39 research outputs found
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Entering a Program: Helping Students Make Academic and Career Decisions
In this literature review, the author examines the evidence on student decision making in the community college, focusing on the activities most relevant to students’ entry into programs of study—academic and career planning. Although there is a large body of theoretical discussion and empirical evidence on potentially effective approaches to guidance and counseling, a review of current advising and counseling practices reveals barriers to effective implementation of these approaches on community college campuses. As currently structured, community college advising is limited in its ability to assist students in identifying career goals and academic pathways that will help them achieve those goals. The literature reviewed in this paper points to four broad principles to guide restructuring efforts: (1) that program pathways should balance structure with exploration; (2) that career counseling should drive an integrated approach to advising; (3) that colleges should provide services to students based on their level of need; and (4) that colleges should strategically deploy resources to allow for developmental advising
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Learning About the Role of College Student Through Dual Enrollment Participation
Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to take college courses and receive college credit and have become a popular educational intervention. This paper seeks a rationale for this enthusiasm by exploring whether dual enrollment might serve as a location in which students learn about the role of college student. Sociological theories of role change posit that, if this is the case, dual enrollment might encourage postsecondary persistence. In this study, in-depth interviews and observations were conducted among a sample of 26 students in their first semester of a dual enrollment course. Seventeen of the 26 high school students shifted their conceptions of the role of college student during their first semester in a college course, as indicated by their more accurate descriptions of the role at the end of the course. Changes in participants' role conceptions and identities were encouraged by anticipatory socialization, role rehearsal, trial-and-error, and cognitive interpretation of individual experiences. The paper concludes with implications for programs and policy
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Dual Enrollment for College Completion: Policy Recommendations for Tennessee
To meet its college completion goals Tennessee enacted a ground-breaking array of postsecondary education reforms. These include revising the funding system for state colleges and universities; implementing coherent transfer curricula, course numbers, and pathways; and reforming the structure and delivery of developmental education. These reforms have garnered national attention and are likely to improve completion rates among students entering Tennessee’s postsecondary institutions. But alone, they may not be enough.The seeds of college completion begin well before students ever arrive at the college door. In order to achieve its completion goals, Tennessee must ensure that larger numbers of students enter college—for if students do not enroll, they cannot finish. Developing a robust postsecondary pipeline requires that students be academically ready and financially able to enter college. Currently, too many Tennessee high school students are not ready for college—decreasing the total number of potential college graduates in the state. Notably, according to Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) statistics, fewer than 60 percent of the state’s high school graduates enroll in college the following fall. Moreover, according to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), students in Tennessee’s public two- and four-year colleges rely on grants and loans to a greater degree than the national average. Ensuring that Tennessee students enter college and can afford to remain enrolled until they graduate are essential steps toward improving the college completion pipeline. Without a robust pool of students entering and staying in college, it is not possible to meet the state’s goals
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Towards a Community College Research Agenda
This paper provides a summary of proceedings at the National Community College Symposium. Hosted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), the symposium brought together experts in the field in order to identify promising practices and work toward the establishment of community college research agenda. OVAE's intent was to spur discussion of key community college initiatives for improving student transitions into, through, and from the community college in order to provide guidance for OVAE's future work
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Collective Impact: Theory Versus Reality
Collective impact is an increasingly popular approach to addressing persistent social problems, but such strategic, cross-sector collaboration is challenging. This brief draws on the experiences of five committed collective impact communities participating in the Ford Foundation’s Corridors to College Success initiative to expose some of the practical obstacles to translating the theory of collective impact into action.
The authors highlight three major challenges faced by Corridors stakeholders: developing a shared understanding of collective impact work, maintaining organizational competencies in a coordinated system, and using data to support collective impact work. They also consider whether the incentives for collective impact are sufficient to drive the work despite the funding and capacity constraints faced by participating organizations. Thus, the brief provides a lens for understanding why well-intentioned collective impact efforts may not take root
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Lessons from the Corridors of College Success Initiative: An Introduction
Collective impact is a new place-based model of educational and social intervention that aims to shift responsibility for improvement in outcomes from individual organizations to entire systems that affect the lives of people in a particular location.
