COLLEGES INITIATING
STRUCTURED GUIDANCE:
Reducing the Need for Social
Know-How?
Regina Deil-Amen
University of Arizona
for
Student Advising in High School and College Panel
at
Persistence in High School and College:
Tools to Help Increase Persistence and Degree Attainment
Friday, April 30, 2010
Problem?
Approx. three-quarters of degree-seekers
who begin in community colleges leave
postsecondary education without any
degree after five years (Rosenbaum, DeilAmen, & Person, 2006).
Research Question?
How does a community college’s
organizational environment either
reduce or sustain the obstacles to
degree completion faced by firstgeneration college students?
Institution Sample and Research Methods
with James Rosenbaum, Northwestern University
7 community colleges
7 “occupational” colleges
3 not-for-profit
4 for-profit
• In Chicago area
• conducted one-hour interviews with 234 students,
administrators, administrative staff, program coordinators,
deans, departmental chairs, advisors, and faculty
• administered survey to targeted occupational classes in
both colleges
Majors/Programs Included in Study
Public Community Colleges
Business/
Secretarial
Health
Computer/
Electronics
Private Occupational Colleges
Business
Accounting
Management and Marketing
Administrative Assisting
Office Technology
Executive Secretary
Business Administration
Accounting
Management
Administrative Assisting
Office Technology
Paralegal, Legal Office Assistant
Court Reporting
Medical Assistant
Health Information Technology
Occupational/Physical Therapy Asst
Cardiac Tech
Radiography
Medical Assistant
Health Information Technology
Computer Aided Drafting,
Architectural Drafting,
Electronics/Computer Tech,
Mechanical Engineering Tech,
Computer Info Systems
Computer Aided Drafting/Design
Electronics
Computer/Electronics Engineer Tech
Computer Info Systems
Info Technology
Business Computer Programming
Computer Network Specialist
Student Survey Characteristics
Public
Community
Colleges
Private
Occupational
Colleges
Parents’
Income
< $30,000
41%
45%
Parents’
Education
< BA
83%
89%
25%
28%
HS Grades
C or Lower
Study Goals
• This study was NOT a comparison of good
colleges and bad colleges, it was an examination
of different practices.
• Our goal was to identify good practices that
are particularly helpful for first generation,
lower-income, nontraditional students.
• How might public institutions “borrow” the
‘good’ practices of the private occupational
colleges?
– Consistent with more recent findings among
students at four-year public university.
FINDINGS
The community college
context:
"It's a balancing act,
and we have these
external pressures on us
to do 14 million things”
(A community college Career Dean)
Student’s “social know-how”
is extremely relevant
WHAT IS SOCIAL KNOW-HOW?
• “knowing the ropes,”
the rules of the game
• awareness of effective college planning,
strategies for navigating the institution, and
procedural actions necessary for success
• First-generation students are most
likely to possess limited social know-how.
Students with limited time and
finances, and those with many
work and family obligations are
particularly vulnerable to the
negative impact of limited social
know-how.
• The
community colleges required more “social knowhow” to negotiate the college-going process.
•At the occupational colleges , a student’s social
background had less influence.
Consequences for Students with
Limited Social Know-how
• less information
•
•
•
•
confusion
misinformed choices
mistakes in decision-making
wasted time
ASPECTS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES THAT
ARE PROBLEMATIC FOR STUDENTS WITH
LIMITED SOCIAL KNOW-HOW
• organizational complexity and
bureaucratic hurdles
• no systematic help with long-term goals
and planning
• guidance must be initiated by the student
• low counselor-to-student ratios
• arbitrary registration process
• lack of strategic career counseling
organizational complexity and
bureaucratic hurdles
Students reported the need to:
• acquire and assess extensive information
• interpret complicated class schedules and difficult and
time consuming course catalogs
• overcome difficulties in filling out enrollment forms,
registering for classes, applying for financial aid, choose
classes in correct sequence to meet degree
requirements
• search all over campus for information
• self-educate themselves about the financial aid process
• deal with contradictory information from different
sources
As a result, students:
• wasted time, made wrong assumptions
about financial aid and program
requirements, acted on wrong
information, and got extremely
frustrated.
Dean in charge of academic support
center at community college:
“[Students] were constantly saying to us,
‘Nobody told me. I didn’t know.’ …We can
claim that …everything that they need to
know we write down (laughs). It doesn’t
work that way. So they were getting
frustrated, we were getting frustrated.”
Dean of Career programs at cc notes:
Students want to know…
• “How long is it going to take me?”
• “I don’t wanna take a lot of unnecessary
courses. I need to have a time line.”
Parents want to know…
• “This is how much money I got. How much
is it going to cost? They got two years,
they’d better be at the end of the road.”
Students…
“One of my friends went [here]
and she told me, ‘Don't go there
because you're going to waste
your time. You're going to take
classes that you won't need when
you transfer.’”
"I went to registration at 12
and I didn't get out until 7."
“They're rude. This lady kicked me out. … I
didn't have...my security card .. She said,
‘Ah, just get out of here. Just go. You don't
have anything ready. Go.’ ... I understand
they get frustrated, but they don't have to
be rude.
“The financial aid office wasn't what I expected...
I've had a bad experience with them. They're
just very nonchalant about your funding and I
feel like a lot of them don't care because it's like,
‘It's not me getting the money and I don't really
care.’ And I've been yelled at a couple of times in
financial aid by my counselor.”
no systematic help with long-term
goals and planning
Many students:
• Do not have a clear sense of their goals, making it
difficult to seek advice.
• Do not seek counselor advice in their first year about
their course selections if they have not chosen a
specific degree program yet.
