Increasing First-Year Student
Engagement, Learning and Success In
Community Colleges
Dr. Patricia Stanley
Dr. Margaret “Peggy” King
Thomas Brown
Fulfilling the Promise of the
Community College
Co-editors
 Thomas Brown
 Margaret C. King
 Patricia Stanley
Co-sponsored by
 National Resource Center for the First-Year
Experience and Students in Transition
 American Association of Community
Colleges

http://sc.edu/fye/publications/monograph/monographs/ms056.html
Fulfilling the Promise of the
Community College
Why this monograph now?
Overarching principles
Themes and organization
Fall 2011-Spring 2012 Innovative
Educators webinar series
 FYE Institute-November 6-8
http://www.sc.edu/fye/sscc/index.html
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Community colleges have gone from being
the stepchild to being the golden child…
Dr. Frank Chong, Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Community Colleges
Whether providing vocational
training, a pathway to transfer, or
continuing professional development,
community colleges are about
enhancing human capital, increasing
access, and creating social equity in
the 21st century.
Jennifer Keup, Director
National Resource Center
Community colleges are being challenged to
play a key role in the nation’s efforts to double
the number of college graduates in the next
10 years.
The first-year, indeed the first few weeks
of the beginning semester, is a pivotal
point in students’ academic careers.
Brown, King, & Stanley, 2011
Overview of the Monograph
Guided by several overarching principles:
 The learning college movement: how do you
know what students are learning and
achieving
 Measures of students success should differ
between two- and four-year colleges due to
diversity of students
 The multiple missions of community colleges
make them unique in the nation and world
Overview of the Monograph
Describes the distinctive characteristics
of first-year student experiences and
challenges in community college based
on research and effective practices.
Arranged in three parts
Part 1: establishes the context for examining the
first-year experience in community colleges.
Part 2: examines broad strategies for increasing
student success including professional
development and effective transfer initiatives.
Part 3: addresses specific interventions to support
first-year students learning and engagement and
persistence, including transition programs,
academic advising, and learning communities
Chapter 1: The American Community
College: From Access to Success
Dr. George Boggs
President Emeritus and Chief Executive Officer
American Association of Community Colleges
Former Superintendent/President
Palomar College
The Evolution of Colleges of
Opportunity
Since the founding of Joliet College in
1901, community colleges have evolved
to become the most egalitarian of all
higher education institutions—
democracy’s colleges.
They have evolved to include workforce,
community, and developmental
education and lifelong learning
Distinctive Characteristics of
Community Colleges
Access, to Persistence, and Inclusion
Community colleges provide access to
higher education for those who plan to
continue their education at the four-year
level, as well as for those seeking
career-technical education, and also for
people who choose or are unable to
attend a four year college
Distinctive Characteristics of
Community Colleges
 Community Responsiveness and
Innovation
 Responding to community needs is an integral
part to the service mission.
 Innovation in partnering with local business and
industry to design training programs to meet
workforce needs.
 Encouraging entrepreneurship, hosting Small
Business Development Centers or business
incubators that nurture fledgling entrepreneurs.
Distinctive Characteristics of
Community Colleges
 Small class-size and a focus on
teaching.
 More on-to-one relationships between
students and faculty.
 A primary focus on teaching and learning
rather than an emphasis on research and
publishing.
 Retain faculty with experience working in
specific or highly specialized fields
The Learning College Model and the
Success and Completion Agenda
 Achieving the Dream
 Gates Foundation Postsecondary
Success Initiative
 The Obama Administration Higher
Education Agenda
 Voluntary Framework of Accountability
Chapter 2: Understanding Entering
Community College Students:
Learning from Student Voices
Dr. Kay McClenney, Director of the
Center for Community College Student
Engagement
University of Texas Austin
Understanding data—whether quantitative
or qualitative—about their students is only
the first step for community colleges to
strengthen entering student success.
Ultimately, it takes a sustained commitment
to engage in continuous inquiry to design
first-year programs to enhance student
success.
Engagement Matters
 For community college students who
are frequently juggling multiple
challenges and obligations,
engagement is critical.
