Adult Students at Two-Year Colleges: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Adults constitute a continually increasing proportion of students at two-year colleges. While adult students presumably have special needs, little is known about them. This study focused on the characteristics and needs of 17,137 students enrolled in 100 randomly selected two-year colleges across the country, separately for different age levels. Using a wide variety of variables collected at entrance, after one term, at graduation, and three years after graduation, differences by sex among the following four age groups were ascertained: age 19 or younger, 20–24, 25–39, and 40 or older. Major trends with age, differences among age groups, and interactions between age and sex were found for a number of variables: abilities, grades, attrition, self-perceptions, aspirations and goals, competencies, job values and preferences, satisfaction with and rating of various aspects of the college, expressed needs for help, extracurricular participation, outside work during school, postgraduate jobs obtained and how obtained, job satisfaction, percent going to and graduating from four-year programs, and preference for entering a two-year program if they had to do it all over again. Adult students do have many special needs that vary with age level. We think a repeat of the study but comparing across other groupings of adults would be desirable, even though extreme diversity also exists within such groups. Another consideration is that many new kinds of adult students will in the future be entering postsecondary education in large numbers.     

Satisfaction and Retention Among African American Men at Two-Year Community Colleges

A large majority of African American males begin their postsecondary education careers at two-year community colleges. Prior research has focused largely on Black students at four-year institutions, and even theoretical work has assumed that influences on retention are the same at two-year and four-year institutions. Drawing on Tinto's (1993 Tinto , V. ( 1993 ). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition () , 2nd ed. . Chicago , IL : University of Chicago Press . [Google Scholar]) retention theory and Astin's (1993 Astin , A. W. ( 1993 ). What matters in college: Four critical years revisited . San Francisco , CA : Jossey-Bass . [Google Scholar]) input-environment-outcome (IEO) model, this study estimated the impact of academic and social integration on retention—controlling for an array of intervening variables—based on a sample of African American males who responded to the Community College Student Experiences Questionnaire. Findings suggest a statistical link between social integration and satisfaction in college; factors explained approximately 27% of the variance in the dependent variable. Implications for future policy and practice are highlighted.     

Student Decisions to Attend Public Two-Year Community Colleges

While the strategy of funding both systems provides an incentive for both school districts and community colleges to participate with dual enrollment, the current fiscal environment has drawn attention to the inefficient use of the dual funding structure. This article highlights the results of a case study on Florida's dual enrollment program documenting how over a 20-year period policymakers offered different financial incentives as an inducement to greater participation among districts and community colleges. The article documents how the current state fiscal condition has altered lawmaker's motivations for supporting dual enrollment. It concludes by describing the implications of this on community college participation with dual enrollment.     

Latent Postsecondary Persistence Pathways: Educational Pathways in American Two-Year Colleges

Latent trajectories of credit hour accumulation were modeled using three independent samples of community college students. Five qualitatively distinct patterns of persistence emerged from these samples: Full-time, long-term; 2 years and out; long-term decliners; part-time, long-term; and one term and out. Follow-up analyses using measures on the Community College Student Report indicated that long-term decliner group; the part-time, long-term group; and the one term and out-group were less engaged than full-time students. In particular, the long-term decliner group was the least engaged group. The models illustrate the utility of latent trajectory modeling in higher education research and provide the basis for an empirically based typology of postsecondary persistence pathways. This study was supported by a grant (2890) from the Lumina Foundation.     

Dropouts in Two-Year Colleges: Better Prediction with the Use of Moderator Subgroups

Abstract

Failure to identify and account for the effects of moderator variables, variables that intervene in and affect the relationship between two variables, has been an important reason for the low explanatory power of a large portion of educational research. This study illustrates the use of pre-existing subgroups as moderator variables and the consequent increase in efficiency of the analysis of data.

Data on 32 variables, consisting of measures on personality, family background, attitudes, aspiration, and academic ability, were collected on an entering class of an urban community college. These variables were used as predictors in a regression analysis, and the status of the freshmen at the end of one year as dropouts or persisters was treated as the dependent variable. The categories of sex, ethnicity, and curriculum were tested for their moderating effect, and significant slope differences were found for the categories of all three variables. In view of this, sex and curriculum were used as subgrouping variables, and ethnic categories were used to generate interaction terms. The results showed that the use of moderator variables increased the amount of variance explained by 460%.     

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

This study examined the relationship between participation and location of dual-credit enrollment and the educational aspirations of high school students. A total of 304 students from 5 rural Kansas high schools were surveyed. The return rate was 80.9%. Results indicated that participation in dual-credit programs had a positive and significant relationship with educational aspirations. Other independent variables that demonstrated strong predictive importance for educational aspirations were parents’ educational levels and grades. The findings further indicated that concurrent enrollment location was a significant predictor of educational aspirations.     

