The Grade W: Why Students Drop Their Classes

Abstract

This study reports reasons given by community college students as to why they drop their classes and totally withdraw from college. In addition, the report gives findings as to whether or not students have a propensity for adding another class after they drop a class, and relates students' reasons for dropping a class to several student characteristics. Analysis of the data reveals that a majority of students drop classes for reasons not related to the college's instructional program.     

ISSUES IN COUNSELING IMMIGRANT COLLEGE STUDENTS

The immigrant population of urban community colleges has grown in recent years, creating new challenges for college counselors. Counseling intervention is essential to enable immigrant students to cope with the stresses of immigration and the effects of those stresses on their college performance. Acculturation is a process that changes with time and that affects students of different ages differently. Cultural variations among immigrants affect social and academic performance in college as well. Developing English language fluency both accompanies and is accompanied by other adjustment issues. College counselors can facilitate both student' adjustment and the college's recognition of immigrant students' cultural perspective.     

The Relationship Between Retention and College Counseling for High‐Risk Students

The author used an archival study to explore the relationship between college counseling and retention. The cohort for this study was a college's 2006 class of full‐time, 1st‐year students (N = 429). The results of chi‐square analyses and regression analyses indicated (a) a significant difference in retention between high‐risk and low‐risk students who used counseling services (CS) and (b) that a student's risk for dropout did not vary significantly over time based on risk level or CS use.     

Results of a Pilot Study to Investigate Community College Student Perceptions of the Value of an Online Health-Risk Reduction Program

Health is associated with academic success. Universal, web-based interventions to reduce risks associated with alcohol and other drug use have been found to be effective at changing four-year college students’ health behaviors. An online health program may also be well-suited to a community college population, as it can reach students off campus and can be accessed at times that are convenient for students. The purpose of the current paper is to report the results of a community college student evaluation of a fully-developed, online health risk reduction program. One hundred and thirty four students evaluated the program. Students perceived the program to be successful at addressing college health and wellness issues, and they considered it a tool that could help students make a healthy adjustment to college. A universal, online, health-risk reduction program may have the potential to be a useful component of a community college's overall prevention strategy.     

Editorial Introduction

About one in four college students report grieving the death of a family member or close friend within the past year. Although grief may be difficult at any time, there are several factors unique to the college age and environment that can make it particularly difficult. These factors include geographic distance from home and usual support systems, academic demands, college's “carefree” social life, lack of grief support from peers, and many college campuses' limited resources for grief support. Thus, grieving college students are at greater risk than their peers of a host of academic, social, and developmental issues. In spite of this “silent epidemic,” few targeted, supportive interventions existed on college campuses until 2006, when National Students of AMF was created by grieving college students to support their fellow grieving students. National Students of AMF primarily achieves its mission by creating Campus Chapters, which are university-recognized student organizations. They include a targeted, peer-led Support Group for grieving students to connect with others who “get it” and a Service Group that encourages students to channel their grief towards championing causes that have impacted them. Abundant anecdotal evidence suggests that students, especially males, who shy away from support groups and professional counseling, have found participation in service activities in honor of deceased loved ones to be a preferable therapeutic outlet. Campus Chapters also leverage the “student voice” to promote the other, often underutilized supportive grief resources on campus. Today, there are 43 university-recognized Campus Chapters. In this article, we discuss findings and outline several vital steps that university counselors and administrators can take to facilitate the continued growth of supportive outlets, like National Students of AMF, for grieving college students.     

“Is everybody getting it?”: Sustained support for English as a second language students

The needs of ESL students do not end after the first year. Paulette Henderson describes one community college's approach to supporting ESL students throughout their academic career.     

新高考科目选考制的实施成效分析

为突破传统高考模式下文理区隔造成的负面影响,促进学生完善知识结构,为学生的个性化学习和多元化发展提供可能,新高考改革尝试引入灵活的科目选考制。研究使用改革试点地区的调查数据,系统分析学生的考试科目选择现状,探寻科目选择行为背后的动机,探究科目选择与高考成绩间的关联性。研究发现,科目选考制一方面有效促进了学生开展文理交融的跨学科学习,但另一方面也导致物理科目的选择比例低且逐年缩减。学生考试科目选择行为背后具有多元化的动机,以学科能力和自我发展规划为选科导向的学生,其高考成绩具有相对优势。与之相异,分数策略导向的科目选择反而会造成学生高考成绩下滑。鉴于此,新高考改革在赋予学生选择权的同时,还应建立完善的生涯规划与升学咨询指导体系,提升学生的选择能力与自主意识。     

The Use of a Restraining Order in Dealing with Unmanageable College Students

ABSTRACT

This commentary explores the role, psychological significance, and potential value of a restraining order that is used to extricate students from highly enmeshed and destructive relationships. The commentary places strong emphasis upon the need to evaluate an unmanageable student's behavior in the context of the college's code of student conduct (to determine whether codes have been violated) and legal statutes (to determine whether laws have been violated). It is also suggested that the most direct and efficacious means for helping students who wish to extricate themselves from a highly abusive relationship with another student is to establish whether the perpetrators' behavior is either illegal or in violation of the behavior codes and, if so, to assist the victim in enlisting the help of the college administration or a law enforcement agency to impose a disciplinary sanction or restraining order upon them.     