 It may even the playing field,
heightening chances of success for
students who bring an assortment of
risk factors to college with them.
Purpose of the Chapter
 Focus on the characteristics and
earliest experience of community
college students, as revealed through
national data, student surveys, and
focus groups
 Community College Survey of student
Engagement (CCSSE)
 Survey of Entering Student Engagement
(SENSE)
Typically, the data initially raise
more questions than they
answer...beginning the important
campus process of building a
culture of evidence and inquiry.
McClenney, 2011
Benchmarks of Effective Practice
with Entering Students
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Early connections
High expectations and aspirations
Clear academic plan and pathway
An effective track to college readiness
Engaged learning
Academic and social support network
Benchmarks of Effective Practice
with Entering Students
 Early connections
Asked why they persisted, students
typically referred to a strong early
connection to someone at the
college…
Benchmarks of Effective Practice
with Entering Students
 An effective track to college readiness
One of the major challenges is the
significant proportion of students who
enter under-prepared for college level
work. Therefore it is key to
 assess academic skills
 Appropriate course placement
 Effective instructional and support strategies
What needs to be done
 Build a culture of evidence
 Treat Each Entering Group of Students as a
distinct Cohort
 Commit to the discipline of routine student
cohort tracking
 Purposefully Design the Entering Student
Experience
 Require and take experience where the
students are
 Bring programs to scale
What needs to be done
 Emerging evidence suggests that certain
educational experience may contribute
significantly to the likelihood of students
success. Examples include:
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College orientation programs
First-year seminars
Student success courses
Leaning communities
At some point it behooves community
college educators to overcome their
reluctance to make mandatory
experiences shown to enhance
student learning, persistence, and
attainment.
McClenney, 2011
Chapter 3: Enhancing First Year
Success in the Community College:
What Works in Student Retention
Dr. Wesley Habley, Principal Associate
Coordinator of American College Testing
(ACT) Office of State Organizations
 Review of community college
retention to persistence to degree
data from ACT’s Institutional Data
questionnaire (1983 – 2009)
 Results from ACT’s What Works in
Student Retention Survey, Spring
2009
 Three sets of recommendations for
increasing student success
Community College Retention
Rates
 Highest Rate – 53.7% (2008, 2009)
 Lowest Rate – 51.3% (2004)
What Works in Student Retention
 40.7% of campuses have a retention
coordinator
 32.1% had goals for retention
 Institutional respondents more likely
to place responsibility for attrition on
student characteristics rather than
institutional factors
Most Common Retention
Interventions
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Faculty use of technology in teaching
Tutoring
College sponsored social activities
Mandated placement
Required developmental coursework
Individual career counseling
Highest Rated Interventions or
Practices
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Reading Center/Lab
Comprehensive Learning Center/Lab
Tutoring
Mandated placement
Required developmental coursework
Increased number of academic
advisors
Highest Rated Interventions (cont.)
 Of the top eleven, seven focus on
learning support and four on
academic advising
Interventions used in Colleges with
Higher Retention Rates
 pre-enrollment financial aid advising
 Comprehensive learning assistance
center/lab
 Diagnostic academic skills assessment
 Programs for racial/ethnic minorities
 Reading center/lab
 Center that integrates academic
advising with career/life planning
Interventions (cont.)
 Required developmental coursework
 Increased number of academic
advisors
 Integration of academic advising with
first-year transition programs
 Staff mentoring
 Student success is not an accident –
it is the result of intentional activities
taken by the college
Chapter 4: Reframing At-Risk to High
Potential: Supporting the Achievement
and Success of Underprepared Students
Dr. Mario Rivas, Professor of Psychology
Merritt College
Thomas Brown, Managing Principal
Thomas Brown & Associates, LLC
Community colleges make winners
out of ordinary people.
Leslie Koltai, 1993
The majority of community college
students are academically
underprepared to achieve success.
Schuetz & Bailey, 2008
The mission of the community
college presupposes that in order for
first year students to succeed, they
must be engaged with educators
who believe in the capacity of all
students to develop and learn.
Rivas and Brown, 2011
While faculty and staff may be
committed to student success, most
institutions have a fragmented
approach to responding to student
needs.
