Katherine L. Hughes

An Exploration of Tinto's Integration Framework for Community College Students

Tintos integration framework is often assumed to be inapplicable to the study of student persistence at community colleges because one of the linchpins of the framework—social integration—is considered unlikely to occur for students at these institutions. Community college students are thought to lack the time to participate in activities, such as clubs, that would facilitate social integration. Using in-depth interviews with students at two urban community colleges in the Northeast, we examine the ways that first-year community college students engage with their institutions. We find that the majority of them do develop attachments to their institutions. Moreover, this sense of attachment is related to their persistence in the second year of college. We also find that this integration is both academic and social. Contrary to findings from other studies that apply Tintos framework, we find that these two forms of integration develop in concert for community college students. The same activities lead to both academic and social relatedness. This is particularly true for information networks that students develop in the classroom.

Assessing Developmental Assessment in Community Colleges

For many students entering community colleges, the first stop on campus is to an assessment center. More than half of these students will be placed into developmental education as a result of their scores on reading, writing, and mathematics entry assessments, yet there is little evidence that this improves student outcomes. We examine alternative perspectives on the role of assessment and how it is best implemented, review the validity of the most common assessments, and discuss emerging directions in assessment policy and practice. We conclude with implications for policy and research.

Student Success Courses in the Community College: An Exploratory Study of Student Perspectives

This study examines student success courses in two urban community colleges. Through analysis of student interview data, we find that such courses are an essential resource for students, in large part because the various benefits reinforce one another and magnify their influence. These benefits include learning about the college, classes, and study skills. In addition, students build important relationships with professors and peers.

School-to-Work: Making a Difference in Education:

THE SCHOOL-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) was passed in 1994 after more than a decade of discussion and debate about the countrys system for preparing young people for work. This discussion was particularly focused on the role of secondary schools. The STWOA built on a variety of educational strategies that were already being used, but by providing funding through high-profile national legislation, the act accelerated those activities, tried to give them greater unity and coherence, and provided a focal point around which to organize discussion of and experimentation with these educational innovations. However, the authors of the STWOA had not intended to create a permanent separate program. Rather their goal was to generate activities that could then be incorporated into the normal functioning of the education system. As a result, the funding was scheduled to expire in 2001. We have now passed that funding endpoint, and educators and policy makers must look back over the experience of the last several years to decide what lessons have been learned from the social and educational experiment represented by the STWOA. In what ways, if any, can this approach improve schools, educational outcomes, and the countrys system for preparing young people for work? Which aspects have been most successful and why? What should educators, policy makers, and organizations such as foundations do now? Our goal is to contribute to the discussion by gathering together and summarizing the research that has been carried out in the last several years to evaluate the effectiveness of the school-to-work educational strategy. Although the federal legislation has expired, the flow of research findings relating to school-to-work is, if anything, accelerating. Educational innovations take some time to organize and implement, so programs started in the mid-1990s may not have reached full operational levels until the late 1990s, and then there is a lag between implementation and the publication of research findings. Moreover, perhaps the most interesting and useful research tracks program participants over time, which creates an even greater lag between implementation and publication. Therefore, the last two years have seen a flourishing of research results, and some important evaluation projects are still ongoing. Our conclusion is that the research so far has found generally positive results: the school-to-work strategy does benefit students, teachers, and employers. Although critics of this educational approach feared that it would weaken academic achievement and divert students to low- skilled jobs, truncating their opportunities for college and further study, the growing body of evaluation work -- even at the most rigorous and definitive levels -- has turned up almost no evidence that such fears were justified. Background In the 1980s, several trends led to an extensive national discussion of education reform and work force development. The 1983 report A Nation At Risk claimed that profound weaknesses in the education system were undermining U.S. productivity and competitiveness. Researchers were documenting and analyzing the changing nature of work and changing skill requirements. Increasingly, young people without some postsecondary education could not expect to earn enough money to support a family. Americas Choice: High Skills or Low Wages! pointed out that many young adults were spending their early years in the work force moving from one low-wage, dead-end job to another.1 At the same time, developments in research on learning and pedagogy emphasized the effectiveness of learning in context. Cognitive psychologists argued that students learn most effectively if they are taught skills in the context in which they will use those skills. Advocates of constructivism argued for a pedagogical approach in which students are more active learners, guided by their teacher in such a way that they construct their own knowledge. …

What Role Can Dual Enrollment Programs Play in Easing the Transition between High School and Postsecondary Education

Dual enrolment programs which link high schools and colleges have increased in recent years in America. They are seen as a way of offering high school students access to coursework not available at high school as well as a way to expose them to the academic demands of college. In addition, dual enrolment programs promote partnerships between the two education sectors. This paper describes dual enrolment programs, the benefits of these programs, two models of dual enrolments, concerns that exist about dual enrolments and outcomes and research findings regarding the academic and postsecondary transition outcomes of participants in dual enrolment programs. The paper concludes with a consideration of whether the federal government, through its legislative and funding tools, promotes the spread of the dual enrolment strategy.

It's not just the ATMs: Technology, Firm Strategies, Jobs, and Earnings in Retail Banking

Using data from extensive on-site interviews conducted in 1997, 1998, and 1999, the authors examine trends in job content and earnings in selected jobs in two American banks. Firm restructuring and technological changes resulted in higher earnings for college-educated workers. The banks followed different strategies in implementing these changes for lower-skill jobs, with different effects on bank tellers in particular. The authors conclude that technological change can provide opportunities for workplace reform but does not determine its effects on jobs and earnings; these effects are contingent on managerial strategies. This focus on organizational processes and managerial strategy provides a complement to accounts of growing inequality that center solely on the role of individual skills and technological change.

