First-year Community College Students Research Articles

Why do people go to college? The institutional environment and the educational dispositions of community college students

Empirical educational research nearly universally tacitly assumes that people attend college only in order to improve their likely earnings. Thus, it ignores the immense cultural importance ascribed to education (and particularly higher education) in modern culture, or at least proceeds as if this cultural valorization is irrelevant to individuals’ educational decision-making. I first review how an economistic model of action informs all dominant theories of educational decision-making, and then suggest how institutional theory can provide a richer account of the college transition. Drawing on in-depth interviews with first-time, first-year community college students, I illustrate this approach through a ‘thick description’ of individuals’ emerging educational orientations. I find that attending college reflects both instrumental goals and moralized conceptions of educational attainment. The decision to attend community college was informed by conceptions of college costs, a limited understanding of grant aid, and loan aversion. And I identify three educational dispositions among entering community college students which map onto institutionalized organizational pathways through the community college itself.

Gaps in Information Literacy Preparedness Between Students at Community Colleges and Four-Year Institutions

ABSTRACT Using cross-institutional survey data from 407 first-year college students, differences in information literacy preparation and academic library experiences between community college students and students at four-year institutions are examined. Results show that first-year community college students are more likely to be novice library users, having had fewer interactions with their high school library or librarian before coming to college. By the end of their first year of college, students at four-year institutions are more likely to be familiar with the concepts of ACRL’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016), suggesting that greater emphasis needs to be given to these concepts at community colleges so that their students are on equal footing with their peers at four-year institutions. Implications for community college faculty are presented, as well as recommendations for greater integration of discipline-specific, scaffolded information literacy instruction throughout community college programs of study.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Examining Persistence Factors Among Rural First-Year Community College Students

ABSTRACT College completion is an important focus for policy and practice and is impacted by student academic and non-academic factors. Participation in non-classroom activities is well documented to extend positive intellectual, social, and psychosocial outcomes associated with college completion, yet this association is understudied for community college students. The purpose of this study was to determine whether rural community college full-time first-year students who participate in non-classroom activities differ from nonparticipants. An adapted form of the College Persistence Questionnaire Version 2 (CPQ-V2) was utilized to examine five factors previously demonstrated to influence student persistence including academic integration, social integration, degree commitment, collegiate stress, and institutional commitment. The CPQ-V2 was administered using an electronic instrument during the Fall 2021 semester wherein respondents provided details about their pre-college background and involvement in non-classroom activities. Data analysis consisted of the chi-square test of independence and one-way ANOVA to identify significant associations or relationships between variables. Results demonstrated variation among student groups in non-classroom involvement and the outcomes correlated to such involvement. The findings offer insights for community colleges considering supports to increase persistence (and completion) through student engagement and recommendations for monitoring the effectiveness of non-classroom opportunities to meet residential and nonresidential students’ needs.

Early Financial Aid Literacy Among First-Year Community College Students: The Relationship Between a Financial Aid Orientation Workshop and Reduced Drops and Retention

Early Financial Aid Literacy Among First-Year Community College Students: The Relationship Between a Financial Aid Orientation Workshop and Reduced Drops and Retention

Bringing Meaning to Learning: An Interdisciplinary Project for First-Year Community College Students

Interdisciplinary pedagogy can enhance Introduction to Psychology curricula. We developed an interdisciplinary project to make meaning in a learning community (LC) clustering Introduction to Psychology with Introduction to Criminal Justice. Our purpose is to describe the project as a model and report on students’ evaluations of the project and their academic progress. We collected questionnaire data about students’ experiences completing the project. Results were positive with most students valuing make meaning, feeling more connected to psychology and expressing satisfaction. We measured student learning using project grades and final grades in the psychology course. Participants performed satisfactory on the project and outperformed a comparison group in the Introduction to Psychology course. Findings demonstrate the value of interdisciplinary pedagogy in psychology curricula.

Trust Issues: The Role of Trusting Relationships on Students’ Knowledge about and Transition to Community College

ABSTRACT Having accurate, sufficient information can help students prepare for and transition college. However, access to information about college is inequitable. Drawing from interviews with eight first-year community college students, this study explored how community college students decided whom they could trust to provide college knowledge, the role of existing relationships in their trust decisions, and how those decisions can influence students’ transition to college. Findings indicate that not all students had high school environments that facilitated the development of trusting relationships with teachers or counselors. Therefore, students turned to family members and peers for guidance. Students did not question advice from people with whom they had a relationship but did question the validity of information from people with whom they did not have a relationship. For some students, inequitable access to sufficient information created challenges in their transition to college. This study highlights the importance of creating educational environments in which students can trust teachers and staff with expertise in the college preparation process. Implications for high school and community college practitioners and community college researchers are discussed.

