scholarly journals Editor's Choice: Measuring Outcomes: Is the First-time, Full-time Cohort Appropriate for the Community College?

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Dellow ◽  
Richard M. Romano
2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby J. Park

Background/Context Recent developments in state-level policy have begun to require, incentivize, and/or encourage students at community colleges to enroll full time in an effort to increase the likelihood that students will persist and transfer to four-year institution where they will be able to complete their bachelor's degree. Often, these policies are predicated on the idea that full-time status is associated with greater engagement on behalf of the student, a concept that has been widely studied in higher education as it relates to student persistence and degree attainment. Purpose Building upon theory and observational studies, I seek to empirically test whether enrolling full time at a community college has a discernible effect on transferring to a four-year university. Research Design I follow four cohorts of first-time traditionally aged college students who graduated from a public high school in Texas in the years 2000–2003 and employ a propensity score matching procedure designed to reduce sample selection bias. Findings I find that enrolling full time increases overall transfer rates by at least 12%. These results are robust to the inclusion of many pre-college factors as well as to a sensitivity analysis, across four separate cohorts. Conclusions/Recommendations This study provides evidence in support of a key policy lever for increase transfer rates already in place in a handful of states: encouraging incentivizing, or requiring full-time enrollment. The key, however, will be to develop policy that results in more students enrolling full time while also maintaining the open access mission of community colleges. While requiring students to enroll full time may not be appropriate in all contexts, states should seriously consider other ways to incentivize or, at a minimum, support and encourage full-time enrollment, particularly for first-time traditionally aged students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-82
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Lebron ◽  
John R Slate ◽  
Frederick C Lunenburg

In this multiyear, statewide empirical investigation, the degree to which ethnic/racial diversity of first-time in college full-time Texas community college students changed from the 1999-2000 through the 2014-2015 academic years was determined.  Over this time period, the percentage of Hispanic first-time in college full-time Texas community college students showed a statistically significant increase, whereas the percentage of White first-time in college full-time students statistically significantly decreased.  No changes were noted with respect to either Black or Asian first-time in college full-time college students during this time period.  Although some improvement was noted in the ethnic-racial diversity of Texas first-time in college full-time students, more work remains.  Implications for policy and recommendations for research were provided.


Author(s):  
Ivan Obreshkov ◽  

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic brought changes in various aspects of life, including educational field. The present study reveals some of the challenges related to real-time distance learning for university students majoring in tourism in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The study includes Bulgarian and international students in full-time and part-time bachelor's and master's tourism programs, in which real-time distance education was introduced for the first time. The current study could be a starting point for improving the organization and quality of education of Tourism students, as well as for faster overcoming of related difficulties in communication with students.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Romano ◽  
Mark D’Amico

A commonly used metric for measuring college costs, drawn from data in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), is expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE) student. This article discusses an error in this per FTE calculation when using IPEDS data, especially with regard to community colleges. The problem is that expenditures for noncredit courses are reported to IPEDS but enrollments are not. This exclusion inflates any per FTE student figure calculated from IPEDS, in particular expenditures and revenues. A 2021 IPEDS Technical Review Panel (TRP #62) acknowledged this problem and moved campus institutional research offices a step closer to reporting noncredit enrollment data (RTI International, 2021). This article is the first to provide some numbers on the magnitude of this problem. It covers eight states—California, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Data on noncredit community college enrollments were made available from system offices in all states. In addition, discussions were held at both the system level and the campus level to verify the data and assumptions. Figures provided by states were merged with existing IPEDS data at the campus and state levels, and then were adjusted to account for noncredit enrollments. The results provide evidence that calculations using IPEDS data alone overestimate the resources that community colleges have to spend on each student, although distortions vary greatly between states and among colleges in the same state. The results have important implications for research studies and college benchmarking.


Author(s):  
David Paul Overly

This is a case study of the development of a new peace studies program at Citrus College in Glendora, California, the third such program at a California community college. The program began in the spring semester of 2016 when the cornerstone course, Humanities 123 – Introduction to Peace Studies, was taught for the first time. The course is an introduction to peace and conflict studies, with an emphasis on war's destructive impact on culture. The course examines the systematic approaches that combatants have historically used to obliterate the cultural heritage of their battlefield opponents. It encourages tolerance and respect for different perspectives, as well as hope for peaceful conflict resolution. The chapter reviews the course content, as well as student reactions to the material. Overall, the students find the course to be rewarding and are surprised at how interesting peace studies can be. The program is now being expanded to include a study abroad component in Oslo, Norway.


Author(s):  
Dulce Amor L. Dorado ◽  
Barry Fass-Holmes

Are international undergraduates whose native language is not English less prepared to succeed academically at an American four-year institution after transferring from an American community college than ones who are first-time freshmen (NFRS) or exchange visitors (EAPR)? This question's answer was no at an American West Coast public university where five cohorts of international transfer undergraduates (TRAN) earned mean first-year grade point averages (GPA) between B- and B. Less than 12% of these students earned GPAs below C, and less than 15% were in bad academic standing (probation, subject to disqualification, or dismissed). In comparison, five parallel cohorts of NFRS and EAPR earned mean first-year GPAs averaging between B and B+ to A-. Less than 10% earned GPAs below C or were in bad academic standing. Thus, a minority of this university's international undergraduates struggled academically regardless of whether they were TRAN, NFRS, or EAPR.


2016 ◽  
pp. 970-987
Author(s):  
Dheeraj Raju ◽  
Randall Schumacker

The goal of this research study was to compare data mining techniques in predicting student graduation. The data included demographics, high school, ACT profile, and college indicators from 1995-2005 for first-time, full-time freshman students with a six year graduation timeline for a flagship university in the south east United States. The results indicated no difference in misclassification rates between logistic regression, decision tree, neural network, and random forest models. The results from the study suggest that institutional researchers should build and compare different data mining models and choose the best one based on its advantages. The results can be used to predict students at risk and help these students graduate.


2006 ◽  
Vol 88 (10) ◽  
pp. 333-333
Author(s):  
Charlotte Worker

Until recently it has been difficult for general dental practitioners (GDPs) to access formally recognised postgraduate training while maintaining a full-time commitment to practice. The diploma in restorative dentistry from the Faculty of General Dental Practice (UK) (FGDP(UK)) allows participants to do just that. In the latest development GDPs now have the option, for the first time, to choose a special interest module in aesthetic dentistry during the second year of the part-time diploma programme.


1981 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 1127-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas C. Malloch ◽  
William B. Michael

For a sample of 71 full-time students attending a large community college in the San Francisco Bay area, the objective of this investigation was to examine the degree of relationship between GPA earned during one academic quarter and: (a) an ability measure defined as scores on the composite of four academic tests in the ACT Assessment (American College Testing Program, 1959–1980) or scores on the College Board Scholastic Aptitude Test (Educational Testing Service, 1948–1980) that had been converted to scores on the academic composite of the ACT Assessment; (b) standing on an expectancy measure defined as a student's anticipated GPA; (c) scores on each of six measures representing a valence construct that indicates the relative desirability of long-range student goals; (d) scores on each of six measures portraying an instrumentality construct reflecting the facilitative effect of college grades (a short-term goal) as perceived by students in realizing long-term goals (such as vocational success or enduring friendships); and (e) an unweighted linear combination of a scholastic aptitude test score and placement on a contrived motivational construct constituting a multiplicative function of the expectancy, valence and instrumentality constructs consistent with Vroom's (1964, 1965) conceptualization. Ability and expectancy measures were found to be useful in predicting academic performance of community college students. The valence and instrumentality constructs contributed little, if any, validity to prediction of academic performance.


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