What Community College Management Practices Are Effective in Promoting Student Success?
Author: Davis Jenkins
Publisher:
Published: 2006
Total Pages: 130
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis study, conducted by the Community College Resource Center (CCRC), identifies community college management practices that promote student success. This study builds on earlier CCRC research using national survey data. It used transcript-level data on 150,000 students in three cohorts of first-time Florida community college students and a regression methodology to estimate the effect that each of Florida's 28 community colleges had on the probability that its students would achieve a successful outcome, after controlling for characteristics of the individual students. This effect can be seen as a measure of value added--the impact that a college has on its students' educational success independent of the characteristics of individual students. It then ranked the colleges according to their estimated effects on student success. CCRC selected colleges for field research using rankings of the magnitude of the effect of each institution on the probability that its African American and Latino students would attain successful outcomes. In Florida, as in other states, African American and Latino community college students are less likely than other students to complete a degree or to transfer to a baccalaureate program. At the same time, because of an interest in what colleges are doing to retain students generally, CCRC also examined each institution's impact on outcomes for all first-time students. The study used these rankings along with an analysis of descriptive statistics on each institution to select six colleges for field research: three with higher impacts on the chance that their minority students would succeed and three with lower impacts. The purpose of the fieldwork was to compare the institutional policies, practices, and cultural characteristics of the high- and low-impact colleges during the period in which the student cohorts were tracked (from academic year 1998-1999 through 2002-2003) to determine why some colleges had a greater net effect on their minority students' educational success than did others. Appended are: (1) Methodology for Measuring Institutional Impact on Student Success Using Student Cohort Data from the Florida Community Colleges; and (2) Profiles of High- and Low-Impact Community Colleges. (Contains 7 tables and 27 footnotes.) [This study was conducted in partnership with the Florida Department of Education's Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Education.].