Voluntary Remediation in Florida: Will It Blaze a New Trail or Stop Student Pathways?

The primary purpose of the study was to explore the potential impact of voluntary remediation on success in gateway credit courses (ENC1101 and MAT1033) and on minority and low-income students in Florida. Mean grades and proportions of successful students were compared based on remediation policies and students’ voluntary completion of a developmental course before taking the credit course. The study compared grades and success of 19,347 students in three Florida colleges. Students were enrolled in the credit courses in 2014 and 2015 (voluntary remediation policy, N = 10,703), or in 2012 and 2013 (mandatory remediation policy, N = 8,644). Additionally, 285 students who voluntarily remediated were compared to 1,527 students who bypassed remediation; all 1,812 students had tested below the credit threshold on a voluntarily taken placement test. The study was framed by Astin and Astin’s 1992 Input–Environment–Outcome Model and employed demographic and academic variables. Results suggest that the voluntary remediation policy in Florida that was intended to improve college completion rates in the state may bring the unintended, but not surprising, consequences of lower grades and proportions of successful students. Overall, statistically significant results (α = .05) showed fewer proportions of students earned a grade of C or higher in both courses once remediation became voluntary (12.8% decrease for English; 19.3% decrease in math). Results also showed a statistically significant relationship between remediation grades and success in the credit courses. Study effect sizes were small to moderate in these tests.     

Fractions in College: How Basic Math Remediation Impacts Community College Students

This study investigates the link between basic math skills, remediation, and the educational opportunity and outcomes of community college students. Capitalizing on a unique placement policy in one community college that assigns students to remedial coursework based on multiple math skill cutoffs, I first identify the skills that most commonly inhibit student access to higher-level math courses; these are procedural fluency with fractions and the ability to solve word problems. I then estimate the impact of “just missing” these skill cutoffs using multiple rating-score regression discontinuity design. Missing just one fractions question on the placement diagnostic, and therefore starting college in a lower-level math course, had negative effects on college persistence and attainment. Missing other skill cutoffs did not have the same impacts. The findings suggest the need to reconsider the specific math expectations that regulate access to college math coursework.

     

College Course Grades for Dual Enrollment Students

This study compared college course grade outcomes, both during and after high school, of dual-enrollment students to those of traditional students. The study was based on a large, multiyear sample of Iowa high school and community college students. The results showed that while in high school, dual-enrollment students consistently outperformed traditional students in community college courses. However, much of the difference might be due to underlying differences in the two groups associated with the type of college the students chose to attend after high school (i.e., four-year vs. two-year). Dual enrollment students tended to perform about the same as traditional students in terms of post-high-school community college course grades. For students who enrolled in four-year institutions after high school, analyses of college course grade data suggested a small positive effect of dual enrollment on first-year college grade point average (GPA).     

Can Low-Cost Online Summer Math Programs Improve Student Preparation for College-Level Math? Evidence From Randomized Experiments at Three Universities

Every year many students enter college without the math preparation needed to succeed in their desired programs of study. Many of these students struggle to catch up, especially those who are required to take remedial math courses before entering college-level math. Increasing the number of students who begin at the appropriate level of math has become an important focus for educators and policymakers. We conducted randomized experiments of low-cost online summer math programs at three universities to test whether this type of intervention can increase access to math preparation, improve placement and enrollment in fall math classes, and improve performance in first-year math courses. Students who received the intervention engaged with the platform, though at relatively low rates, and were more likely to retake the placement test and improve their scores than students in the control group. However, these improved scores did not translate into enrolling in higher level math courses, obtaining more math credits, or improving grades in math-related courses during the first year of college. Thus, providing students access to this online tool did not improve their math skills.     

Assessing the Effectiveness of Remedial College Courses

Randomly selected students required to take a remedial English course at a community college were placed in a regular English course on an experimental basis. The experimentally placed students were compared with those who enrolled in a regular course after passing a remedial course and with those who did not require remediation. Comparisons were made on ability, persistence, performance, and satisfaction. The remedial course had no effect on student satisfaction and persistence but a modest effect on subsequent course performance. The experimental methodology described can provide the college researcher with a basis for determining whether there is a need to revise or eliminate current remedial courses.     

Testing a Community College Institutional Effectiveness Model for “Academic-Transformation” Student Success

This report tested a community college performance excellence model (Eggleston, Gibbons, & Vera, 2007) for student success for first-time-in-college (FTIC) students enrolled in a mandatory Academic-Transformation course. Using data from an earlier study (Goomas & Clayton, 2013), students enrolled in distance-learning sections compiled higher percentages of “at-risk” grades than “success” grades. In testing the performance model used by Eggleston (2013) and Eggleston et al. (2007), a large enrollment masked this at-risk condition. It is important to understand that enrolling students in distance-learning Academic-Transformation coursework may be placing FTIC students, many of whom are first-generation students, at-risk, just as they are starting community college.     