How Relationships Support and Inform the Transition to Community College

The prior literature on relationships and the transition to college largely documents either the relationships college students at 4-year institutions have on-campus who provide information or relationships they have off-campus who provide support. Using a unique dataset of interviews with 96 first-year community college students, this paper compares the roles of on- and off-campus relationships in information and support provision to understand whether both provide information and support, and how the information and support they provide varies. We find that (1) because on-campus relationships are predominately distant, they provide general and impersonal information about policies and procedures and very little support, while (2) off-campus relationships, which are predominately close, provide personal insight and personalized information in addition to support and motivation. The findings demonstrate that community college students’ on- and off-campus relationships are complementary in providing insight into policies and procedures at the college, a sense of belonging on campus, and personal and personalized advice and support for their college goals.

The Road to Becoming a Scientist: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Supports and Barriers Experienced by First-Year Community College Students

Background Although a long line of research has been devoted to transfer pathways in general, there remains limited work on the capacity for community colleges to cultivate STEM baccalaureate transfer. In particular, both quantitative and qualitative evidence is extremely sparse on how STEM-aspiring students beginning at community colleges experience supports and barriers on their journey to pursue a STEM baccalaureate. Purpose This mixed-methods study addresses the question: What salient factors are associated with beginning community college STEM students’ decisions to transfer into baccalaureate STEM programs, and how do students describe the supports and barriers they experienced specifically pertaining to these factors? Research Design Guided by the STEM Transfer model, we carried out this research using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. We incorporated survey, administrative, and interview data from three large two-year institutions in a Midwestern state. We applied Artificial Neural Network (ANN) techniques to identify factors associated with beginning community college STEM students’ decisions to transfer into baccalaureate STEM programs. Based on the factors that emerged from ANN, we analyzed the interview data to give meaning to the identified factors using students’ rich descriptions of their experiences. Findings Results from the ANN revealed that students’ initial attitudes toward science was the most salient factor related to transfer in STEM. Following that, GPA, students’ initial attitudes toward math, transfer capital, being employed full time, major declaration, science preparation in high school, income levels above middle level, and transfer efficacy also turned out to be important variables shaping students’ transfer in STEM. Qualitative results further illustrated how the factors from the ANN exerted their impact. Conclusions This mixed-methods research illuminated significant factors shaping the road to becoming a scientist, as well as how those factors manifested their influences within the contexts of students’ educational journeys. Through this approach, we were able to establish the significance of influential factors without presuming directionality and leverage the interview data to disentangle how these factors functioned independently and together in sophisticated and nuanced ways. Our study brings forth a deeper understanding of community college students’ STEM pathways, including the many plot twists and processes involved to overcome challenges and maintain progress.

Video Games and Writing Instruction

This study measures the increase in rhetorical knowledge in two groups of first-year community college students. The control group took the course while following the standard curriculum, while the experimental group replaced a writing-intensive unit on Rogerian rhetoric with a unit on visual and procedural rhetoric where videogames were used as primary texts. The researcher analyzed the data in an attempt to establish the existence, or lack thereof, of possible connections between the use of video game texts in writing instruction and students' acquisition of rhetorical and literary skills.

Upstream Predictors of the Need for Developmental Education among First-year Community College Students

ABSTRACT Objective/Research Question. How do student- and school-level factors measured in the final year of high school contribute to the odds of a student being assessed to need remediation in Math during the students’ first community college enrollment? Methods. The present study draws on five years of linked secondary and post-secondary administrative records and includes the academic records for 18,814 students attending 228 high schools across 24 jurisdictions in Maryland. We used a series of multilevel models (MLM) to address the research question. Results. Using MLM, we identified both student and school-level factors, drawn from the final year of high school, which relate to the odds of needing math remediation in their first year of community college. Of note, student-level academic performance in high school had a larger influence on the odds that a student would need remedial education than socio-demographic factors. In addition, receiving English language learner services and graduating from high school in the fifth-year functioned as protective factors linked to a reduced likelihood of needing math remediation. Conclusions/Contributions. Community colleges are functionally dependent upon secondary schools to prepare the student body for college level coursework. As such, preventing the need for remediation among community college students will not be resolved within institutional siloes and will most probably require some degree of inter-system collaboration. The findings from the current study presents opportunities for early identification and suggest possible targets for intervention intended to reduce the likelihood that high-risk students will need remedial coursework when they arrive at community college.

Exploring Sources and Infuences of Social Capital on Community College Students’ First-Year Success: Does Age Make a Difference?

