STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES: AN EXAMINATION OF THE ACADEMIC SUCCESS OF DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION STUDENTS IN COREQUISITE COURSES

A significant number of students enter community colleges with developmental education (DE) needs in reading, writing, and mathematics. Many of these students are typically referred to more than one level of DE courses before they can enroll in a college-level course. This has led to lower than desired success rate of DE students over the years. As administrators look for ways to improve DE student outcomes, many institutions have now adopted the corequisite model on account of results of several quantitative studies, which reveal high success rates of DE students enrolled in corequisite courses. With the corequisite model being widely accepted across different states, it is important to understand how the model promotes the academic success of students, specifically from the students’ perspectives. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the experiences of (DE) students enrolled in a corequisite course at an urban community college in New York State. The study also examined the factors that facilitated or impeded their academic success in the corequisite course. For this study, academic success is defined by a student who successfully completes the DE course with a grade of P and successfully pass the gateway course with a grade of A, B, C, or D, and enroll in the subsequent semester. Participants included a purposeful sample of eight students who completed a math or English corequisite course in fall 2021 and re-enrolled in spring 2022, as well as two faculty members who have taught DE courses for more than ten years. The researcher conducted virtual semi-structured individual interviews and focus group interview, and reviewed relevant documents. The data analysis employed inductive coding which provided themes and sub-themes interpreted through the theoretical lens of Student Integration, (Tinto,1993) and Student Involvement (Astin, 1999). The findings from this study contribute to the expansion of the literature reviewed and have significant implications for DE policy and practice

First-Generation Leaders: A Qualitative Examination of Characteristics, Traits, and Identity of First-Generation Graduates in Leadership

This study looked at first-generation college graduates and their paths to successful leadership roles. First-generation college students are defined by the National Association of Personnel Administrators (NASPA) as students from families in which their biological parents did not complete a four-year college degree (NASPA, 2017). An investigation was conducted on demographics, access to education, opportunity, and other factors that lend themselves to successful first-generation leaders who changed the narrative for themselves and their communities. This study looked at the previously conducted literature to provide background support for the need of the research, along with further recommendations and interviews which added resources to the ongoing research. Literature has suggested first-generation college students need additional support, guidance, and mentoring to succeed; and first-generation college students struggle to find a place to grow and support within higher education institutions. Throughout this study, the researcher analyzed data to determine the way in which access, affordability, leadership opportunity, and mentorship have provided successful paths for leaders to change their stories and access essential leadership roles within higher education institutions. The study explored conversations through qualitative analysis and phenomenological study and sought to explore complex and challenging conversations alongside real experiences. The interview process allowed the interviewees to reflect upon their experiences while in their studies (both undergraduate and graduate) as first-generation college students. The conversations were conducted in person throughout the 30- to 60-minute interviews (if location permitted) or via zoom; some opted for email interviews to remain mindful of their time as leaders. The participants’ indicators were removed for anonymity to allow them to speak openly and candidly about their experiences concerning characteristics, traits, and identity as first-generation college students, graduates, and leaders. The findings of this study resulted in concluding that the participants were part of a phenomenon that showed the characteristics, traits, and identity that most of them felt included resiliency, hard-working, and determined. It proved that first-generation students embody a variety of soft skills that set them apart, but also set them up for success as leaders. The study resulted in understanding how to better serve first-generation students throughout their collegiate experience to embrace and advocate for them as leaders

Rhythmic Collage

I researched the applications of video to still-frame art. This project attempts to bridge the gap between photography, animation, collage, and video art. The final piece became a mode of video art that I call rhythmic collage. The idea of collage carries the implication of found or appropriated images. I took found images from stock photos labeled for reuse and screenshots from Google street view. The sound was appropriated from other online sources and edited. The different buildings were digitally cut out and layered on top of the landscape background. The chosen pacing was inspired by the game ‘Tetris’. The pacing of the collage layers was important to the narrative of the piece, so the most challenging part of the project was editing the appropriate rhythm. Through a lot of experimentation, I was able select a layered pacing that begins slowly and exponentially increases as the screen begins to fill. The final result of my research was a rhythmic collage showing the transformation of a greenspace into a cityscape. The technique of rhythmic montage paired with motion collage works to create an aesthetic piece with story and meaning behind the motion. One thing that did not work, and that I have yet to find a solution to, is seamlessly matching the transition motion of the collage pieces over distances within the frame to match the pacing of the video. This failure is noticeable towards the end when a piece slides into the upper center of the frame after the pace has quickened. The jarring speed of motion over the distance causes that motion to stand apart. This video will guide my future projects in video art. There is still a lot of art work that has yet to be created that intentionally blurs the lines of material/medium specificity, and rhythmic collage is a method that will guide my future research into dismantling the medium specificity of two dimensional work and video art

