THE IMPACT OF ACHIEVING THE DREAM ON STUDENT SUCCESS OF FIRST-YEAR, FULL-TIME DEGREE-SEEKING STUDENTS AT A STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
BY
STEPHEN J. SPENCER
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH SCIENCES
BENEDICTINE UNIVERSITY
LISLE, ILLINOIS
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
MAY 2015
Copyright © by Stephen J. Spencer, 2015
All rights reserved
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The academic journey for this program, fulfilled in the completion of this dissertation, has been challenging. It was not so much the program, the professors, or the institutions involved, rather the personal obstacles that became nearly insurmountable at times. Yet, when taking on a challenge such as this, one must believe to the point of absolute confirmation in the mind that the journey shall be fulfilled, no matter what may occur. Life itself was a challenge during these years. The program, the professors, and the committee were challenging me to succeed, to excel, and to perform to my utmost. For the life challenges, I wish they could have been avoided. For the challenges in the program, from my professors and my committee, I would expect nothing less.
My heartfelt gratitude goes out to my Dissertation committee, specifically, Dissertation Director, Anne George, Ph.D., Dissertation Chair, Sunil Chand, Ph.D., Dissertation Reader, Marc Dielman, Ph.D., and Thomas Schick, Technical Advisor. They kept me alert, challenged, and guided the journey. My strongest belief is that I learned more in the Internship and the dissertation process than I did the rest of the program combined. I am also grateful to every professor at Benedictine University that taught the courses leading up to the dissertation journey.
Thanks also goes out to the Institutional Research Office at College X, which coordinated data at College X, and assisted with the cooperation between College X and the Community College Survey for Student Engagement (CCSSE) at the University of Texas.
Next, I am grateful to E. Michael Bohlig, Ph.D., who directed the data from the CCSSE and College X. I am also thankful for those that assisted him, namely, Kyle Lovseth and Catherine A. Cunningham.
On a personal note, I am grateful for my wife, Debra Spencer, who accompanied me and was supportive in my efforts to continue on course to completion. Most of all, I am grateful to God, who gave me the opportunity and the strength to finish the course.
DEDICATION
To students that have known poverty of spirit and mind, that they may learn purpose and confidence, experience an enriching academic life, and achieve their dream to succeed in their academic life and beyond.
“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”
-C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1943)
ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to determine whether a significant relationship exists between Achieving the Dream (AtD) efforts and student success among first-year, full-time degree-seeking students at a state community college. For this study, student success was measured in terms of student engagement, student persistence, and academic performance, measured by grade point average (GPA). The data on student persistence and grade point average were retrieved from the institution where the study was conducted, for students in their first to second semester of full-time enrollment. The data for student engagement were retrieved from results on the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), administered by the institution. The data were grouped into longitudinal periods of 2002-2004 and 2005-2011, to track pre-AtD and post-AtD student performance and engagement.
The selected student population excluded students in certificate and specialized non-credit programs and part-time students. The study was conducted using a non-experimental exploratory research design. Data were collected from fall and spring semesters each year from 2002-2011, and aggregated for analysis to explore significant relationships and trends prior to and after the implementation of AtD. Specifically, data was analyzed for statistically significant relationships among variables, using Pearson's correlation coefficient. In addition, statistically significant differences in student success before and after the implementation of AtD was explored through the use of t-tests and Analyses of Variance (ANOVA).
