Community College Student Population Research Articles

Teaching Homelessness: How American Community College Faculty Approach Housing Insecurity as a Curricular Topic

Community college students are more likely than their peers in four-year colleges to experience homelessness or housing instability. At the same time, homelessness is a curricular topic, particularly in social science courses. Given the prevalence of homelessness and housing instability in the community college student population, likely worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent and ongoing economic crisis, this project sought to discover how community college faculty approach homelessness and housing instability as a curricular topic, including their theoretical and praxis perspectives, and the integration of students’ lived experience into their instruction. Fourteen faculty from a variety of disciplines participated in interviews, revealing that homelessness is most often used a way for students to explore foundational theories in sociology. Participants problematized their teaching around homelessness, particularly their service-learning activities, and described the importance of care and safety when discussing housing with students they recognized could have lived experience with homelessness. Future research should explore students’ experiences in classes where homelessness is a curricular topic, and how more critical theoretical approaches may be beneficial.

Positive Predictors of Career Adaptability Among Diverse Community College Students

Career Construction Theory (CCT) posits that an individual’s vocational development occurs as a product of their readiness, resources, and responses to the environment in which they are situated. Thus, an individual’s ability to adapt to environmental demands is predicated on a number of complex and interwoven inter- and intrapersonal factors. This is particularly relevant to the community college student population who, relative to their 4-year university counterparts, experience disparate rates of educational barriers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to use CCT as a theoretical framework for investigating the relations among agentic characteristics (personal growth initiative and grit), barriers (perceptions of academic and educational barriers and coping with barriers), and career adaptability in a sample of diverse community college students. Data from a sample of 309 community college students indicated that perceptions of barriers significantly predicted career adaptability through coping with barriers, grit, and personal growth initiative. Serial mediation was supported for the effect of perceptions of barriers on career adaptability through personal growth initiative and coping with barriers. Results also indicated that the proposed model accounted for 55% of the variance in career adaptability. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Utility of the REDFLAGS Model for Supporting Community College Students’ Mental Health: Implications for Counselors

The counseling literature is lacking in research on supporting the mental health needs of the growing community college student population. A number of past investigators have demonstrated the utility of mental health literacy for supporting college students’ mental health on 4‐year universities. The present researchers examined the validity of the REDFLAGS model (a theoretical model for promoting mental health literacy) with a national stratified random sample (N = 640, stratified by age, gender, and ethnicity) of community college students. Collectively, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical logistic regression, and factorial analysis of variance supported the use of the model with community college students. Implications for enhancing counseling practice as well as directions for future research are provided.

Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Support on Community College Campuses: Examining the Factorial Invariance of the Mental Distress Response Scale

ABSTRACT The number of community college students reporting mental health disorders increased from approximately 40% to 49% between 2014 and 2016. Peer-to-peer mental health support, for example, recognize and refer, initiatives have utility for promoting college student mental health on four-year universities. The potential efficacy of peer-to-peer mental health support, however, has not been extended to the community college student population. The primary aim of the present study was to test the psychometric properties of the Mental Distress Response Scale (MDRS) with a national random sample, stratified by age, gender, generational status, and ethnicity, of community college students. The MDRS is a screening tool for appraising responses to encountering a peer in mental distress. A multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis supported the factorial invariance of the MDRS across a number of demographic characteristics associated with college student mental health. The researcher also identified demographic differences in community college students’ MDRS scores. Findings contribute to the community college knowledge base by providing support for the utility of the MDRS for enhancing interventions geared towards promoting peer-to-peer mental health support. Implications for how the MDRS can be used to promote the cultural sensitivity of peer-to-peer mental health support on community college campuses are discussed.

Food Insecurity, Inadequate Childcare, & Transportation Disadvantage: Student Retention and Persistence of Community College Students

ABSTRACT As higher education enrollment patterns have changed, so too has the focus for institutional administrators. College students have been shown to be retained at higher rates when they are engaged in supportive services on campus. The Jefferson Community School program was designed to meet the non-academic needs of the community college student population of a rural campus in Northern New York. This program included food pantry, transportation, and childcare services at no cost to enrolled students. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between use of non-academic services and retention and persistence rates of community college students (n = 90). A quantitative, quasi-experimental research method approach was used to compare matched samples of students who participated in the Jefferson Community Schools program and students who did not participate in the Jefferson Community Schools program. Each sample consisted of 45 students who were matched on enrolled credit hours, age, gender and Pell status. An ANOVA statistical test was conducted to compare the matched sample groups. Results showed that 30 out of 45 students in the Jefferson Community Schools program were retained and 41 out of 45 persisted. This was compared to retention of 30 out of 45 and persistence of 42 out of 45 of the matched non participatory sample. The results of this study suggest that providing non-academic resources to low-income students may serve to equalize the chances of being retained or persisting when compared to peers that have more resources of their own (p < .05).