The Contribution of Inspection,Self-assessment,Investors in People and the Inclusive Learning Quality Initiative to Improving Quality in Further Education Sector Colleges: An initial exploration

In recent years the Further Education sector has been bombarded with initiatives and interventions aimed at improving the quality of the service. These include national and sector developmental initiatives, such as Investors in People and the Inclusive Learning Quality Initiative, and internal and external accountability interventions, such as self-assessment and inspection. However, there has been little attempt at evaluating their effectiveness. This article summarises the findings of recent research into their effectiveness. It is based on the results of a survey to gain senior college managers perceptions of the effect of the above initiatives and interventions on their colleges' development and analysis of other data, such as inspection grades and retention and achievement statistics. The results of the survey show that senior managers in incorporated colleges believe that: (i) self-assessment makes a major contribution to improving the quality of college provision for students and a range of management practices, especially evaluation; (ii) Investors in People makes a very strong contribution to improving arrangements for induction and support for staff; (iii) taken together self-assessment and Investors in People can be seen as contributing to the improvements in the quality of most college activities; (iv) the inspection process does not in itself act as a major driver for improvement but has contributed to improving teaching and learning styles and aspects of college management, including more effective use of student data in evaluating provision; (v) the Inclusive Learning Quality Initiative has yet to make a significant impact on the quality of any aspect of college work but is expected to improve student learning offered and attainment in due course. The analysis of the additional data reveals that: (i) there is a positive correlation between student achievement and the average curriculum grade in colleges inspected during the second cycle; (ii) there is only a limited relationship between a college's Investors in People status and its core business (as represented by student achievement and the quality of the curriculum); (iii) there is a positive correlation between a college's Investors in People status and the Quality Assurance grade awarded to colleges inspected during the second cycle; (iv) managers from colleges involved in stage 1 of the Inclusive Learning Quality Initiative ratethe initiative's contribution to developing individualised learning more positively than managers from other colleges.     

Higher Level Thinking,Writing, and Democracy Among Community College Students

In my work on the college's Committee on Multiculturalism and Ethnic Studies, I found that much of the written work done in our community college was based on lower level cognition, requiring none of the assessment or exploration that is emblematic of critical thought in a democracy. Most of the assignments asked students simply to recite information without any demand for assessments, values, or analysis of the material. Most seemed rooted in inculcation rather than creative thought. In the workshops I conducted with colleagues, I endeavored to stress the importance of transcending the simple cookie-cutter essay, urging faculty that critical thinking and even the strength of our democracy depend on our students’ ability to use information to construct new ideas and propose provocative and original theories.     

Aging Research with Students in a University with a Strong Teaching Mission

A National Institute on Aging-funded pilot project to study advice-giving by older adult mothers to their middle-aged daughters was undertaken in a medium-sized teaching-intensive university. The student body and community are highly diverse, and many undergraduates are first-generation college students. In this context, undergraduate psychology majors and master's students were hired as research assistants. Their tasks were to enter and check data as well as to recruit and test older-adult and middle-aged women in their homes and by telephone. The students were successful in all tasks, with the exception of recruitment, an especially difficult task even for the primary investigator. The research program also served the university's mission of community involvement.     

CURRICULUM DECISION MAKING AT THE TWO‐YEAR COLLEGE: THE TYPES OF DATA USED

After decades of rapid expansion, community colleges have begun to examine their internal academic processes; this study examines how curriculum is approved at one two‐year college. A previously developed classification system is utilized to examine data utilized by a college's curriculum committee in their deliberations preceding decision making. The system employs the use of three judges trained in the use of the system and also in the research technique of Content Analysis. The study classifies two groups of data—data sources and data subjects. It identifies some specific avenues in which data enter the curriculum deliberations; reveals some patterns of data usage; and develops a hierarchy of subjects, or topics, most often used in curriculum decision making at the college.     

Fostering Community College Leaders: An Examination of Leadership Development Programs

The study reported in this paper identifies leadership development practices within community colleges by surveying North Carolina community college presidents and evaluating an individual North Carolina community college's leadership institute. The results of the study indicate these community colleges indeed have an interest in leadership development activities for its employees, and the examined leadership institutes are quite effective and beneficial for its participants. Based upon these findings, two sets of recommendations are offered for fostering leadership initiatives within community colleges, namely, a focus on more significant topics for community college employees and developing a leadership learning community within a community college.     