Background/Context Although numerous studies have emerged shedding light on community college student success, the enduring role of social capital is often overlooked. Furthermore, when conceptualizing social capital in the community college context and its diverse student population, age represents a unique form of diversity in these institutions that warrants further exploration. Purpose This research identifies the sources of social capital and the relationships between different sources of social capital and community college success, taking into account how the identified sources and relationships may vary based on age through the following questions: First, what are the major sources of social capital among first-year community college students, and how do sources of social capital vary based on age of students? Second, how do different sources of social capital influence first-year community college success? Third, how do influences of social capital on first-year community college success vary based on the age of students? Research Design Our study drew on Coleman's conceptualization of social capital, along with survey, administrative, and transcript data from three 2-year colleges in a midwestern state. We performed factor analysis with invariance tests to investigate the sources of social capital among community college students and how the identified factor structure may vary by age. We further conducted a logistic regression to examine the relationship between social capital and community college student success across age. Findings Our findings indicate that social capital needs to be conceptualized differently for community college students across age because they indeed drew on multiple forms of social capital differently, and the sources of social capital that emerged in turn were related to student success in varied ways. Students under the age of 24 relied on institutional agents and academic interaction as dominant forms of social capital, whereas those over the age of 24 relied on significant other's support. Students under the age of 24 were more likely to succeed if they frequently visited advisors for academic reasons. A low or high level of support for schoolwork was related to a higher chance of success for students between 24 and 29 years of age. For the students who were over 30 years old, a moderate level of engagement in their learning network and discussions with academic advisors was related to the lowest level of dropping out. Conclusions This study extends the social capital model by illuminating the varying types of social capital that students of different age groups engage with, particularly in the community college context, and pushes the boundaries of the knowledge base on how social capital functions in relation to student success in postsecondary education. The findings also elucidate new directions for research, policy, and practice in regard to cultivating and maximizing networks and information for community college students of all ages.

First-Year Community College Students' Perceptions of and Attitudes Toward Intrusive Academic Advising

For this study, we analyzed the relationship between intrusive academic advising and community college student success. Utilizing a qualitative, single-case study design, we conducted interviews with 12 students who participated in an intrusive advising program at a large, urban community college in Texas. Analysis of the interview data revealed the benefits, limitations, and contributions to success of intrusive advising. This study addresses a notable gap in the extant literature, as few researchers have published empirical examinations on the impact of intrusive academic advising within the community college context. The findings can be used to improve the delivery of academic advising and student support services at community colleges.

Retention of First-Year Community College Students

Close to half of all community college students leave before obtaining their stated goals. In order to determine what student characteristics increase community college student retention, with a heightened interest on the predictive nature of taking a student success course, a post-facto quasi-experimental study was conducted to determine whether or not participation in a study skills course affects retention at a Southeast community college. Results indicate that successful completion of a study skills course increases fall-to-fall retention for students who enroll in the institution with an ACT COMPASS® (American College Test, 2006) score over those who do not participate in a study skills course. Results also show that while ethnicity/race and socioeconomic status were not significant, factors of retention, gender, age, and ACT COMPASS® Reading score significantly predict student retention. Recommendations for researchers and community college administrators and counselors are discussed.

Exploring the Disconnect Between Information Literacy Skills and Self-Estimates of Ability in First-Year Community College Students

Objective - To explore the relationships between information literacy (IL) test scores and self-estimated ability both prior to and after completing the test.
 
 Design - Information Literacy Test (ILT) with pre- and post-test surveys of self-estimated ability.
 
 Setting - Two community colleges: a small institution in a rural area and a large institution in an urban area.
 
 Subjects – First-year community college students enrolled in entry-level English courses.
 
 Methods – The authors conducted a replication study of their earlier work using a larger sample from two community colleges. Information literacy (IL) skills were assessed using the Information Literacy Test (ILT) developed and validated by researchers at James Madison University. During the spring and fall semesters of 2009 and 2011, the authors administered in a single session the ILT, pre-, and post-test survey instruments to 580 participants. Participants self-selected via sign-up sheet. The first hundred students to sign up per enrollment period were scheduled. Participants received incentives for participation, with an additional incentive offered for scoring in the top 15%.
 
 Main Results - The majority of students at both schools (95% at school 1, 80% at school 2) scored in the below-proficient range on the ILT, a few scored in the proficient range (5% at school 1, 20% at school 2), but no students scored in the advanced range. The mean of the few scores in the proficient range was closer to the below-proficient range (≤65%) than the advanced range (≥90%). For students at both schools, significant differences were found between their self-estimated and actual test score. While students at both schools adjusted their self-estimated scores downward after completing the ILT, post-test self-estimates remained significantly inflated in relation to their test performance. In particular, students scoring in the below-proficient range demonstrated a large and significant gap. The difference between the self-estimated comparisons to peers and actual scores was significant for students from both schools who scored in the below-proficient range. Only the proficient students at school 1 were able to accurately estimate their IL skill level. Most students completed the ILT remaining unaware of their poor performance.
 