Community College Anatomy and Physiology Education Research (CAPER): Can Educational Research Drive Pedagogical Change?

Human Anatomy and Physiology (A&amp;P) is a required course for many community college (CC) students aiming for careers in health sciences. CC instructors face heavy workloads and few opportunities for professional development. Students face heightened academic and non‐academic challenges which can lead to debilitating anxiety. Traditional instructor‐centered teaching strategies predominate. The result is predictable: an environment where there is high instructor burnout and high student attrition rates. Transitioning to more evidence‐based instructional practices (EBIPs) has been shown to promote student learning. Despite the potential positive impact of this change on CC institutions and their students, widespread adoption of student‐centered strategies remains elusive. Evidence shows change requires more than reading journal articles or attending workshops. The Community College Anatomy and Physiology Education Research (CAPER) project takes an evidence‐based teaching approach to fostering transformation. In each year of the two year project, six CC A&amp;P instructors (two from each of three schools) combine a professional development course with the design, implementation, and dissemination of a small‐scale educational research project investigating the impact of a student‐centered teaching strategy on learning and anxiety.We are currently in year 1, and six CC instructors have completed the professional development course and project proposals and are implementing their research projects. Participants often assumed that they were required to develop a novel and innovative project using gold‐standard experimental designs and quantitative analyses, and were skeptical about the utility of qualitative measures and experimental designs not involving control groups. In addition to providing access to external experts in qualitative and quantitative analysis, we emphasized that participants could make a contribution to the field by following one of two approaches. First, they could look at less well‐understood impacts of an established EBIP, such as science anxiety, or attempt to validate the effectiveness of an EBIP in on the community college student population. Alternatively, they could investigate a newly developed teaching practice using well‐established data collection methods with the intent of possibly identifying a new EBIP.While an important goal of CAPER is to produce publishable data regarding the efficacy of EBIPs in CCs, an equally important goal is pedagogical transformation. Thus, softening the rigor of experimental design for our target audience of community college instructors may actually promote scholarly teaching. Data that has a larger noise‐signal ratio than what would be acceptable in traditional research domains may still have a place in educational research, by providing an achievable target for potential novice educational researchers.Support or Funding InformationThis grant is supported by NSF grant #1829157.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Sexual violence victimization among community college students

Objective: To assess the prevalence of sexual violence victimization among a community college student population. Participants: In March 2017, students (800) from seven community colleges in a northeastern state participated in an online campus climate survey using the ARC3 Survey Instrument. Methods: We analyze demographic differences between participants who were victimized and those who were not, and we examine the relationship between participant victimization and well-being. Results: Participants who identified as female, younger than 26, not heterosexual, or a race other than Caucasian were significantly more likely to report victimization. Participants who reported victimization were significantly more likely to score negatively on well-being scales than those who did not.Conclusions: Sexual violence prevalence rates among community college students are similar to reported prevalence rates among traditional 4-year undergraduate students. Results suggest a need for increased research on sexual violence among the understudied community college student population.

The Labor Market Returns to a Community College Education for Noncompleting Students

ABSTRACTIn this study, I used data from California to estimate the returns to a community college education that does not result in a postsecondary credential. I found strong, positive returns to completed credits in career and technical education (CTE) fields that are closely linked to employment sectors that are not credential-intensive (sectors in which employment often does not require a college degree), such as public safety, skilled blue-collar trade and technical work, and accounting and bookkeeping, among others. In these sectors, students were able to convert the human capital acquired in their coursework into returns that far exceeded the cost of the coursework itself, making some noncompleting educational pathways a rational means of securing earnings gains. This finding is consistent with emerging research on skills-builder students and other segments of the community college student population who exhibit coherent patterns of course taking and enrollment that typically do not result in a postsecondary credential. Further investigations of high-return noncompleting pathways are warranted and could help colleges to target efforts to grow postsecondary completion opportunities for students through short-term certificates programs, while also aiding efforts to communicate to stakeholders the successes that cannot be measured by counting credentials or transfers.

The Information Needs and Behavior of Mature Community College Students: A Review of Literature

This paper is a review of literature devoted to the unique information needs and information-seeking behavior of the growing nontraditional or mature community college student population. This underserved user group faces distinctive challenges that librarians, researchers, and administrators must recognize and address. Much of the existing research focuses on nontraditional students at four-year colleges or traditional students at community colleges. While these studies are useful, they omit many of the factors that interfere with mature community college students’ access to information. The gaps in the current field of literature dedicated to this group highlight the importance of continued research and the call for more specific user studies.