Sperling, 2009
They are more likely to blame student attrition
on students (WWISR, 2004, 2010)
1. This chapter defines underpreparedness and examines how being
underprepared combines with
institutional characteristics to influence
first-year student learning,
engagement and persistence.
2. It offers a teaching and advising
method that can increase student
success in the first-year of college.
3. Makes recommendations for
strategies to enable community
colleges to actualize their mission
and goals and fulfill their promise.
Underprepared students are not ready
for college-level work because of gaps
in one or more of the following areas
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General knowledge (e.g., history, lit, civics)
Skills areas (e.g., reading, writing, math)
Study skills and self management
Critical thinking and analysis
Technological competencies
Knowledge of behaviors leading to success
A vision supporting motivation & persistence
Willingness to take instructors advice
Sally Rings, Pima Community College, 2000
Many kinds of under-preparedness
including:
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Adult/re-entry students
First generation/low-SES students
First-year students
International students
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students
Multicultural students
Multilingual/ESL students
Student-athletes
Students with disabilities
Veterans
Undecided/Exploratory students
Multiple issues…
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Adult/re-entry students AND ALSO…
First generation/low-SES students
First-year students
International students
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender students
Multicultural students
Multilingual/ESL students
Student-athletes
Students with disabilities
Veterans
Undecided/Exploratory students
From a psychological perspective,
under-preparedness may stem
from low-self efficacy, or the sense
that one has little control over
thoughts, feeling, and actions
conducive to success.
Bandura, 1985
Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral
Barriers to Student Success
 Attributions regarding ability
 Ego vs. Task involvement
 Reluctance to seek assistance
Offers the 0-100% Teaching and
Advising Method to support
students to share the responsibility
for learning and to shift from a
focus on grades to a focus on
learning and mastery.
Recommends use of an intrusive,
active outreach approach to
engaging under-prepared students.
Chapter 5: Developing and Engaging
Educators to Support First-Year Student
Success
Dr. Christine McPhail
Past President, Cypress College
Founding Professor
Community College Leadership Program
Morgan State University
Thomas Brown, Managing Principal
Thomas Brown & Associates, LLC
Community colleges must seek to
systematically enhance and expand the
ways they provide professional
development in order to improve the
first-year learning experience.
McPhail & Brown, 2011
Students rely on faculty and staff to
inform them about what is required
to be academically successful.
Faculty and staff significantly
influence students decision to persist
or drop out and suggests that
colleges must teach faculty and staff
how to improve the quality of their
interactions with students.
Patricia Farrell, 2009
Many campuses are ill-prepared to
support first year and other students to
achieve success due to a lack of preservice and in-service professional
development, as well as training efforts
that are sporadic, or that focus only on
full time faculty.
Brown & McPhail, 2011
Linking Professional Development
to Student Success
 Most community college faculty receive
little or no training to deal with
increasing numbers of underprepared
students.
Carnegie Foundation 2008
 Less than 1/3 of community college
faculty indicate they had adequate
preparation and training before
beginning their work as advisors
Brown 2009
Community colleges must examine the
quality and scope of their current
professional development efforts and
make on-going professional
development part of the job description
for all part-time and fulltime campus
faculty and staff.
McPhail & Costner, 2004; Carnegie, 2008
This chapter expands the lens of
professional development to view it as
essential to first-year student success
It describes the conceptual, relational,
and informational elements that
constitute comprehensive professional
development.
 Conceptual: what educators must
understand
 Informational: what educators must
know
 Relational: What educators must do
This chapter expands the lens of
professional development to view it as
essential to first-year student success
It suggests standards for developing
educators to employ strategies and
techniques that can lead to increased
student success in the first-year and
beyond.
 Context Standards: aligned with mission,
vision, core values, etc.
 Process Standards: needs assessments,
targeted programs, multiple formats, use
data to determine priorities
A Model for Ensuring Student Success
Changing Environment & Changing Students
1st Year
2nd Year
3rd Year and beyond
Need for Information
Changing
Needs
Need for Consultation
Moving In
I
Moving Through
I/S
I/S
Moving On
S/I
S
I = Faculty, counselors, academic advisors, etc.