School-Based Career Development: A Synthesis of the Literature

The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Amendments of 1998 extended support for “career guidance and academic counseling.” A wide variety of such interventions are in existence. Since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 emphasizes evidence-based education, it is important to examine the research to determine the value of these programs. This synthesis of the research literature, covering meta-analyses and individual studies on comprehensive guidance programs, career courses, counseling interventions and computer-assisted career guidance, finds many benefits to students of career guidance and academic counseling interventions. On a variety of career-related and academic measures, student subjects did have increased outcomes. However, there are also limitations to the interventions and to the research methods studying them. Many of the interventions are short-term, low-dosage activities, with lasting benefits unclear. In addition, much of the research relies on self-reported responses to psychological inventories. Based on the findings of the research review, recommendations are to focus practice and research on middle-school students, and target resources towards ensuring that all middleand high-school students have regular conferences with counselors to discuss their current and future academic programs. Finally, research should focus on exploring the relationships between guidance interventions and positive student behaviors, rather than attitudes.

Achieving Scale and Quality in School-to-Work Internships: Findings from Two Employer Surveys.

Work-based learning is a central component of the school-to-work strategy. Yet, a widespread system of work-based learning in the form of internships or apprenticeships will need to involve thousands of employers willing to provide placements. This paper examines the issue of employer involvement in the school-to-work strategy through a survey of employers participating in five school-to-work programs and a survey of a comparison group of nonparticipating employers in those same labor markets. The motivations and potential motivations of employers are identified; the data suggest that participants are motivated by philanthropy, while firms in the nonparticipating sample indicate that they would need more bottom-line-oriented arguments to convince them to join up. We also explore the quality of work-based learning placements provided to try to identify the relationship between the characteristics and motivations of employers and the quality of the internships that they provide.

State Dual Enrollment Policies: Addressing Access and Quality

Policymakers and educators continue to seek options for helping high school students transition successfully into postsecondary education. This interest stems, in part, from evidence that American students are unprepared for college—nearly half of all postsecondary students need at least one remedial course upon entering college (NCES, 2002). A body of research demonstrates that postsecondary success is predicated on a clear understanding of the expectations in college as well as rigorous academic course work in high school (Venezia, Kirst, and Antonio, 2003; Adelman, 1999). This suggests that high schools and colleges should work together to ensure students’ high school experiences are related to college expectations. Dual enrollment programs can do just that: blur the distinction between high school and college by allowing high school students to enroll in college courses and earn college credit. In dual credit programs, the college course yields high school credit as well. Traditionally, dual enrollment has been targeted toward the most academically proficient high school students. Some educators and policymakers now suggest that a broader range of students could benefit from these programs; many more students could achieve at the college level earlier if only they are challenged to do so. And, by exposing high school students to the academic and social demands of college, it is hoped that the need for remediation in college will be reduced (AASCU, 2002; Martinez and Bray, 2002; National Commission on the High School Senior Year, 2001). This Brief, based on a longer report of the same title, examines how – and whether – access to dual enrollment programs is influenced by state policies. The regulatory landscape of dual enrollment is unclear. In many states, these programs have only recently become the subject of legislation. Thus, we summarize dual enrollment legislation in all 50 states, as of the end of 2003. We analyze the implications of state policies for programs and students, in particular the ways that policies can promote or inhibit broad student participation in dual enrollment. It is important to note that local interpretations of state-level legislation may result in programs operating differently than state policy intends. However, we focus on policies as written, rather than program practices.

Dual Enrollment Programs: Easing Transitions from High School to College

Research demonstrates clear economic benefits for students who continue education beyond high school (NCES, 2001). Yet the transition from high school to college is an unsuccessful one for many. Of those high school graduates who entered postsecondary education for the first time in the 1995-1996 school year, 37 percent had left two years later without having earned a degree or certificate. This slippage results from a variety of causes. Some students are unsure how to apply for college or how to pay for it; some are academically unprepared for higher education; some face a frustrating task of balancing school and work. As postsecondary education becomes increasingly necessary to gain access to most reasonably well-paid jobs, the sharp division between high schools and colleges becomes more problematic. The American Youth Policy Forum (2000) and the National Commission on the High School Senior Year (2001) have called for a re-thinking of how students move from secondary to postsecondary education. We briefly review two approaches that attempt to link high schools and colleges—the coordination of high school exit and college entry standards, and Tech Prep. The remainder of this Brief is devoted to a discussion of one rapidly growing and promising initiative, dual enrollment. The strongest predictor of bachelor’s degree completion is the intensity and quality of students’ high school curriculum (Adelman, 1999). The efforts of the last few years towards raising academic standards have achieved some progress in this regard. In 1982, only 14 percent of high school students took the minimum coursework recommended by the 1983 Nation At Risk report (four years of English and three each of science, math, and social studies). In 1994, 51 percent of students did so (Jennings & Rentner, 1998). Enrollments in advanced math, science, and AP classes are higher than they were a decade ago (Jennings & Rentner, 1998). However, school district requirements for graduation still often fall short of those for college entry and success (The Education Trust, 1999). The National Commission on the High School Senior Year (2001) reported that only ten states have aligned their high school graduation and college admissions requirements in English and only two have done so in math. Tech Prep offers students planned career pathways that link high school classes to advanced technical education at colleges. These programs usually begin during the last two years of high school and continue into the first two years of college. Tech Prep has made some progress in formalizing articulation between secondary and postsecondary education (Orr, 1998; 1999; Bailey & Morest, 1998). Its growth, however, has been hampered by the perception that it is a vocational program, while the emphasis of secondary education is increasingly on academics.