• Are uncertain about general education
requirements, course prerequisites
• Receive no structured guidance to clarify their
understanding of class schedules and course and
program catalogues.
In the words of one administrator,
this often results in students
“wandering aimlessly through the
curriculum, amassing large numbers
of hours but not making progress
toward a degree.”
Guidance must be initiated by
the student
What’s the burden of student-initiated
assistance?
To benefit from guidance, students must:
1. be aware of what kind of help they
need and when they need it
2. be informed about how and where
to get this help
3. actually go get it
4. seek this information well in advance
• Sonia: Well I was confused…I had to talk to a
counselor… He wanted to know what I was
going to major in... I told him I liked math so
I'm taking math courses… So that's it.
• Regina: Did you try to talk about other
degrees, like accounting?
• Sonia: No.
• Regina: Did you tell him that you were
interested in those things, too, or just math?
• Sonia: Just math. I figured math and
accounting were maybe the same. I'd never
taken accounting.
low counselor-to-student ratios
= limited counselor availability
• High student-to-counselor ratios (800:1)
• Overburdened with multiple
responsibilities
– Academic planning
– Transfer process and requirements
– Career exploration
– Part-time job placement
– Personal issues
According to one counselor:
"We don't have a command
performance. Obviously we couldn't
have with just eight of us for over
6,000 students."
Community college administrator:
"They're going for pre-registration and
they go make an appointment, and
then it's October and the counselors say,
'Well, you could come in December 6th”
STUDENT:
I talked to one of the counselors, but since
there was a lot of people waiting, it was kind
of fast. We didn't have much time to talk.
Also, when you go to a counselor, many times
you don't really know what you're going to
talk about. You have an idea, but you don't
know what questions to ask. I think counselors
should ask more questions of us. They just
answer our questions then say, "OK, you can
go, since you don't know what to ask." It's
hard. There are things we don't know.
“People are walking around
blindfolded...they don't know
what to do.”
university students
• Responses to “academic shock” rarely involved
seeking help from advisors/instructors
– Some students doubted whether they should have
come to the university – “Maybe I don’t belong here.”
• I better not tell anyone
– “I didn’t want to ask for help from anybody…I just tried to
act like there was nothing wrong .”
– Other students realized they were not as prepared as
they thought they were - “I felt deceived.”
• I need to figure this out on my own
– “It’s all on me.”
Occupational colleges
‘structure out’ the need for
social know-how, making
the “rules of the game”
explicit rather than implicit.
Occupational colleges
‘structure out’ the need for
social know-how, making the
“rules of the game” explicit
rather than implicit.
They have found ways to
transform implicit "rules" into
explicit organizational
structures and policies.
HOW DO OCCUPATIONAL COLLEGES ‘STRUCTURE
OUT’ THE NEED FOR SOCIAL KNOW-HOW
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Structured curriculum
Limited choices for students
Career and program guidance upon enrollment
Mandatory and frequent advising
Close monitoring of students’ progress
Detailed scheduling guidance
Predictable course schedules
Shortened program length
Strategic advice on combining school and work
Eliminating
bureaucratic hurdles
Simplified enrollment process
– Handled by a single individual
– Information available in one place
– Students choose a structured “package” of
courses
– Financial aid is integral and forms are filled
out with staff
Reducing confusing choices
• OC’s offer a clear set of course
sequences aimed at efficient training
for specific career goals.
• Directive approach to exploration
– help students to determine from the outset
what degree program best coincides with
their abilities, interests, and needs.
“You go through all the programs,
and they evaluate you, and you take
some tests. They just interview you,
what you like, what you don't like. . .
they get a feel for you and they tell
you, you know ‘We recommend this
one. We think you'd be good at it.’”
College-Initiated Guidance and
Minimizing the Risk of Student
Error
The occupational colleges have
'structured out' the need for
students to take the initiative
to see a counselor/advisor when
they need assistance. Instead,
the colleges take the initiative
by developing systems that
provide guidance without
students having to ask for it.
• Advisors are assigned to students
– Meetings are required at least every term
– Academic progress is monitored
• Registration guides are made
available
– List exactly what courses to take each
term to complete their degree in a timely
manner
– Facilitate timely degree completion
– Prevent course selection mistakes
Student:
“I think it's a good idea, a lot of
people start taking classes that they
don't really need and it throws them
off. I think it's good. . . it's simple. . .
all you have to do is follow it. There's
no ‘Oh my god, I didn't know I had to
take that class!’ There's a lot of classes
where you have prerequisites. But, if
you go in that order you have no
problem.”
“Have you ever taken any course
which you later discovered would not
count toward your degree?”
_____________________________________
“YES”
_____________________________________
Community college students 45%
Occupational college students 16%
Investing in
Advisors/Counselors
• Lower student-to-staff ratios, 260:1
• Separate staff for job placement and
career counseling
• Regularly scheduled interactions
advising to be more individualized
and personal
Reducing conflicts with
outside demands
• Year round schooling –
shortened terms
• “blocking” of courses
• Consistent class schedules
from term to term
MODEST POLICY SUGGESTIONS
• improve financial aid assistance
•
•
•
•
•
tighter advising
college-initiated guidance (class or one-on-one format)
more structured programs
more predictable schedules
make implicit requirements into explicit structures
• high school - 4year college/university partnerships
– Summer bridge modeling of time management/ study
approaches
– First semester trouble-shooting advising
Improve communication of
facts, emphasizing
advantages, accomplishments,
and pitfalls
Provide clear information about
• class sizes, teaching styles, flexibility
• job placement in career majors
• completion/transfer rates as function of
* students’ initial academic preparation
* the certainty of their degree goals