S = Student
PRESCRIPTIVE
DEVELOPMENTAL
Lynch, 1989; Brown& Rivas, 1994; Creamer, 2000; Brown, 2006
Chapter 6: Creating Effective
Transfer Initiatives
Dr. Thomas Grites, Asst. to the Provost,
Richard Stockton College
Susan Rondeau, Counselor (retired),
Pima Community College
 Focus on transfer initiatives that
originate from outside the institution
 Focus on transfer initiatives specific
to community colleges and receiving
institutions
 Focus on cooperative efforts
External Initiatives
 Legislative initiatives e.g. full
guarantees of credit
 Transfer websites e.g. College Source
Online, Inc.
Community College Initiatives
 Adopting a philosophy of transfer
 Orientations, workshops, classes e.g.
Pima Community College University
Transfer Preparation course
Four-year College Initiatives
 Pre-transfer initiatives e.g.
maintenance of data bases,
articulation agreements, outreach
efforts (Transfer Days)
 Post-transfer initiatives e.g.
orientation programs, transfer
student seminar, peer mentors
Cooperative Initiatives
 Degree completion program on site
 Degree completion program on
multiple sites
Recommendations
 Improve data driven decision making
 Extend orientation programs
Chapter 7: Planning and
Implementing for Effective Transitions
Dr. Betsy O. Barefoot, Vice-President
John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence
in Undergraduate Education
Dr. Paul Arcario, Dean
LaGuardia Community College
Dr. Ana Guzman, President
Palo Alto College
Purpose of this chapter
 Explores challenges and opportunities for
community colleges in designing and
implementing effective transition programs.
 Examines the most frequently used types of
transition programs
 Shares institutional case studies of successful
initiatives at LaGuardia Community College
(NY) and Palo Alto College (TX)
Challenges to Effective
Transition Programming
 Large number of commuter students
 Early departure of first-year students
 Diversity of students with differing
needs
 Determining the specific mix of costeffective transition programs
Pre-term orientation programs
 Despite strong recommendations, only
50% of community colleges offer
mandatory orientation programs
 Exponential growth in on-line programs
 Time and timing of orientation
Extended orientation programs
 The majority of community colleges
offer extended orientation courses, but
only 20% require such classes
 Research demonstrates improved
grades and a higher percentage of
persistence for students participating in
extended programs.
Lessons learned and
recommendations
 In order for first-year programming to be
sustained, they must be considered
essential and be supported by senior
administrators.
 Programs should be required
 Pilot “boutique” programs must be scaled
up to enhance overall retention and success
 Programs often have effects beyond their
original intent
Chapter 8: Academic Advising
Models to Support Student Success
Dr. Peggy King, Associate Dean Emerita
Schenectady County Community College
Rusty Fox, Vice-President for Student Development
Tarrant County Community College
 90% of students say that academic
advising is important yet only 56%
use this service sometimes or often
 35% rarely or never use academic
advising services (CCSSE)
 It is important to help students
understand the importance of
academic advising
Learning Outcomes for Academic
Advising
 Intellectual growth
 Realistic self-appraisal
5 Critical Skills/Abilities of
Successful Advisors
 A base of competence
 A skilled confidence builder
Key Considerations in Designing
Advising Programs
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Student population
Organizational structure
Budget
Leadership
Advisor development
Assessment
Organizational Models of Advising
Self-contained Model
 Centralized
Student A
Advising
Office
 Decentralized
Faculty Only Model
Student B
 Shared
Supplementary Model
Student
Advising
Office
Student
Faculty
Faculty
The Ideal Model for Community Colleges?
