Tabitha L Grier-Reed

Low Black Student Retention on a Predominantly White Campus: Two Faculty Respond with the African American Student Network.

Black student retention in institutions of higher education is an important 21st-century issue. Thompson, Gorin, Obeidat, and Chen (2006) asserted that Blacks are still underrepresented in institutions of higher education and graduate at lower rates than Whites and Asians over a 5-year period. According to the American Council on Education, at the turn of the century only 40% of eligible Black students went to college, with only 46% of the 40% graduating within 6 years (Astin & Oseguera, 2005). At our own university, a large Midwestern research institution, available data indicate that the 4-year graduation rate for even the highest ability students is approximately 25% higher for Whites than for Blacks (Zetterberg, 2003). This public university serves more than 65,000 students, with 40,437 of those being undergraduates (University Relations, 2006); Blacks make up 4.7% of the undergraduate population, and students of color comprise 17.3% (Office of Institutional Research, 2006). Considering Black undergraduates who enrolled in 1998, of those with the highest college entrance scores only about 25% graduated 4 years later, in 2002 (Zetterberg). In an effort to improve retention and graduation rates on our campus, two Black faculty have responded with the African American Student Network, or as students call it AFAM (signifying African American and “A Family”). We write the current paper to share our response to the problem of retention at our university and to explore Black student experiences. We include an overview of our program and a pilot study assessing the program’s impact.

Constructivist Career Development as a Paradigm of Empowerment for At-Risk Culturally Diverse College Students

Although constructivist career theory is routinely discussed in the literature, links between theory and practice in education are lacking. The current study focused on the potential of a constructivist curriculum to empower at-risk culturally diverse college students by increasing career self-efficacy and reducing dysfunctional career thoughts. Using a pre/post-test design, 75 under-prepared undergraduates who were enrolled in six sections of a constructivist career course at a large Midwestern university completed the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale Short-Form (CDSE-SF) and the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI). The sample was 45% students of color and 55% White. Multivariate analysis of variance with follow-up univariate analyses revealed significantly higher CDSE-SF scores and significantly lower CTI scores. These results suggest that a constructivist career development course may be a viable educational vehicle for empowering at-risk culturally diverse college students by increasing career self-efficacy and decreasing self-defeating thoughts, particularly thoughts associated with decision-making confusion and commitment anxiety.

The African American Student Network: An Informal Networking Group as a Therapeutic Intervention for Black College Students on a Predominantly White Campus.

Informal support networks as opposed to formal mental health counseling may represent a culture-specific, indigenous style of coping for Black college students. Using the African American Student Network (or as students refer to it AFAM), this article comments on the potential of an informal networking group as a culturally sensitive therapeutic intervention. Along with a description of the group process is a discussion of traditional therapeutic factors associated with group work in students’ lived experience of AFAM. The major contention is that even in an informal networking setting, the group process associated with counseling or therapy may occur and generate therapeutic factors. To more fully explore this idea, future development and study of informal networking groups for Black students on predominantly White campuses is recommended. This line of inquiry may have important implications for the development of culturally sensitive mental health practices that better support the psychological health and well-being of Black college students.

Using Constructivist Career Development to Improve Career Decision Self-Efficacy in TRiO Students

Although more high school graduates are attending college, many are not graduating (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2004). First-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students are especially at risk for falling through the cracks. To help address this issue, programs such as TRiO Student Support Services (SSS) assist first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students (as well as those with disabilities) who have matriculated into college. Once these students are in college, SSS programs work to retain and graduate them through advising, tutoring, and other academic and social supports. However, helping students to successfully identify a major or career direction is also important. Hence, we developed a constructivist career course based in the empowerment processes of self-reflection, uncovering strengths, and problem solving (Schaurhofer & Peschl, 2005), and we explored outcomes for TRiO students who enrolled in the course. Specifically, we explored whether our course might improve the career decision self-efficacy of TRiO students. Given the importance of self-efficacy to persistence in higher education settings, an intervention aimed at improving career decision self-efficacy seemed to be one useful way to support and extend the ongoing work of TRiO programs. TRiO programs were established in 1965 to support first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students in attaining postsecondary educational success, particularly with respect to overcoming academic, social, and cultural barriers (Balz & Esten, 1998). Students identified as “first-generation” are typically those whose parents have little more than a high school education and limited familiarity with postsecondary settings. Consequently, in attempting to negotiate their multiple identities across multiple contexts marginality can occur as these students try to bridge home life and college life which are often disconnected (Orbe, 2004). In recent years, higher education has seen a shift toward increasingly more first-generation college students (Orbe, 2004; Pascarella, Pierson, Wolniak, & Terenzini, 2004). In turn, college curricula must be responsive to this growing demographic.

The African American Student Network: An Intervention for Retention.

Comparing retention rates for 91 Black women and 56 Black men who participated in the African American Student Network with 68 women and 36 men who were randomly selected from the population of Black undergraduates at a Midwestern university, we included an analysis of covariance to control for ACT score and first-term grade point average. Results demonstrated a statistically significant main effect for network (F(1, 245) = 10.14, p = .002, η2 = .04), where network participants were retained at a significantly higher rate than randomly selected non-network African American students. There was no effect for gender and no interaction.

The African American Student Network An Exploration of Black Students’ Ego Networks at a Predominantly White Institution

African American Student Network participants have shown higher rates of retention and graduation than their counterparts even after taking into account academic factors. To understand other ways these students might differ from Black students on campus, we used social network analysis to explore whether there were significant differences in demographic composition and frequency of contact with alters/connections in the ego networks of 32 African American Student Network participants and 193 other Black students at the same university. Results indicated that African American Student Network participants had more alters/connections overall and higher percentages of same race, same gender, and same university connections than their counterparts. These students also listed more females in their networks. There was no difference in ratio of family members or males in ego networks and no difference in frequency of contact with alters/connections in ego networks across groups. These results have implications for the importance of same race and same gender connections as protective factors that may facilitate social integration and educational outcomes for African American students, particularly at predominantly White institutions.

An African American Student Networking Group in an Urban High School Experiences and Outcomes

Educational disparities are deeply entrenched in U.S. society. Our research focused on a move toward equity and investment in one Midwestern charter school via the implementation of the African American Student Network. Participants were 15 male and 15 female students in Grades 9 to 12 who participated in the network for one semester. Qualitative analysis of focus group interviews revealed that students in the network experienced safety, support, empowerment, affirmation, and connectedness. Quantitative analysis revealed that pre- and post-test grade point averages (GPAs), disciplinary referrals, and attendance trended in promising directions although there were no statistically significant differences.

Impact of a Constructivist Career Course on Academic Performance and Graduation Outcomes

Career planning courses are one of the most effective ways to improve career development, and the benefits to career decision-making are well documented. The research base regarding whether career courses contribute to academic outcomes is less well-developed. Although recent findings suggest that career courses may improve retention in the first- and second-year of college, it is not clear that these gains extend to graduation. Hence, we explored years to graduation, credit completion, and cumulative grade point average for 103 university students enrolled in a constructivist career course and 107 students in a comparison group. We also included race or ethnicity as an independent variable. Using composite ACT score and high school rank as covariates, we found no effect for the career course on cumulative grade point average, years to graduation, or credit completion. Additionally, there was no effect for race or ethnicity. Implications for the need to develop more upper division career courses are discussed.