Catherine L. Horn

College Persistence among Undocumented Students at a Selective Public University: A Quantitative Case Study Analysis.

Texas House Bill 1403, which was passed in 2001, is the first in-state resident tuition (ISRT) policy to benefit undocumented students in the United States. Seven years later, the literature includes virtually no empirical evidence of the persistence patterns of students who have enrolled in postsecondary institutions as beneficiaries of the in-state resident tuition policies in Texas, and in the United States in general. This study represents one of the first research studies to provide a quantitative analysis of the persistence behavior of ISRT policy eligible students at a large selective public institution in Texas. The findings, while not generalizable to all postsecondary institutions with this population, provocatively suggest that ISRT recipients are remaining in college at rates similar to those of their Latino peers who are U.S. citizens and legal residents. The study addresses the implications of this policy for selective institutions and makes suggestions for further research.

Remedial Testing and Placement in Community Colleges

Almost half of students who enter college require some sort of remedial coursework. Further, states are increasingly moving the responsibility of postsecondary remediation away from four-year campuses to two-year institutions. Scholars and policymakers have grappled with best practice for successfully filling in academic gaps and moving students forward, and there is variation both within and between states as to the ways in which remediation is defined, determined, and administered (Perin, 2006). Using a regression discontinuity design, this study seeks to answer the following question on one community college campus: How does placement into remedial services affect student outcomes, in particular, successful completion of an introductory college-level English course? Although this study focuses on a single community college system, the findings have bearing on a wider sector as the developmental placement practices of Harper Community College District are not unlike those implemented by two- and four-year campuses across the country.

The Access Crisis in Higher Education

PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION in the United States has emerged as a force for expanding postsecondary opportunity beyond a small elite to one that develops communities and society more broadly. Beginning with the G.I. Bill after World War II and expanding greatly with the 1965 Higher Education Act, the creation of college access programs, the initiation of affirmative action, and the creation and expansion of colleges across the United States in the l960s and 1970s, access to college has increased dramatically. Moreover, the structure of the American economy has changed such that is increasingly dependent on college-educated workers. The expectation that a larger and larger percentage of young people will go on to college has risen in all sectors of society. However, the children of the baby boomers (who filled the colleges in the 1960s and 1970s) are now hitting college age at the same time that the United States is burdened with taxation policies that have drained state and federal funds needed to adequately support these young people’s aspirations to go to college. A shrinking share of state resources is going to higher education, and what federal college aid and subsidies do exist are shifting from students who are low income to students who are middle class as socalled merit scholarships take a larger portion of the funds that used to be reserved for the poor. Skyrocketing tuition, shrinking capacity, and the demise of affirmative action in some states have all taken a toll on the hopes and dreams of many youth who are low income and minority. The higher education system that was built to accommodate the parents of this generation of college students is inadequate to meet the expanding need for postsecondary education in the 21st century.

Standardized Assessments and the Flow of Students Into the College Admission Pool

For many, merit, defined by test scores, is a readily accessible representation of academic ability, and both the K-12 and postsecondary systems have used such scores as a guide at multiple levels of decision making and accountability. In assessing the strengths and limitations of increasingly test-defined efforts to improve K-12 education and, ultimately, to expand diversity on college campuses through such a purely merit-based system, this article seeks to lay out key considerations that ought to be examined. Acknowledging that many confounding influences, including housing and school segregation, resource inequities, support services, and social factors outside the walls of the school impact those who ultimately flow through the pipeline to the college admission process, this article also focuses on how testing influences that pipeline.

Examining Relevant Influences on the Persistence of African-American College Students at a Diverse Urban University

In this study, campus involvement, faculty mentorship, motivational beliefs (self-efficacy and utility value), and sense of belonging were examined as potential predictors of African-American college student academic persistence. Participants (n = 139) in the study were African-American college students from a large-urban university. Separate analyses were conducted to predict two related aspects of student persistence. A multiple linear regression was used to predict self-reported student persistence and a logistic regression was used to predict actual enrollment in the following semester. Results indicated that utility value was the only significant predictor of self-reported persistence. Surprisingly, results of the logistic regression indicated that students who reported having higher levels of self-efficacy in the fall were less likely to enroll in the subsequent spring semester. Findings in this study add to the body of research on college student persistence.

The Long-Term Impact of Admission Policies: A Comparative Study of Two Emergent Research Institutions in Texas

The present study explored the long-term impact of admission policies at two aspiring research institutions in Texas. Six years of longitudinal institutional data were analyzed for all full-time first time in college undergraduate students at both universities. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to identify relationships and differences between risk factors and percent plan eligibility. Cox regression was employed to examine the number of semesters that elapsed before students dropped out and to identify risk factors that contributed to student withdrawal. Moreover, competing risk models were used to test the robustness of the single-outcome models. Findings highlight the importance of leveraging the percent plan at both institutions.

Shaping Educational Policy Through the Courts: The Use of Social Science Research in Amicus Briefs in Fisher I

Different from more traditional policy-making avenues, the courts provide an antipolitical arena that does not require broad agreement from various constituents for policy enactment. Seeking to guide court decisions on these policy issues, individuals and organizations have filed amicus briefs that increasingly include social science to support their arguments. The Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin Supreme Court case presents an ideal example to study the use of social science evidence in amicus briefs to shape educational policy. Findings from this study identify differences in the use of social science research that suggest many ways in which our current understanding of the efforts of actors to shape educational policy via the highest court in the nation is incomplete. This study also highlights why developing this understanding could be extremely useful to both the creation of educational policy and the use of antipolitical approaches to change such policy.

The effects of an active learning intervention in biology on college students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions, motivation, and achievement

Abstract This study examined differences in students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs between those enrolled in undergraduate Biology courses that implemented an innovative, active learning intervention and those enrolled in traditional Biology courses (control group). This study also sought to determine whether students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs mediated the effect of the intervention on course grades. Participants were 962 college students attending a large US public university. Students self-selected into one of the biology courses were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group. Multiple regression analyses indicated that students receiving the intervention reported greater instructor support, a perception of higher expectations for understanding (academic press), and a greater feeling that the course was interesting (situational interest). They also held higher self-efficacy and value for their biology course at completion compared to their counterparts in traditional biology classrooms. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that the effect of the intervention on course grades was better explained through students’ classroom motivational climate perceptions and motivational beliefs. Results gained from this intervention may be useful to other campuses interested in enhancing student motivation and success even when faced with large enrolments and minimal faculty and staff support.