 Conclusion – The study revealed a significant disconnect between students’ perceptions of their information literacy skills and their actual performance. Students scoring in the proficient range demonstrated a stronger post-test correction response than students scoring at below-proficient levels. Generally, the authors of the find that the results support the Dunning-Kruger Effect theory that people lacking skills in a particular domain demonstrate a miscalibration between self-estimated and actual skill. Specifically, it confirms that this effect occurs in the domain of information literacy. 
 
 There is a need for tools to diagnose information literacy competence. Most students are unable to self-assess accurately and competency should not be assumed. Meeting the needs of this population will be challenging, given that they do not recognize the need for instruction or assistance.

The Relationship Between FAFSA Filing and Persistence Among First-Year Community College Students

In 2007-2008, approximately 42% of community college students who were eligible to receive Pell grant funding did not file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Student Study, this study examined the relationship between FAFSA filing status and persistence from the fall to spring semesters among first-year community college students. Results indicate that when controlling for other relevant predictors of persistence, filing a FAFSA was associated with higher odds of within-year persistence among all students and was particularly strong for the restricted sample of students enrolled part time. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of the national completion agenda and recent calls to improve the utilization of financial aid among community college students.

Enhancing Skills, Effecting Change: Evaluating an Intervention for Students with Below-Proficient Information Literacy Skills / Renforcer les compétences pour induire des changements : évaluation d'une intervention auprès d'étudiants possédant des compétences informationnelles inférieures à la maîtrise

An intervention was developed for first-year community college students with below-proficient information literacy skills for the purpose of helping them gain an understanding of information literacy as a discrete skill set, develop a more accurate view of their own skill levels, and learn at least one skill they could apply in imposed and self-generated information-seeking tasks. Using an experimental design, the researchers conducted a summative evaluation of the intervention through pre- and post-intervention test scores, pre- and post-intervention tests, pre-and post-intervention surveys, post-intervention interviews with participants, and a debriefing with the intervention instructor. This paper focuses on the results of the post-intervention interviews. Those results suggest that students learned at least one skill from the intervention. The results are mixed as to whether they gained a greater understanding of information literacy as a skill set and whether they recalibrated their perceptions of their own information literacy skill levels.

An Exploration of Tinto's Integration Framework for Community College Students

Tinto's integration framework is often assumed to be inapplicable to the study of student persistence at community colleges because one of the linchpins of the framework—social integration—is considered unlikely to occur for students at these institutions. Community college students are thought to lack the time to participate in activities, such as clubs, that would facilitate social integration. Using in-depth interviews with students at two urban community colleges in the Northeast, we examine the ways that first-year community college students engage with their institutions. We find that the majority of them do develop attachments to their institutions. Moreover, this sense of attachment is related to their persistence in the second year of college. We also find that this integration is both academic and social. Contrary to findings from other studies that apply Tinto's framework, we find that these two forms of integration develop in concert for community college students. The same activities lead to both academic and social relatedness. This is particularly true for information networks that students develop in the classroom.

Student Engagement at Two-Year Institutions: Age and Generational Status Differences

For students to be successful in either two-year or four-year colleges, they need to be engaged in their college experiences. In this investigation, we analyzed data, over 40,000 cases obtained from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, concerning student engagement as it was related with student age and with student generational status. Statistically significant differences were found in the self-reported student engagement of these first-year community college students among different age categories and between first-generation and nonfirst-generation college students. Demographic characteristics play a factor in engagement, both in educationally purposeful activities and in quality of relationships, for first-year students at community colleges in Texas. Recommendations include the need for educational leaders and policymakers to consider that engagement efforts should not follow a one-size-fits-all model.

Student Characteristics Related to Persistence for First-Year Community College Students

This study analyzed student characteristics that impact persistence among first-year students attending a large, metropolitan community college. The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshmen Survey was administered to first-time students during orientation. Factor analysis was used to classify students' personality and behavioral characteristics and discriminant function analysis was used to predict retention or attrition. The discriminant model accurately predicted retention in 78.8% of the cases. Findings suggested that student characteristics impacting persistence can be classified into three categories: barriers, motivations and aspirations, and expectations. Among the strongest predictors of attrition were the number of developmental classes required, the intention to transfer to a four-year institution, and the expectation that English as a second language could be a problem for college students. Among the strongest predictors of persistence were being African American or Latino, cumulative GPA, and the length of time students plan to spend at the college. Recommendations are shared for how community college administration, faculty, and staff can work with students and the community to raise student expectations, motivation, and preparation long before they become first-year college students.

Case Studies in Support of Multiple Criteria for Developmental Reading Placement

Three incoming first-year community college students were advised into developmental reading courses because of low scores on the Nelson Denny Reading Test. While the developmental reading course was beneficial for two of the students, it was found to be an unnecessary course for the third student.