The results of this study provided information about student success in relation to Achieving the Dream in the sample population. The AtD implementation was correlated between the variables of student engagement benchmarks, GPA, and student persistence rates.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT vi
LIST OF TABLES xi
LIST OF FIGURES xiii
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Statement of the Problem 5
Moving from Measuring Student Attrition to Student Persistence 6
Purpose of the Study 8
Research Questions 8
Hypotheses 8
Significance of the Study 10
Assumptions of the Study 13
Limitations of the Study 13
Delimitations of the Study 13
Definitions 13
Chapter 2: Literature Review 18
History and Context of Achieving the Dream-The Lumina Foundation 18
Achieving the Dream (AtD) 20
Policy Change 25
Knowledge Development 26
Leader Colleges 26
The Community College Survey on Student Engagement (CCSSE) 27
The League for Innovation in the Community College 29
Learning Centered Colleges 29
Learning Centered Paradigm 30
The Learning College Project 31
The Vanguard Colleges 31
Gauging Student Success in Higher Education 33
Orientation and Student Success 36
Developmental Education Restructuring 37
Training of Faculty and Staff for Achieving the Dream Initiatives 39
Achieving the Dream's Training of Faculty and Staff at the College 42
Learning Communities 42
Establishing a Culture of Evidence 44
Learning Outcomes 45
Measuring Student Engagement 47
Measuring Student Persistence 48
Academic Performance in Community Colleges 50
Grade Point Average - Academic Performance and Its Significance in the Job Market 51
First Year Students 52
Models of Student Persistence 53
John McNeely’s College Student Mortality (1937) 53
John Summerskill’s Research 54
Arthur Chickering’s Theory of Student Development and Program Design 55
John W. Meyer 56
David H. Kamens’ Research on Retention Using Multi-Institutional Data 56
The Spady Model (1971) 57
Vincent Tinto’s Theory of Student Departure (1975, 1987, 1993) 58
Astin’s Theory of Involvement 60
Ernest T. Pascarella and Patrick Terenzini 61
Bean’s Model of Work Turnover to Student Attrition; Bean and Metzner’s Model of Student Attrition 61
John M. Braxton Theory of Pedagogical Engagement 62
The Achieving the Dream (AtD) Study on Guilford Technical Community College by John M. Chapin 63
Review of Literature Summary 65
Chapter 3: Methodology 69
Introduction 69
Data Collection 69
Research Design 69
Achieving the Dream Student Participants 70
College X Community College Survey on Student Engagement (CCSSE) 71
Reliability and Validity 71
Sample and Population 72
Research Questions 73
Hypotheses 73
Data Analysis 75
Summary 75
Chapter 4: Results 77
Introduction and Overview of the Study 77
Demographics 78
Research Question 1. 78
Research Question 2 95
Research Question 3. 99
Pearson's Correlation Coefficient Aggregate for Total Years of Study 104
Pearson's Correlation Coefficient of AtD Years' Aggregate 105
Chapter 5: Discussion 109
Grade Point Average 109
Student Persistence 109
Student Engagement Benchmarks 110
GPA, Student Persistence, and Student Engagement 110
Institutional Changes Affecting Curriculum 114
The Hispanic Population in the County of College X 115
Hispanic Students and ESL 116
National Trends and College X 117
Trends in College X 118
AtD Student Engagement Model at College X 119
Implications of the Study 120
Limitations 120
Recommendations for Future Research 120
Recommendations from the Study 121
References 123
APPENDICES…….……………………………………………………………………………136
APPENDIX A. The 2003-2011 CCSSE Community College Student Surveys and Codebooks 136
APPENDIX B. IRB Approval Host College (College X) 137
APPENDIX C. IRB Approval Benedictine University Office of Institutional Research 139
APPENDIX D. NIH Certificate 141
CURRICULUM VITAE 143
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Aggregate Student Engagement, Persistence, and GPA Data
for Total Years of Study………………………………………………………....79
Table 2 T-Test Means for Student Engagement Benchmarks Aggregate
for Total Years of Study…………………………………………………………85
Table 3 Student Engagement Benchmark Scores by Race and Gender
for Total Years of Study…………………………………………………………87
Table 4 T-Test African-Americans Student Engagement
for Total Years of Study…………………………………………………………89
Table 5 T-Test Asian/Pacific Islanders Student Engagement
for Total Years of Study…………………………………………………………90
Table 6 T-Test Caucasian Population Student Engagement
for Total Years of Study…………………………………………………………91
Table 7 T-Test Hispanics Student Engagement for Total Years of Study……………………………………………………………………………..92
Table 8 T-Test Other Students Student Engagement for Total Years of Study……………………………………………………...... 93
Table 9 T-Test Student Engagement Males for Total Years of Study……………………94
Table 10 T-Test Student Engagement Females for Total Years of Study……………...... 95
Table 11 T-Test for Student Persistence Aggregate for Total Years of Study………...…..97
Table 12 Two-Way Anova Race/Ethnicity Student Persistence for Total Years of Study…………………………………………………………………………...... 97
Table 13 T-Test for Student Persistence by Gender for Total Years of Study………...…..98
Table 14 T-Test for GPA Aggregate for Total Years of Study…………………………..101
Table 15 Two-Way Anova Race/Ethnicity GPA for Total Years of Study………………101
Table 16 T-Test for GPA by Gender for Total Years of Study…………………………..102
Table 17 Pearson's Correlation Coefficient Aggregate for Total Years of Study………...104
Table 18 Pearson Correlation Coefficient of AtD Years' Aggregate……………………..105
Table 19 Hispanic Sample Population of College X Language Data…………………….117
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Aggregate Trend on Student Engagement for Years Surveyed:
Active and Collaborative Learning………………………………………………80
Figure 2 Aggregate Trend on Student Engagement for Years Surveyed:
Student Effort…………………………………………………………………….81
Figure 3 Aggregate Trend on Student Engagement for Years Surveyed:
Academic Challenge……………………………………………………………..82
Figure 4 Aggregate Trend on Student Engagement for Years Surveyed:
Student-Faculty Interaction……………………………………………...... 83
Figure 5 Aggregate Trend on Student Engagement for Years Surveyed:
Support for Learners……………………………………………………...... 84
Figure 6 Aggregate Trend for Student Persistence Fall to Spring………………………...96
Figure 7 Aggregate Trend for GPA Fall to Spring………………………………...... 100
Figure 8 AtD Student Engagement Model at College X…………………………………119
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
This study was conducted to determine whether a significant relationship exists between Achieving the Dream (AtD) efforts and student success among first-year, full-time degree-seeking students at a state community college, hereafter known as College X or ‘the institution.’ The selected student population excluded students in certificate and specialized non-credit programs and part-time students.