Examining the Impact of Redesigned Developmental Math Courses in Community Colleges

At community colleges, student preparedness for college-level work is a significant initial barrier. Over 70% of community college students are reported to be inadequately prepared for college mathematics. Because students need to pass college-level math in order to enroll in subsequent courses required for their majors or to complete general requirements for their degrees, community colleges have searched for instructional redesign approaches that can produce more positive results. This study reports on a developmental math redesigned curriculum that dramatically improved student course completion rates and resulted in some advantage in enrolling in college-level math compared with their peers in the traditional developmental sequence. Results are discussed in terms of their practical significance and implications for further research.     

Supplemental Instruction Online: As Effective as the Traditional Face-to-Face Model?

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a well-recognized model of academic assistance with a history of empirical evidence demonstrating increases in student grades and decreases in failure rates across many higher education institutions. However, as college students become more accustomed to learning in online venues, what is not known is whether an SI program offered online could benefit students similarly to SI sessions that occur in face-to-face settings. The in-person (traditional) SI program at California State University San Marcos has demonstrated increases in grades and lower fail rates for courses being supported in science and math. Students enrolled in four biology courses who participated in online SI received increases in academic performance similar to the students in the courses who attended traditional SI. Both the online and traditional SI participating students had higher course grades and lower fail rates as compared to students who did not participate in either form of SI. Self-selection, as measured by past cumulative college grade point average, did not differ between students who attended either form of SI or who did not attend. Student perceptions of online SI were generally positive and appeared to offer an alternative path to receive this valuable academic assistance for some students. Overall, results are promising that the highly effective traditional model can be translated to an online environment.     

The Impact of Online Assessment on Grades in Community College Distance Education Mathematics Courses

Abstract

This study compared the impact of proctoring on the final course grades of community college students enrolled in distance education mathematics courses. The goal was to determine whether distance education students who are evaluated entirely online, in environments that are not proctored, receive grades that differ from distance education students who take proctored exams. In an analysis of 850 grades from a variety of distance education mathematics courses, 406 were given to students who were evaluated in a proctored environment, and the remaining 444 were a result of assessment that was conducted entirely in the online setting and was not proctored. Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between the grades that were earned in any of the individual courses. Also, no significant difference was found when the grades of the 406 students who took exams in person were compared with the 444 who were assessed entirely in an unsupervised online environment.     

The effects of quantitative skills training on college outcomes and peers

This paper estimates the causal effect of taking a course in quantitative reasoning on students’ academic performance and classroom peer-group composition at a liberal arts college. To identify effects, the paper compares the outcomes of otherwise similar students who barely passed a baseline quantitative skills assessment (not taking the course) with students who barely failed (taking the course). The regression-discontinuity estimates show little impact on academic outcomes for student close to the passing cutoff, including grades on subsequent courses with quantitative content, but we are unable to distinguish small from zero effects. Exogenous course assignment does affect the composition of students’ classroom peer groups in subsequent years. The effects can only be generalized to students in the vicinity of the passing threshold (but not students with much worse quantitative skills at the baseline). We discuss implications for research and policy on remediation.     

Moving the classroom to the computer lab: Can online learning with in-person support improve outcomes in community colleges?

Colleges are experimenting with integrating technology into the classroom to improve student learning and reduce costs. While fully online models appear to have negative effects on student learning compared to in-person instruction, there is less evidence about models that blend elements of online and in-person instruction. In this study, I estimate the effect of adopting a blended approach to teaching called the emporium model in which students complete online work in an on-campus lab with instructors onsite to assist. Using a triple difference identification strategy, I find that using the emporium model compared to traditional instruction in remedial math courses in a state community college system reduces course pass rates, retention, and degree attainment. Effects were generally consistent across all three levels of remediation, suggesting there was little variation by students’ incoming placement test score.     

Online versus traditional classroom instruction: an examination of developmental English courses at an Alabama community college

A study was conducted at a community college in northeast Alabama to determine how the format of developmental English courses impacted student withdrawal rates and final grades. The two course formats examined were online/hybrid and face-to-face courses. Data were obtained from a 4-semester time frame: fall 2012, spring 2013, summer 2013, and fall 2013. It was determined that students enrolled in the online course were far more likely to withdraw from the course or attain a nonpassing, nontransferable grade than their counterparts who chose the face-to-face course format. The researchers found similar results to larger studies at community colleges in Virginia and the state of Washington.     

An analysis of multiple factors affecting retention in Web-based community college courses

The current study examined four factors affecting retention in Web-based community college courses. Analyses were conducted on student demographics, student learning styles, course communication and external factors. The results suggest that Web-based courses are more attractive to busy students who are also more likely to fail or drop the course. The combined results from the four factors provided evidence that time management and procrastination are the primary reasons that community college students fail or drop a Web-based course. The study also found evidence that inability to get feedback from instructors may contribute to student dropout and failure in Web-based community college courses.     

Learning Communities,Academic Performance,Attrition, and Retention: A Four-Year Study

This study extends and makes unique methodological contributions to research on the impact of learning communities (LCs) on community college students. Much of the previous research was short-term, lacked adequate comparison groups, and focused on four-year college students. This four-year study controlled for instructor-related variables by comparing academic outcomes of LC students with those of non-LC students taught by the same instructor during the same semester. Differences in grades, attrition, and retention were compared between students enrolled in two pairs of linked English 101 and Psychology 101 LC classes and students enrolled in non-LC courses with the same professor. Student enrollment in the LC courses was associated with higher grade point averages, lower course attrition rates, and higher fall-to-spring semester retention rates. Reasons for the relative scarcity of LCs in community colleges is discussed, along with recommendations as to how institutions can encourage the growth of LCs on their campuses.     

