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)