staff at six Washington State colleges that joined ATD in 2006–2007. Surveys were administered to faculty and administrators in 2007 and to faculty, administrators, and student services staff in 2010. We analyzed the survey data in order to understand differences in data use between the three groups (faculty, administrators, and student services staff) and to understand whether there were changes in the frequency and extent of data use between the two survey waves at the participating colleges. The following are the main findings of our analysis: Administrators were more frequent and intensive users of student outcomes data and research from their college than faculty or student services staff. Most faculty and student services staff did not examine student progression or use outcomes data on a regular basis. Although the frequency with which faculty used data on student progression and completion did not increase between the two waves of the survey, their use of data to inform teachingrelated decisions did increase. Most faculty did not use administrative data, such as data from their college’s student information system. Faculty members’ use of data was correlated with their department’s use of data. Overall, there was broad use of data by administrators and of certain types of data by faculty and student services staff, but there remain opportunities for increasing the use of student data in the Washington State ATD colleges. To further promote the use of data in support of improved student success, ATD colleges in Washington State and elsewhere should consider ways to better connect the data collected and reported to the primary focus of faculty on instruction, and they should consider ways to engage student services staff more in the use of data on student progression, given their interest in student retention

Evidence-Based Decision Making in Community Colleges: Findings from a Survey of Faculty and Administrator Data Use at Achieving the Dream Colleges

The study reported on here, conducted by researchers from the Community College Research Center and MDRC, examines what specific data college faculty and administrators use in their jobs and the extent to which they use data analysis to design and improve the impact of programs and services. This study is based on a survey of faculty and administrators at 41 community colleges participating in Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count. Achieving the Dream is a major national initiative designed to improve educational outcomes for community college students, particularly students of color, low-income students, and others who face barriers to success in college. In addition to the surveys, structured telephone interviews were conducted with administrators and faculty at four of the colleges that participated in the survey, to explore in greater detail key findings from the survey

Progress in the First Five Years: An Evaluation of Achieving the Dream Colleges in Washington State

In 2004, Lumina Foundation for Education launched an innovative national reform initiative, Achieving the Dream (ATD), with the purpose of increasing the persistence and completion rates of community college students, especially low-income students and students of color, through evidence-based institutional change. Originally consisting of 26 partner colleges in five states, today more than 150 colleges in 30 states and the District of Columbia participate in ATD, which in 2010 became a national nonprofit organization.This report examines six community and technical colleges in Washington State that joined the initiative in 2006 (“Round 3”) and were provided with grant funding from College Spark Washington and the services of a leadership coach and data coach to facilitate their ATD efforts. The report (1) describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD’s “culture of evidence” principles for institutional improvement; (2) examines strategies implemented by the colleges to improve student outcomes, comparing them to interventions developed by the 26 “Round 1” colleges that joined ATD in 2004; and (3) charts trends in student outcomes in the period before and after the Washington colleges joined the initiative. The report also examines lessons from the experiences of the Washington ATD colleges for other colleges seeking to improve student outcomes. This study was conducted during a period of both rapid enrollment growth and sharp cuts in state funding. Making systemic changes in practice in ways that the Washington ATD colleges have begun to do and in the other ways recommended in this report requires resources — resources for new and strengthened information systems, for professional development and training, and for coordination. The Washington colleges have shown that even during a period of dramatic cuts in funding, they have been willing to make major changes in practice. The fact that they have reallocated scarce resources toward practices that have the potential to be more effective illustrates their commitment to greater student success

Achieving the Dream Colleges in Pennsylvania and Washington State: Early Progress Toward Building a Culture of Evidence

