Browsing by Subject "Community College"
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Item A Case Study of the Academic Success of Somali Refugee Students in a Two-Year Community College.(2015-08) Ibrahim, MustafaAbstract This is a mixed-method, qualitative study of 36 Somali students to uncover key factors affecting their academic success in a two-year community college in the Twin Cities of Minnesota/St. Paul. The Twin Cities metropolitan area has become a preferred location in the US for Somali diaspora to settle because of the rich social, economic, and educational opportunities offered. A purposive sample of 18 current and 18 drop-outs male and female students were selected from a population of 234 Somali students who attended one of the largest and well-known community and technical colleges in the Twin Cities area. All 234 students participated in a screening questionnaire consisting of questions about socio-cultural conditions. Thirty-six students in the purposive sample were selected based on their responses to the screening questionnaire, were asked to participate in a semi-structured focus group interview and an individual interview. Three major themes emerged from the data related to cultural identity and sense of place, language use, and motivation. Somali students who were most successful academically had acculturated additively keeping their "Somaliness" while at the same time actively adopting American cultural values, skills, and practices. In addition, the most successful students valued persistent, committed educational progress whether their goals were modest or ambitious. Most who succeeded also had the most substantial and consistent family support, university financial, social integration, and years of English language exposure.Item Multiple Measures Assessment: Improving Course Placement in Two-Year Institutions(2017-05) Talbert, CorwinEach year, students arrive on community college campuses needing developmental coursework prior to beginning their programs of study. Often, the only factor used in assessing students’ college readiness is a placement exam. There is increasing evidence that these exams misplace substantial proportions of students. Incorporating variables related to students’ prior academic achievement and noncognitive traits may aid in placement. This study explored the state of assessment for course placement at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. The placement system at the college was analyzed, which relies on the ACCUPLACER exam. Two tests were poor predictors of course success and exhibited disparities among racial and ethnic groups. The predictive validity of high school statistics and the Grit Scale were analyzed. High school GPA proved to be a strong predictor and improved accuracy by reducing severe misplacement. Based on these findings, recommendations were made for the implementation of a multiple measures placement system.Item A prospective study of potentially traumatic events: associations between types and dimensions of events and outcomes.(2012-06) Anders, Samantha LeeThe purposes of this study were to assess lifetime and recent exposure to potentially traumatic life events (PTE) among undergraduate and community college students, to assess the relation between event exposure and a broad range of outcomes (i.e., mental and physical health, life satisfaction, GPA) and to compare students who were exposed to a PTE to those who were not exposed, on changes in functioning on a broad range of outcomes (e.g., PTSD, distress, life satisfaction, world assumptions). Undergraduate students from a Midwestern university (n = 842) and a community college (n = 242) completed online measures of lifetime event exposure and outcomes at Time 1 (T1) and recent event exposure and outcomes at Time 2 (T2) two months later. PTEs assessed included events that did and did not meet the definition of a traumatic event (i.e., PTSD Criterion A1) in the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000) as well as directly (e.g., own life-threatening illness) and indirectly (e.g., others' illness) experienced events. Individuals who experienced an event between T1 and T2 and said that it had caused them considerable or extreme distress made up the PTE group (n = 153). The no PTE group (n = 198) consisted of individuals who either did not experience an event between T1 and T2 or experienced an event that caused them no distress. Students reported experiencing many lifetime and recent Criterion A1 and non-A1 events; community college students reported more events than did university students. Generally, individuals who reported more lifetime events also reported poorer outcomes (e.g., poorer health) at T1. The number of non-Criterion A1 and directly experienced events tended to be more strongly correlated with negative outcomes than were the number of Criterion A1 and indirectly experienced events reported at T1. Controlling for number of lifetime traumas and neuroticism, the PTE group reported significantly more change in mental and physical health symptoms and world assumptions than the no PTE group, and reported more reliable change in outcomes. Overall, however, the amount of change in the PTE group was small.Item Succession planning in a two-year technical college system.(2009-06) Neefe, Diane OsterhausThe study explores the organizational characteristics of strategic planning, succession planning and career management and the processes impact on the hiring location of academic leaders from within the college, external to the college but within the system, and external to the system. The study was conducted in the 16 college Wisconsin Technical College System. The population included the chief academic officers, academic vice presidents or provosts, deans, and associate or assistant deans. An online quantitative survey was distributed to the population of 236 individuals with a 67 percent return rate. The study results indicate a direct relationship between the maturity of strategic planning and the maturity of succession planning. The study also explores leadership development experiences offered by two-year technical colleges and respondent satisfaction and value of the leadership development experiences. The study finds no relationship between organizational characteristics of strategic planning, succession planning and career management and the location of academic-leadership hires. The results of this study establish a link between organizational-strategic planning, succession planning and administrative-career management within two-year technical colleges. These data further identify relationships between the academic administrators perceptions of the elements of strategic planning, succession planning and career management used within his or her respective organization. In addition, the study also explores the satisfaction of leadership experiences and identifies the point in career progression when the learning experience reflects the highest satisfaction.Item Understandings of Proportionality as a Mathematical Structure and Psychological Aspects of Proportional Reasoning in Community College Mathematics Students(2015-05) Breit-Goodwin, MeganProportionality and proportional reasoning play pivotal roles in the foundation of algebra and higher-level mathematics study. Proportionality is a mathematical structure that models the relationship within contextual situations in which two quantities, x and y, change together in ways that the rate between the quantities stays the same, such as speed or density. Proportional reasoning involves the psychological underpinnings that facilitate the interpretation, sense making, and operational flexibility necessary for working with proportion related situations. The development of these understandings and reasoning processes is both mathematically and psychologically complex. Although there has been much research surrounding the ways children come to understand proportionality and reason proportionally (e.g. Lamon, 2007; Lesh, et al., 1987; Lobato et al. 2010; Post et al., 1988), there is a need for research into the ways that these concepts and reasoning processes emerge in older students and adults (e.g. Lamon, 2007; Mesa, Wladis, & Watkins, 2014; Sitomer et al., 2012). This study explored the relationships between understandings of proportionality and proportional reasoning processes in community college mathematics students, and the teaching and learning activities that support their construction in post-secondary developmental mathematics students. The study employed design experiment methodology that included two two-week teaching experiments (Cobb et al., 2003; Cobb & Steffe, 1983/2011; Gravemeijer & van Eerde, 2009). The findings showed that the understanding and interpretation of rate relationships are central to a connected understanding of proportionality and flexible proportional reasoning processes. This key understanding was characteristic of college-level mathematics students, and successfully constructed by developmental mathematics students through the teaching experiment. The interpretation of a y = mx functional relationship in proportional contexts served to stabilize the understandings and reasoning processes of developmental students and facilitated reasoning processes similar to those of college algebra students. These results provide evidence that a non-traditional approach to the treatment of proportionality in developmental mathematics contexts can effectively build connected and meaningful understandings that will support student success in college-level mathematics courses. The two teaching experiments allowed for observation based modifications to a Hypothetical Learning Trajectory (Simon, 1995) consistent with the tenants of design study.