CCRC’s Corridors of College Success Series provides insights into collective impact efforts in the postsecondary sector, drawing on qualitative research in five communities participating in the Ford Foundation’s Corridors of College Success initiative. The Ford Foundation supported these communities as they planned, organized, and applied a collective impact or place-based approach in order to improve pathways into and through college and into family-sustaining careers for low-income and first-generation students and other vulnerable populations.
This brief provides an introduction to the collective impact model and the Corridors of College Success initiative. Subsequent briefs in the series will focus on key areas of concern for practitioners, policymakers, funders, and researchers engaging in place-based collective work—including implementation issues, “backbone” organizations, postsecondary engagement in collective impact, funders and funding, and community voice
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Student Attitudes Toward Technology-Mediated Advising Systems
The literature on broad-access colleges suggests that low persistence and completion rates may be improved through better advising that employs a teaching-as-advising approach. While resource constraints have traditionally limited the ability of colleges to reform advising practices, technological advances have made it possible to implement technology-based advising tools, some of which can replace face-to-face services.
Using focus group interview data from 69 students at six colleges, this study investigates students’ attitudes toward technology-mediated advising. More specifically, the authors seek to understand how students’ perceptions and experiences vary across different advising functions. They find that students are open to using technology for more formulaic tasks, such as course registration, but prefer in-person support for more complex tasks, such as planning courses for multiple semesters and refining their academic and career goals
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Supporting Military Veteran Students: Early Lessons From Kohlberg Prize Recipients
The Post-9/11 GI Bill of 2008 has increased postsecondary education participation rates of military service members and veterans. Such participation is critical for military-connected individuals as they transition to civilian life. Postsecondary education enables military-connected individuals to upgrade their existing skills, gain new skills, or earn a credential that helps translate their skills into nonmilitary occupations. However, federal statistics indicate that while the Post-9/11 GI Bill has increased higher education participation rates overall, a higher percentage of veterans have entered for-profit colleges than have entered public institutions. In 2007–2008, 14 percent of veterans enrolled in college were at for-profit institutions, and 42 percent were at community colleges; by 2011–2012, these proportions had shifted to 24 percent and 37 percent, respectively
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Leadership for Transformative Change: Lessons From Technology-Mediated Reform in Broad-Access Colleges
Community colleges and broad-access four-year institutions have a crucial role to play in increasing educational equity in the United States. In order to fulfill this role, however, institutions must engage in organizational change to address their low completion rates.
Drawing on qualitative case studies of six colleges, this study explores the influence of different types of leadership approaches on the implementation of a technology-mediated advising reform, and assesses which types of leadership are associated with transformative organizational change. Expanding on s theory of adaptive change and Karp and Fletcher’s Readiness for Technology Adoption framework, the authors find that transformative change requires multitiered leadership with a unified commitment to a shared vision for the reform and its goals
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"They Never Told Me What to Expect, So I Didn't Know What to Do": Defining and Clarifying the Role of a Community College Student
Increasing the number of young people who attain postsecondary credentials has become one of the primary educational objectives of the 2010s. While low college success rates are typically linked to students' lack of academic preparation for college and their subsequent need for developmental or remedial instruction, research suggests that even many students who are deemed "college-ready" by virtue of their placement test scores or completion of developmental coursework still do not earn a credential. This paper builds on previous work arguing that community college success is dependent not only upon academic preparation but also upon a host of important skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are often left unspoken. Drawing on role theory and on a qualitative study conducted at three community colleges, this paper aims to clarify the role of community college student and the components of that role that must be enacted for students to be successful. Using data from interviews at the study sites, we provide a concrete, actionable description of the community college student role. We also present a framework that practitioners can use to help students learn how to be successful community college students