The Transition Lynchpin: The Voices of Individuals with Disabilities Who Attended a Community College Transition Program

Nearly 60% of students with disabilities who attend postsecondary institutions attend community colleges. Individuals with disabilities paralleling their peers without disabilities need the postsecondary education opportunity to develop vocational skills, the time to mature, and the experience of living with others. A transition program, a K–12 and community college partnership, was developed to support students in this mission. A narrative inquiry methodology was utilized to understand the community college experience of students with disabilities in a transition program. Findings indicate that the program benefited the individuals. It did this by supporting completion of a vocational program leading to gainful employment and as a transition into adult roles and status. The program also provided opportunities that enhanced the individuals' self-esteem, and it facilitated the individuals becoming more independent and responsible.     

A DEAN'S AND DEPARTMENT CHAIR'S GUIDE TO DOCUMENTING COMPETENCY‐BASED PROGRAM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN IN THE 2‐YEAR COLLEGE

Changes in the new Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990 have added to existing state and regional accrediting agency pressures for competency‐based instruction. Because of these increasing pressures, deans, department chairs, and administrators of federal vocational funds administered under the act are, and will continue to be, required to provide evidence that their programs are competency based. A three‐step model to competency‐based programs as well as administrator guidelines for needed documentation are presented.     

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLICLY SUPPORTED 2-YEAR COLLEGES

A comprehensive study of faculty development in community colleges was undertaken to identify the organizational components that nurture good teaching. A review of the literature revealed several variables for assessing the state of faculty development. The most important of these appears to be an institutional climate that encourages faculty development. This article reports the results of a survey of 130 community colleges regarding faculty development efforts. It also profiles those accountable for faculty development and summarizes the extent to which each development activity is available to faculty members. One significant finding is that faculty development in American community colleges lacks leadership and is not well connected to the colleges missions.     

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM PROGRAMS IN NEW JERSEY'S PUBLIC COLLEGES

Since 1976 in response to growing concern about college students’ writing abilities, faculty development programs on writing across the curriculum have arisen in a number of two‐ and four‐year colleges throughout the United States. This movement, for it seems to be one, has its roots in a similar movement that began more than 15 years ago in British secondary schools. This paper first reviews briefly the early history of the movement in England and compares the movement there to the one now under way in U.S. higher education. It then presents the results of a questionnaire survey of New Jersey's public two‐ and four‐year colleges undertaken in the spring of 1979. The purpose of the survey was to determine whether and to what extent New Jersey's public colleges had started or were planning to start development programs designed to bring groups of faculty together, across disciplines, to discuss problems relating to student writing performance and to develop specific interdisciplinary plans for solving these problems. In addition, information is presented about the nature of the steps taken in those institutions that reported having initiated such programs and about the efforts to evaluate the impact of these programs. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the state of writing across the curriculum programs in New Jersey public higher education and recommendations are made for further action in this direction.     

THE BENEFITS OF SUMMER BRIDGE PROGRAMS FOR UNDERREPRESENTED AND LOW‐INCOME TRANSFER STUDENTS

University summer bridge programs or transitional programs for low‐income and minority transfer students are becoming an established part of the effort to recruit, retain, and graduate a population of students underrepresented in higher education. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a summer bridge program on the academic, personal, and social development of underrepresented and low‐income transfer students during their first year at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The 1988 entering cohort of Transfer Summer Program (TSP) students was tracked through their first two quarters at UCLA, collecting both attitudinal and academic data.

The results of the study clearly suggest that summer bridge programs for underrepresented and low‐income students can help facilitate their transition and adjustment to university life and improve their academic performance and persistence rates. This is accomplished by increasing transfer students' control over their academic future by preparing them to effectively participate in a classroom, to assess their academic abilities, and by introducing them to campus services and encouraging the utilization of these services.     

Resampling and Distribution of the Product Methods for Testing Indirect Effects in Complex Models

Recent advances in testing mediation have found that certain resampling methods and tests based on the mathematical distribution of 2 normal random variables substantially outperform the traditional z test. However, these studies have primarily focused only on models with a single mediator and 2 component paths. To address this limitation, a simulation was conducted to evaluate these alternative methods in a more complex path model with multiple mediators and indirect paths with 2 and 3 paths. Methods for testing contrasts of 2 effects were evaluated also. The simulation included 1 exogenous independent variable, 3 mediators and 2 outcomes and varied sample size, number of paths in the mediated effects, test used to evaluate effects, effect sizes for each path, and the value of the contrast. Confidence intervals were used to evaluate the power and Type I error rate of each method, and were examined for coverage and bias. The bias-corrected bootstrap had the least biased confidence intervals, greatest power to detect nonzero effects and contrasts, and the most accurate overall Type I error. All tests had less power to detect 3-path effects and more inaccurate Type I error compared to 2-path effects. Confidence intervals were biased for mediated effects, as found in previous studies. Results for contrasts did not vary greatly by test, although resampling approaches had somewhat greater power and might be preferable because of ease of use and flexibility.     

The Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale: Measurement Invariance Over Gender

This study examined the extent of measurement invariance of the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale responses (BPNES; Vlachopoulos & Michailidou, 2006) across male (n = 716) and female (n = 1,147) exercise participants. BPNES responses from exercise participants attending private fitness centers (n = 1,012) and community exercise programs (n = 851) were used. The 3-factor BPNES confirmatory factor analysis model, discriminant validity, and scale reliability were supported for both male and female participants separately. The multisample models supported the configural invariance, partial metric invariance, partial measurement error invariance, and partial scalar invariance of the BPNES responses across gender. Both male and female participants attached the same meaning to the constructs assessed by the BPNES items. The BPNES score invariance properties support tests of the needs universality hypothesis offered by self-determination theory across gender in exercise and meaningful comparison of the autonomy, competence, and relatedness construct latent means across gender.     

Growth Mixture Models Outperform Simpler Clustering Algorithms When Detecting Longitudinal Heterogeneity,Even With Small Sample Sizes

The expansion in the number of people entering higher education has resulted in a substantial increase in the proportion of students enrolling in nontraditional modes, such as part-time study. This study examined the question of whether part-time study curtails the development of the types of intellectual capabilities needed for a knowledge-based economy, because the students would have markedly less exposure to a stimulating campus environment than their full-time counterparts. Graduates from discrete full- and part-time programs from 1 university in Hong Kong completed a survey seeking perceptions of the nurturing of a range of capabilities, together with measures of teacher-student relationships and type of teaching experienced. Two hypotheses were tested by structural equation modeling: (a) the same mechanism for capability development operated for full- and part-time modes and (b) the principal element of the mechanism was the nature of teaching and the quality of teacher-student interaction. Hypothesis 1 was supported because configural invariance between hypothesized models for capability development between the 2 modes was found. Hypothesis 2 was also supported because the models showed that the principal influence on capability development came from teaching for understanding, through promoting active learning experiences and the degree and quality of teacher-student interaction.