In 2003, Lumina Foundation for Education launched a bold, multiyear, national initiative called Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, to help students stay in school and succeed. The initiative is focused particularly on students who have faced the most barriers to success, including low-income students and students of color. Initially, 27 colleges in five states joined the initiative; there are now over 80 institutions in 15 states. Participating colleges commit to using data to improve programs and services in ways that lead to increased student success — a process known as “building a culture of evidence.” Specifically, colleges mine transcripts and gather other information to understand how students are faring over time and which groups need the most assistance. Based on a diagnosis of the problems in student achievement, they design and implement strategies to improve academic outcomes. Participating colleges receive a $50,000 planning grant followed by a four-year$400,000 implementation grant, along with assistance from coaches hired by the initiative. This report describes the progress made by the 13 Pennsylvania and Washington State community colleges that comprise Round 3 of the Achieving the Dream initiative after planning and one year of implementation. The findings from this study will be compared with follow-up research that CCRC and MDRC will conduct in two years to evaluate the progress of the colleges at the end of the five-year project period

Turning the Tide: Five Years of Achieving the Dream in Community Colleges

In 2004, Lumina Foundation for Education launched “Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count,” a national initiative aimed at improving success among community college students, particularly low-income students and students of color. Now encompassing more than 130 institutions in 24 states and the District of Columbia, Achieving the Dream helps community colleges build a “culture of evidence” by using student records and other data to examine students’ performance over time and to identify barriers to academic progress. From there, community colleges are expected to develop intervention strategies designed to improve student outcomes; conduct further research on student progress; and bring effective programs to scale. As a result, it is anticipated that colleges will see measurable improvements over time in student outcomes, including increased progress through developmental education and college-level “gatekeeper” (introductory) courses, grades, persistence, and completion of credentials

PlantCV v2: Image analysis software for high-throughput plant phenotyping

Systems for collecting image data in conjunction with computer vision techniques are a powerful tool for increasing the temporal resolution at which plant phenotypes can be measured non-destructively. Computational tools that are flexible and extendable are needed to address the diversity of plant phenotyping problems. We previously described the Plant Computer Vision (PlantCV) software package, which is an image processing toolkit for plant phenotyping analysis. The goal of the PlantCV project is to develop a set of modular, reusable, and repurposable tools for plant image analysis that are open-source and community-developed. Here we present the details and rationale for major developments in the second major release of PlantCV. In addition to overall improvements in the organization of the PlantCV project, new functionality includes a set of new image processing and normalization tools, support for analyzing images that include multiple plants, leaf segmentation, landmark identification tools for morphometrics, and modules for machine learning

Knowledge, perceived stigma, and care-seeking experiences for sexually transmitted infections: a qualitative study from the perspective of public clinic attendees in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

BACKGROUND: An estimated 12 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are documented in Brazil per year. Given the scope of this public health challenge and the importance of prompt treatment and follow-up counseling to reduce future STI/HIV-related risk behavior, we sought to qualitatively explore STI clinic experiences among individuals diagnosed with STIs via public clinics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The study focused on eliciting the perspective of clinic users with regard to those factors influencing their STI care-seeking decisions and the health education and counseling which they received during their clinic visit. METHODS: Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with heterosexual men and women and men who have sex with men presenting with STIs at two public clinics. Content analysis was conducted by coding transcripts of audio-taped interviews for key domains of interest and comparing and synthesizing code output across participants and sub-groups. Thematic narratives were then developed per each of the study sub-groups. RESULTS: Salient themes that emerged from participant narratives included the importance of low STI-related knowledge and high perceived stigma, both STI-related and other types of social stigma, on STI care-seeking delays. However, there are indications in the data that the level of STI-related knowledge and the amount and types of stigma experienced vary across the study sub-groups suggesting the need for further research on the significance and program relevance of these potential differences. Interview findings also suggest that such barriers to care seeking are not adequately addressed through ongoing health education and counseling efforts at public STI clinics and in turn critical opportunities for STI/HIV prevention are currently being missed. CONCLUSION: Information, communication and education regarding early recognition and prompt care-seeking for STIs should be developed, with consideration given to the possibility of tailoring messages tailored to specific sub-groups. To promote prompt treatment-seeking, interventions must also address both STI-specific and other forms of social stigma which may limit access to care. Efforts to further assess and respond to barriers related to the delivery of quality health education and counseling within the context of public STI clinics are also needed