The effects of an active learning intervention in biology on college students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions,motivation, and achievement

This study examined differences in students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs between those enrolled in undergraduate Biology courses that implemented an innovative, active learning intervention and those enrolled in traditional Biology courses (control group). This study also sought to determine whether students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs mediated the effect of the intervention on course grades. Participants were 962 college students attending a large US public university. Students self-selected into one of the biology courses were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Multiple regression analyses indicated that students receiving the intervention reported greater instructor support, a perception of higher expectations for understanding (academic press), and a greater feeling that the course was interesting (situational interest). They also held higher self-efficacy and value for their biology course at completion compared to their counterparts in traditional biology classrooms. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that the effect of the intervention on course grades was better explained through students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs. Results gained from this intervention may be useful to other campuses interested in enhancing student motivation and success even when faced with large enrolments and minimal faculty and staff support.     

THE IRONIES OF MANDATORY PLACEMENT

Despite the efforts of the past decade to prepare students for the rigors of college course work, higher education continues to find that a high percentage of students need varying degrees of remediation to help them succeed in college courses. Most, if not all, community colleges conduct placement testing to assess student skills in reading, writing, and mathematics and sometimes for study skills and learning styles. However, the dilemma arises concerning the appropriate action to take once underprepared students are identified - requiring mandatory placement in developmental classes or allowing them the right to fail. In Colorado, placement testing is mandatory, but students have the right to waive placement into developmental courses. The overarching dilemma involving mandatory placement rests at the heart of what community colleges pride themselves on most - the egalitarian position of open access and the effort to provide all students with the highest quality of education. This dilemma raises ethical issues as well as exposes a number of ironies, which this article explores: access versus success, course prerequisites for college-level courses, the junior-level writing requirement at the University of Colorado-Boulder, performance indicators in Colorado, a rising junior exam, self-esteem, the right to fail, egalitarianism, and context.     

Examination of Factors that Predict Academic Adjustment and Success of Community College Transfer Students in STEM at 4-Year Institutions

ABSTRACT

There are a limited number of individuals who possess the skills to fulfill the workforce demand in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in the United States. Therefore, community colleges and 4-year institutions must be able to identify academic and social factors that impact students’ participation in the areas of STEM. These institutions must also explore the possibility that these factors contribute to the high rate of students switching out of STEM fields. This study’s purpose was to develop a better understanding of the perceptions of community college transfer students who continue at a 4-year institution to determine academic and social factors that influenced their academic success in STEM. To collect the quantitative data, the Laanan-Transfer Students’ Questionnaire was utilized. The results of this study reveal that Academic Adjustment was predicted by father’s highest level of education, interaction with faculty at the community college and university, and perception as a transfer student at the university. The cumulative grade point average (GPA), was predicted by the highest level of education of the father, associate degree obtained at the community college, community college transfer GPA, general courses from the community college, transfer credit hours, and university course learning. Overall, the findings indicate that community colleges and 4-year institutions should encourage students to be connecting more in class and after class—not only with their peers, but also with faculty. Findings also suggest that students should become more involved academically and socially to enhance their academic and social adjustment at a 4-year institution.     

Recently Published Dissertations

The Institutional Research Officer and Vice President of Student Services from North Arkansas College, and the Mathematics Facilitator at the local educational cooperative have initiated a tracking study to determine (1) if area students who take college preparatory math courses in high school place into, and succeed in, subsequent college-level math courses at North Arkansas College and (2) if area students who come to college for a degree have taken sufficient college preparatory coursework in high school. The study disclosed that (1) students who take a high school course more rigorous than Algebra 2 place into, and succeed in, College Algebra at a high rate, and (2) most students have not taken sufficient college preparatory coursework in math. The second, and more important part of the project, has been to bring college and high school personnel together to work on solutions.     

Effects of childhood setting and interaction with nature on academic performance in introductory college-level courses in the environmental sciences

This study explored the relationships between student background and academic performance in college introductory environmental science (ES) courses at a large U.S. research university with the premise that this analysis may inform teaching practices, curricula, and efforts to increase retention. We surveyed over 700 students across eleven introductory ES courses and used multiple linear mixed-effects regressions to model the data. We found that students who grew up in rural settings or who had frequent childhood interactions with natural environments earned higher grades, on average, than students from urban settings or with fewer childhood interactions with natural environments. Our results indicate that students reporting frequent childhood interactions with forests, for example, were projected to earn grades up to 1.5 letter grades higher in these courses than students with no such interactions. In addition, students with frequent childhood interactions with nature were likelier to report that such interactions helped them in their ES course, suggesting that these students may recognize the value of these experiences. Greater interest in the subject matter also correlated with higher ES course grades, whereas amount of prior ES coursework did not. We discuss the possible implications of these correlations for ES academic performance and educational practice.