Art-Based Perceptual Ecology: An alternative monitoring method in the assessment of rainfall and vegetation in a ciénaga community

As an artist, educator, researcher, and scholar, with a focus on divergent ways of knowing, I use art-making as a way to connect with the natural world. In the following article, I explore the making of an image with my hands when practicing Art-Based Perceptual Ecology (ABPE) as a way of extending my understanding and ecological knowing of the natural world, or what will also be referred to as the landscape. ABPE methodologies may offer the means by which humans reconnect to a pre-discursive (mimetic) language, a sentient language our ancestors used to communicate with the animate world. In addition to art educators, this article may be of interest to ecologists and others studying environmental global change. Developing an art-based longitudinal study alongside traditional Western science methods, to record historical changes in vegetation in a riparian community, could provide outstanding results and contribute to the further understanding of biospheric changes at similar stream communities around the world

SH-Mode Seismic-Reflection Imaging of Earthfill Dams

Assessing subsurface characteristics and imaging geologic features (e.g., faults, cavities, low-velocity layers, etc.) are typical problems in near-surface geophysics. These questions often have adverse geotechnical engineering implications, and can be especially acute when associated with high-hazard structures such as large earthen flood-control dams. Dam-related issues are becoming more frequent in the United States, because a large part of this major infrastructure was designed and constructed in the early- to mid-twentieth century; these dams are thus passing into the latter stages of their design life, where minute flaws that were overlooked or thought to be insignificant in design/construction are now proving problematic. The high-hydraulic heads associated with these structures can quicken degradation of weak areas and compromise long-term integrity. Addressing dam-related problems solely with traditional invasive drilling techniques is often inadequate (i.e., lack of lateral resolution) and/or economically exorbitant at this scale. However, strategic geotechnical drilling integrated with the broad utility of near-surface geophysics, particularly the horizontally polarized shear-wave (SH-mode) seismic-reflection technique for imaging the internal structural detail and geological foundation conditions of earthfill embankment dams can cost-effectively improve the overall subsurface definition needed for remedial engineering. Demonstrative evidence for this supposition is provided in the form of SH-wave seismic-reflection imaging of in situ and engineered as-built components of flood-control embankment dams at two example sites in the central United States

ALTERNATIVE PARAMETER SPECIFICATION IN E, V ANALYSIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FARM LEVEL DECISION MAKING

This study compares the structure of E, V frontiers under several specifications of expected income and variance parameters with emphasis on fundamental differences in efficient crop mixes. The results are generated using data from a specific production region and a selected set of cropping activities for Wyoming. The risk-efficient frontiers and underlying crop mixes display sensitivity to alternative parameter definitions and suggest that if researchers intend to use the E, V approach in providing decision information to producers, care should be exercised in the choice of income and risk measures.Farm Management,

Selected factors associated with administrators\u27 leadership behaviors and school accountability

In this era of educational accountability, achieving and maintaining high levels of student academic performance is the goal of every school. State accountability models serve as the measure to determine if school districts are successfully educating students, and the responsibility of student academic success rests on the principal of each school. Effective leadership is a necessary component of successful schools, especially in rural school districts. The focus of this research was to explore teachers\u27 perceptions of the leadership behaviors and practices of their principals and determine if relationships existed between the leadership behaviors and the schools\u27 accountability ratings. A survey research design was utilized in this study of eight schools across three rural school districts in central Mississippi. The researcher utilized The Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale to survey 121 teacher participants regarding their perceptions of principals\u27 leadership behaviors or practices. The study revealed no statistically significant relationships existed between principals\u27 leadership behaviors and school accountability ratings. However, the findings support existing literature on the indirect influence of principal leadership on student achievement