Redefining Nontraditional Students: Exploring the Self-Perceptions of Community College Students

Recognition of the nontraditional student in higher education is valuable because it promotes an awareness of issues particularly relevant to the community college student population. While research that categorizes students by age is a practical way to study a unique population within community colleges, this approach may not be the most preferred way to examine the complexities of community college students. This study focused on community college students' self-perceptions of their primary roles as students, employees, and parents, thereby offering an alternative to utilizing predefined categories in order to distinguish between groups (e.g., based on age). The findings also shed light on unique characteristics that differentiate among students who identify their roles primarily as students, employees, or parents. In fact, this study shows that even students often considered “traditional” may have qualities that are typically considered nontraditional.

Few Remaining Dreams: Community Colleges Since 1985

In recent years, three schools of thought—human capital economics, sociological contradictions theory, and the new structuralism—have contributed to discussions of the role of community colleges in American postsecondary education. An evaluation of this work suggests that the circumstances of community colleges have, in several respects, changed for the worse in the years since publication of the author’s book, The Diverted Dream (with Jerome Karabel). The community college student population has become more homogeneous in social class background and test scores, faculty work conditions have deteriorated, and dropout rates remain very high. One solution to the persisting performance problems of community colleges would be to split the colleges into three parts: one modeled on private-sector vocational training, another organized as two-year branches of four-year institutions, and a third as a community center for courses of avocational interest.

ERIC Review: Exploring the Meaning of "Nontraditional" at the Community College

This review of literature raises the issue of whether the term nontraditional is too broad to be helpful in identifying specific student needs at a community college because of the number of students who fit the definition. The review presents research and suggestions using these definitions, highlighting the characteristics of the community college student population and programs developed within the community college to address them. Additionally, it reflects on the limitations of using a single term to encompass such a diverse group of students and explores alternative ways to research unique populations.

IMPACT OF CAMPUS PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT ON OLDER ADULT LEARNERS

The demographics of the community college student population in Southern California reflect the trend occurring nationally with an increase in older adult learners who typically attend college on a...

Determinants of predisposition to transfer among community college students: A structural model

Employing aspects of Tinto's (1975, 1987) theoretical framework, the purpose of this study was to test a model of student transfer behaviors and attitudes with a community college student population. More specifically, this study examined the structural relationships among five constructs: (1) student background factors, (2) initial commitments, (3) social integration, (4) academic integration, and (5) predisposition to transfer. Student background factors were examined to determine their direct and indirect effects on community college students' initial commitments, social integration, and academic integration on three multiple indicators of the dependent variable, predisposition to transfer: (1) number of four-year institutions students planned to apply for transfer, (2) transfer behavior, and (3) transfer perceptions. The study supported utilization of factors identified in the retention literature that are based on Tinto's model to examine transfer attitudes and behaviors among community college students. Students with high levels of social and academic integration tended to have high levels of predisposition to transfer. Ethnic background was found to have no relationship to predisposition to transfer.

Testing Qualitative Indicators of Precollege Factors in Tinto’s Attrition Model: A Community College Student Population

This study investigated how accurately Tinto’s (1975) theoretical model predicts student attrition among academically underprepared students in a two-year community commuter college. The authors examined four exogenous variables (the effects of family background, pre-college schooling, getting ready, and encouragement from significant others) and three endogenous variables (initial commitment, academic integration, and social integration). More important, it quantifies and tests ethnographic precollege characteristics that previous quantitative tests of Tinto’s models have not used.

Women's Studies at the Community College

WOMEN'S STUDIES IS no longer a fad. It is a reality of the academic world affecting all schools, all curricula, all students. Those schools which have women's studies programs are asking, Where do we go from here? Those schools which have no programs or courses are asking, Why not? At some level, articulated or not, faculty, students, and administrators at every school are involved in a reevaluation of curriculum as it represents and affects all of them. With the publication of Female Studies I-VII (Know, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA and Feminist Press at Old Westbury, NY) we can trace the history and expansion of Women's Studies. We can see that, at more and more schools, the interest has steadily increased. At Tompkins Cortland Community College we have recognized and begun to act on the very vital role such programming can play in meeting the special needs of students at the community college. The community college student population is diverse. Some enter directly from high school, and some have been out of school for over twenty years. We have more and more students who are attending school parttime. Many have other obligations-jobs, families, community commitments. We have excellent students and students with serious remedial problems. And, of course, we have students who know exactly what they want to study as well as those who need much vocational and personal counseling. The community college, I believe, is one of the few institutions flexible enough to meet these varied needs. And women's programming is a significant aid to this flexibility and responsiveness to the needs of the community population. When I talk about Women's Studies courses, I mean courses which are primarily concerned with awakening students to the situation of women in society and which aim at stimulating reevaluation of traditional educational and social practices. Once students become aware of the secondary status of women, it is my hope that they are no longer content to accept it but get involved in attempts to initiate change. Basic to Women's Studies is a recognition that method is as important as content. This recognition implies changing the attitudes inherent in a hierarchical teacher/student relationship. It is important to encourage a collective searching for and sharing of information rather than vying for grades or personal ap-