In May 2006, College X began assessing achievement gaps from among its student population from the previous five years, analyzing 5,349 students who entered the institution in 1999; this group of students was tracked from fall 1999 through fall 2004. The primary measure of success was degree completion. Demographic data included student enrollment choice, (full-time or part-time), timing of initial entry, day or evening course enrollment, economic status, declared goals and degree interest, high school background, and English/math placement test scores. The results showed that the highest graduation rates belonged to students who had tested at college level math and English, and the lowest to those who either did not test at all, or tested at the lowest level of Developmental Math and English. The data led to the college changing the way in which options were given to students in remedial or developmental programs for math and English. (Institutional AtD Core Team Report, 2006). Today, these students continue until they advance from developmental to college level programs, and are then free to enroll in higher academic programs. The core emphasis is for students to succeed at the lowest academic level and continue on a course-by-course basis until they have completed all developmental programs. The purpose is to ensure the students' readiness for higher-level college courses (College X Core Team Report, 2006).
College X has a history of aligning itself with major student success organizations such as the League for Innovation in the Community College, and the Achieving the Dream initiative, which the college launched in 2005. In the summer of 2000, the college was chosen as one of the sixteen participating colleges in the 21st Century Learning Outcomes Project launched by the League. It was not one of the Vanguard colleges in the learning-centered paradigm initiative by the League launched in 2000; however, by 2002, the college's mission statement reflected that it would be a life-long learning centered institution. Each department at the college has its own mission statement and reflects student success, quality of education, and life-long learning (Miles & Wilson, 2004).
When the Lumina Foundation established Achieving the Dream in 2004, their intent was to help close achievement gaps by intervention at all levels and produce an institution-wide culture of evidence for improvement of student outcomes. The college was one of the first to participate in 2005. It continued to document evidence of improvement every year for three years until 2009, when it became an Achieving the Dream Leader College (Lumina Foundation for Education, Inc., 2007).
Community colleges have historically been institutions where access to enrollment is open to all students, tuition is lower than that at four-year colleges, and programs and services are designed to support at-risk students with social or academic barriers that would keep them from being selected at traditional post-secondary institutions (Cohen & Brawer, 2002). Public community colleges with open enrollment have second-year retention rates at a national average of 55.4% as of 2011, in comparison to public four-year colleges (both selective and open enrollment) with an average of 65.6% (ACT®, 2011). The data for public four-year institutions, which included those with a selective admissions process, may inhibit the access of those with social, economic, or academic barriers. Community colleges are left, by their very mission, to accept those that would not otherwise be accepted into these institutions (Bailey, Calcagno, Jenkins, Kienzl, & Leinbach, 2005).
In November 2011, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) published their Voluntary Framework of Accountability Metrics Manual Version 1.0. AACC proposed this system of metrics to aid community colleges in defining and measuring longitudinal student progress and student outcomes. An emphasis on developmental education by the AACC consisted of tracking student participants for a period of a six-years from the fall of 2005, and for two years from the fall of 2009, both which consisted of full-time and part-time students entering college for the first time and enrolled in credit or developmental education courses. The student participants were broken down into categories as defined by IPEDS: race/ethnicity, age, gender, Pell status, Fall initial term enrollment status (full‐time/part‐time) of the student (fall 2005 and fall 2009), and Developmental education referral status. The AACC Accountability Metrics Manual defines full-time students as having 12 semester credits in the fall term and continuing. Part-time students were defined as having less than 12 credit hours in the fall semester. Successful completion of a course was considered "C" or "P" (Passing). Success rate was defined as the percentage of credit hours attempted which were successfully completed. The Manual also categorized fall to next semester retention, which was defined as those students still enrolled in the next academic term. (AACC, VFA, 2011)