Total Intake Model
Student
Advising
Office
Academic
Sub-unit
Chapter 9: Career Development: An
Essential Component of First-Year
Experience and Student Transition
Dr. Patricia Stanley
First Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Community Colleges
President, Frederick Community College
Career Development is life long,
as is community college education…
The community college as the
Nexus of career pathways
 Experiential Education and Career
Pathways
 Adult Education and Career Pathways
 Baccalaureate Programs in the Twoyear College
 Career Development Services Online
 The impact of Career Pathways
Initiatives on Student Retention
Programs that Work
 Quinsigamond Community College
 Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical
College
Chapter 10: Learning Communities
and Community Colleges:
The Challenges and Benefits
Dr. Randy Jedele, Humanities Dept. Chair
Coordinator of Learning Communities
Des Moines Area CC
Dr. Vincent Tinto, Distinguished University
Professor, Syracuse University
 Regardless of how we choose to define
success in college – whether it is a
statistical measure of persistence and
retention, or gains in critical thinking and
writing abilities that show up as positive
outcomes on student learning assessments,
we now have compelling evidence to
suggest that creating learning communities
on campuses leads to greater student
success in college (Shapiro and Levine,
1999).
A Rationale for Learning
Communities
 Organize students and faculty into
smaller groups
 Encourage integration of the
curriculum
 Help students establish academic and
social networks
Learning Community Models
 Paired or clustered (linked courses)
 Cohorts in large courses (Freshman
Interest Groups)
 Team taught programs
 Residence based learning
communities
Research Findings
 Institutional differences
 Special challenges
 Unique benefits
Effective Practices
 Collin County Community College
 Delta College
 Des Moines Area Community College
 Kingsborough Community College
Chapter 11: Increasing Access and
Success in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math (STEM)
Dr. Kim Armstrong
Assistant Dean of Student Support Services
at Black Hawk College
All along the educational pipeline,
students are being lost in STEM fields.
This is particularly true for women and
students from historically
underrepresented groups.
Armstrong, 2011
National statistics reveal that community
colleges provide access for all students,
especially those who have been
underrepresented in STEM fields. We look
for community colleges to play a
significant and unique role in STEM
education.
“Role of Community Colleges in STEM Education”
Hoffman, Starobin, Santos-Lanaan, & Rivera, 2010
This chapter
 Examines the role of community
colleges in preparing students for
STEM careers
 Consider the barriers to participation
in STEM fields
 Identifies effective strategies for
increasing the pool and success rates
for STEM students
 Highlights some exemplary programs
Barriers to participation and
success
 Lack of exposure to STEM fields and
careers
 Lack role models and mentors
 Inadequate pre-college preparation
 Unsupportive teaching and learning
environment on campus
Role of community colleges in
preparing students for STEM careers
Contextual learning
Experiential education
College readiness programs
On-going professional development
for instructors in STEM
 Mentoring programs
 Opportunities for collaborative
learning
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Role of community colleges in
preparing students for STEM careers
 Developmental education
 Bridge programs
 Careers and Technical Education
models
 Transfer pipelines
 Faculty development initiatives
Recommendations for increasing
access and success in STEM
 K-12/14/16/20 partnerships
 Fostering development of STEM
instructors
 Develop mentorship programs
 Diversify the STEM faculty
 “Stalk the second tier and beyond”
Concluding Thoughts…
Successful program
characteristics
 History of working collaboratively
across programs, academic disciplines
and services
 Well designed learning communities
 Ability to make data-driven decisions
and plan strategically
Summary and Recommendations
Editors and community college leaders who
support first-year programs at their
colleges
 Create intentionally designed
comprehensive programs
 Cultivate support from campus leadership
 Establish relevant benchmarks for success
 Build a culture of evidence
2011-2012 Webinar Series
Increasing First-Year Student
Engagement, Learning and Success
in Community Colleges
• Understanding Entering Community College Students ~ 10/20
• What Works in Student Retention in Community Colleges ~ 11/3
• Building Paths to First Year Student Success: Planning and
Implementing Effective Student Transitions Programs ~ 11/17
• Academic Advising: A Critical Link to First-Year Student Success ~ 12/1
Registration
http://www.innovativeeducators.org/product_p/488.htm
Increasing First-Year Student
Engagement, Learning and Success In
Community Colleges
Dr. Patricia Stanley
patstanleycc@yahoo.com
Dr. Margaret “Peggy” King
kingmc@sunysccc.edu
Thomas Brown
tom@tbrownassociates.com