SOCIAL CLASS AND EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT

The effect of higher education upon student attitudes is one of increasing liberality and decreasing authoritarianism. In this study of 345 women students in a college of education similar trends were recorded concerning teacher‐role expectations during a three‐year period of anticipatory professional socialization. The early part of the course is seen as particularly significant in changing attitudes. The nature of the change is complex, for whilst on home‐school relationships, curriculum, organization and motivation students become more ‘open’ in their teacher‐role expectations, a hardening of attitudes was seen towards corporal punishment and teachers’ leisure time involvement with their school children. Some changes may be attributed to the orientation of the college towards certain professional beliefs and practices. The process of professional socialization is marked by increasing differentiation among students at different stages of their course on questions relating to teachers’ instrumental (task‐centred) roles. Further, this college's stress upon primary education may be responsible for only slight differences developing between the role‐concepts of groups training for different levels of school.     

The Role of the Community College in Community Development

Abstract

Multipurpose community colleges have a special opportunity for distinction through one of their missions—community development. One southern community college has assessed the similarities and differences of the perceptions of selected community leaders and of the college professional staff concerning the role of the college in community development.

The opinions of both groups were very similar, but the community leaders showed more variation in perceptions. Both groups believed the college should be involved in community development activities, but that the college could meet the needs of individuals better than it could meet community-wide needs. The college professional staff was more opposed to granting academic credit for community development activities such as work experiences of students and continuing education courses than were the community leaders.

As a philosophical approach to community development, both groups preferred the college's approaching community improvement through the organization of a wide spectrum of people concerned with democratic processes, self-help, and educational objectives. This process approach requires professional staff members with organizational, research, survey, and teaching skills to assist the community in working to solve problems.     

Performance,Perseverance, and the Full Picture of College Readiness

Although college readiness is a centerpiece of major educational initiatives such as the Common Core State Standards, few systems have been implemented to track children's progress toward this goal. Instead, college‐readiness information is typically conveyed late in a student's high‐school career, and tends to focus solely on academic accomplishments—grades and admissions test scores. Late‐stage feedback can be problematic for students who need to correct course, so the purpose of this research is to develop a system for communicating more comprehensive college‐readiness diagnoses earlier in a child's K‐12 career. This article introduces college‐readiness indicators for middle‐school students, drawing on the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of educational inputs, contexts, and outcomes. A diversity of middle‐school variables was synthesized into six factors: achievement, behavior, motivation, social engagement, family circumstances, and school characteristics. Middle‐school factors explain 69% of the variance in college readiness, and results suggest a variety of factors beyond academic achievement—most notably motivation and behavior—contribute substantially to preparedness for postsecondary study. The article concludes with limitations and future directions, including the development of college‐readiness categories to support straightforward communication of middle‐school indicators to parents, teachers, and students.     

National Evidence of the Impact of First-Year Online Enrollment on Postsecondary Students’ Long-Term Academic Outcomes

This study examines the influence of first-year online enrollment on the long-term academic outcomes of postsecondary students. Using a nationally representative sample and propensity score weighting, I find that enrolling in some online courses is associated with lower odds of dropping out of college. Additional results reveal a positive relationship between enrolling in some online courses and sub-baccalaureate indicators of long-term academic success, such as earning an associate’s degree and transferring from a community college to a 4-year institution.     

Applying early decision: Student and college incentives and outcomes

Colleges’ early decision (ED) admission policies require accepted students to commit to attend the school without comparing outside options. With data from two liberal arts schools we find evidence that students with higher willingness and ability to pay and lower measured ability levels are more likely to apply ED. Applying ED raises the probability of acceptance by 40 percentage points. We address the potential selection of students into ED, including estimating an upper bound of 46 percentage points following Altonji, Elder, and Taber (2005). One college appears to use the ED process to screen applicants with high SAT scores and female applicants, thereby avoiding the potential adverse selection of applicants in the regular decision process. Finally, even conditional on higher socioeconomic status and other observable characteristics, applying ED is correlated with higher financial aid packages, perhaps because the college's financial aid resources are higher earlier in the admission process.     

ALLEVIATING TRANSFER SHOCK: CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT FOR MORE SUCCESSFUL TRANSFER STUDENTS

Community college students transferring to a 4-year college or university face a variety of challenges. Social and academic issues can pose potential hurdles to graduating with a bachelor's degree for these students. Community colleges and 4-year institutions must work closely together to create more efficient and effective partnerships for students transitioning through the higher education system. This article makes suggestions for community college staff and faculty members to help transfer students successfully transition into university life and complete a bachelor's degree.