Book Review of Two-Year Colleges for Women and Minorities: Enabling Access to the Baccalaureate

Research tells us that children are more susceptible to temptations between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.-the hours following the end of the school day when parents are not yet home from work. This study looks at the "life histories" of child participants in the Artists in the Making (AIM) program-a program that aims to motivate inner-city youth through the use of visual arts classes. Despite the diversity of the children who participated in the AIM program, several common themes emerged from the interview process: self-discovery, problem-solving skills, opportunities for positive risk taking, and the mastery of artistic skills. This article proposes that community-based visual arts programs can help children develop protective factors that will allow them to be resilient.     

Academic Performance,Age, Gender,and Ethnicity in Online Courses Delivered by Two-Year Colleges

This study investigated the effects the demographic variables age, gender, and ethnicity and their interactions had on academic performance in online courses delivered by public two-year colleges in Kentucky. The study controlled for previous academic performance measured by cumulative grade point average (GPA). The study used a random sample (N = 320) of all students who had enrolled in at least one online course delivered by the institutions of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System in the spring 2008 semester. A linear hierarchical multiple regression acting as ANCOVA served as the main analysis, with the order entry as follows: cumulative GPA; independent variables (age, gender, ethnicity); interaction vectors; and product vectors. Final course grade served as the dependent variable. The results of the analysis indicated that only cumulative GPA was a significant predictor, explaining approximately 40% of the variance of the final grade. Although differences in final grades were present among the variables age and ethnicity, these differences disappeared when controlling for cumulative GPA. Significance of the results and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

谈歌唱中的咬字与吐字

通过对“五音”、“四呼”、“归韵”、“收声”等方法的分析 ,说明歌唱中正确处理声母与韵母的要点 ,阐述了咬字与吐字对歌曲表现的重要意义。     

A Two-Year Program of Counselor Education

If school counseling is to be a career commitment, not a temporary or occasional assignment, the school counselor must possess some special expertise that enables him to make a unique contribution to the school. It follows that counselor educators should identify this special expertise as precisely as possible and then offer an instructional program designed to develop it. Since such special expertise is not likely to be acquired without extensive and intensive training, the instructional program will ordinarily require a minimum of two years of full-time study. This position paper elaborates the rationale for the above beliefs and attempts to suggest directions in which they may lead.     

语言艺术发声吐词论

从心理语言学的角度考察,语言艺术发声吐词有静态与动态之分。静态吐词指在脱离语境情况下词语的吐送,目的是使发音准确、饱满、圆润、动听,单位是词和固定短语,而词是静态吐词的基本单位;动态吐词是指进入语境的词语的吐送方式,目的是使吐词更加流畅、自然、主动,基本单位是节奏单元。一个语句可以只有一个节奏单元,也可以有几个节奏单元,节奏单元的划分要受多种因素的制约。语言艺术发声训练应该从单音节词开始,然后进行双音节词语、多音节词语的训练,最后再进行动态吐词训练。     

高校创新型教师的培养途径

高等学校是培养高素质创造性人才的基地,也是知识创新的重要基地和国家创新体系的重要组成部分.分析了高校创新型教师的基本特征和评价体系并对高校创新型教师的培养途径做了一些探讨.     

The Case for a Two-Year Graduate Degree

In response to the need of industry, several of the leading engineering colleges are granting a Professional Degree after two years of graduate work instead of the one year normally required for a Master's degree. The technical difficulty and complexity of industry's development programs tax unduly the training given for a Master's degree. More depth and breadth in such subjects as mathematics, advanced mechanics, thermodynamics, and electronics are required. Many capable men would be willing to devote two years to graduate work who are unwilling to spend the time necessary for a Ph. D. degree and hence content themselves with a Master's degree, thus handicapping themselves and industry.     

The Relationship Between the Employment of Part-Time Faculty and Student Degree and/or Certificate Completion in Two-Year Community Colleges

Prior research studies associated the employment of part-time faculty with student degree and/or certificate completion (Benjamin, 2002; Ehrenberg & Zhang, 2005; Jacoby, 2006; Leslie & Gappa, 2002; Umbach, 2008; Umbach & Wawrzynski, 2005). To date, institutional-level data have been utilized to investigate whether such employment adversely associated with student degree and/or certificate completion in two-year community colleges. Little research, however, has been conducted to study such association utilizing both student and institutional-level data (e.g., Eagan & Jaeger, 2009; Jacoby, 2006). In this study, we draw data from Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and The Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 04/09), and employ a multilevel logistic regression model to investigate whether the proportion of part-time faculty is negatively associated with individual student’s likelihood of degree and/or certificate completion. Analytical results indicate the proportion of part-time faculty in community colleges is not negatively associated with student’s likelihood of degree and/ or certificate completion.     

关于两年制软件技术专业建设的几点思考

两年制软件技术专业是"计算机应用与软件技术领域技能型人才培养工程"项目,两年制软件技术专业要体现高等职业教育特色,坚持能力为本位的课程设置原则,采取灵活多样的教学方法和考核方式,培养专、兼结合的双师型师资队伍,注重校内外实训基地建设。