Developing Service Area Indices for Community Colleges: California's Method and Experience

The economic, educational and social environments of the students served by a community college are important factors in college performance accountability, policy analysis, program evaluation, and strategic planning. For example, previous research shows that income per county is a significant predictor of transfer rates for community colleges. However, conditions for the actual geographic area of the students served by a community college may differ, for various reasons, from the economic conditions for the county in which the college is located. This article describes the development of institutional or college-level indices as an enhancement to county-level data, their use as adjustment variables for California's Accountability Reporting for the Community Colleges (ARCC), and their applicability to other research and planning studies. The service area indices are created by combining the enrollment patterns of students by ZIP Code of residence with ZCTA (ZIP Code Tabulation Area) level economic and educational data from Census 2000.     

Displaced Workers Successfully Reenter the Workforce: Postgraduation from a Community College

The purpose of this study was to determine how well former employees at a television glass manufacturing plant were able to find employment in a new field of study following graduation from a local community college. The majority of participants were able to find reemployment, albeit at a lower salary. In addition, information was obtained regarding the level of satisfaction with participants' new jobs and perceived barriers faced while looking for employment.     

Iowa Lakes Community College: Partnerships for Academic and Economic Success in a Rapidly Evolving Wind-Energy Industry

Iowa Lakes Community College responded to a national need for wind-energy technicians. The Wind-Energy and Turbine Program aligned industry and academic competencies with experiential learning components to foster exploration of additional renewable energy applications. Completers understand both the physical and academic rigor a career in wind energy demands.     

ACADEMIC SUCCESS AMONG MEXICAN AMERICAN WOMEN IN A COMMUNITY COLLEGE

This field study examined a model of attrition in young Mexican American women at a community college. It was hypothesized that those who achieved low academic performance would drop out in response to a series ofpsychosocial and sociocultural barriers in education. The model in vestigated a process by which Mexican American women matriculate into the community college system and either bring with them or encounter for the first time a set of well‐documented barriers to education. At this juncture, they either possess or do not possess the personality characteristics and background that help them overcome the consequences of the barriers. If the students are able to sustain themselves through the difficulty posed by the barriers, they are more likely to experience depression, which may manifest as somatic symptoms. To the extent that a student succumbs to depression, her academic performance would fall and she would opt to leave school. The results of this study suggest that the greatest impact of educational barriers was not on academic performance directly but on the psychological and emotional well‐being of the student. This study found no significant relationship between academic performance and depression. The relationship between somatization and depression in this population was corroborated.     

Preschoolers' Attention to Print During Shared Book Reading

Seventy-six children ages 3 to 5 were individually read two storybooks that had been specially formatted to contain salient printed words within the text, and illustrations and text on left or right-facing pages. The reader pointed to each word while reading to half of the children. After each book, children were asked to recognize elements of the illustrations and the specially formatted text elements from among a set of foils. Videotaped sessions were coded for the time children spent looking toward the pages with print versus illustrations. Analyses showed that the percentage of time looking at print was less than 2% in the no-pointing condition but increased with age. Pointing to the words increased print-looking time for all age groups and print target recognition for 4-year-olds. After controlling for receptive vocabulary, visual memory, and maturation associated with these scores, emergent orthography and letter-word identification predicted time looking at print and recognition of the print elements.     

Distinct in beliefs/united in concerns: Listening to strongly DAP and strongly traditional k‐primary teachers

Abstract

Twelve early childhood teachers in kindergarten/primary grades who hold opposing philosophical beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) were interviewed about their perceived barriers to effective practice. Specifically, they were asked to discuss work‐related “things that keep them from being the best teacher they can be.” All teachers selected scored as highly efficacious about education and themselves as teachers and had low occupational stress scores. Half strongly endorsed and engaged in behaviors closely aligned with DAP and half were highly traditional. Interesting differences in terms of the relative influence of preservice education and acceptance of inclusive practices were found across the two groups of teachers, but they united in concern for standardized testing as a barrier to effective practice. Listening to these teachers can and should inform those of us engaged in pre‐ and in‐service education and policy formation and point us in future directions for research into teacher differences. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.     

“Thinking About Thinking: It's not Just for Philosophers:” Using Metacognitive Journals to Teach and Learn About Constructivism

This article describes how Metacognitive Journals were used to teach prospective early childhood educators about constructivism. We emphasize the importance of modeling constructivist pedagogy and cultivating students' metacognitive potential. We share the effects on our students' learning and on our teaching. We also offer recommendations for teacher educators to incorporate Metacognitive Journals in their practice     

Fostering partnerships with families: academic service-learning in the Little Village

ABSTRACT

Strong family-teacher partnerships increase family engagement, promoting positive outcomes for children. Early childhood educators need knowledge, skills, and dispositions for establishing strong, meaningful partnerships with diverse families. This research investigated the impact of academic service-learning (ASL) on undergraduate students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions for partnering with culturally and linguistically diverse families to promote young children’s early academic learning. Participants included nine undergraduates in an early childhood teacher preparation course, ten culturally and linguistically diverse families, and thirteen 2- to 5-year-old children. In this mixed-methods study, written student ASL reflections, pre- and post-ASL student surveys, and parent evaluations were analyzed. Three themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Students entered the ASL experience with excitement and a mostly positive approach; (2) Early to mid-semester, students articulated a high degree of nervousness and discomfort as well as challenges to partnership-building, yet also noted family interest and engagement; and (3) Mid- to late semester, most students expressed their growing confidence in their own skills for relating to diverse families, and identified family strengths. Our findings support ASL as an effective teacher-preparation pedagogy to help students build family-teacher partnerships.