Appendix A Data Analysis Notes
Behavioral Sciences Courses Included In This Review
The following courses were included as behavioral sciences courses in this review:
ANT 100
ANT 113
ANT 201
ANT 202
ANT 202Z
ANT 205
ANT 205Z
ANT 215
ANT 216
ANT 217
PSY 110
PSY160
PSY 206
PSY 210
PSY 215
PSY 222
PSY 230
PSY 245
PSY 257
PSY 257Z
PSY 260
PSY 298
WMN 257
SOC 101
SOC 101Z
SOC 110
SOC 110Z
SOC 150
SOC 170
SOC 170Z
SOC 230
SOC 245
SOC 270
SOC 270Z
Comparison Data
To provide a basis for comparing the data from the Behavioral Sciences Program (BSP)
courses, we chose to use parallel data from other courses with a similar academic transfer or
general education intent. A data base of other general education courses was developed, which
included college-level courses in Humanities (including English), Fine Arts, Languages,
Mathematics, Science, and the remaining Social Sciences courses. Remedial English and Math,
Vocational Preparation, Continuing Education, and Business and Computer Science courses
were excluded. This data base is referred to as Other General Education (OGE) courses in the
data analysis.
It is important to note that enrollments in BSP courses were approximately one-tenth the
size of enrollments in the OGE courses.
The faculty in the Behavioral Sciences Program wishes to express their appreciation to
Gerald Woodard for his fine efforts in assembling the data for the BSP and OGE courses. He is
not responsible for any possible errors in data manipulation, comparison or interpretation.
Data notes
FTE Students – These data count each tenth-day enrollment, and thus a student may be
counted several times a quarter, if he/she was enrolled in more than a single class in the quarter.
Each enrollment represents one-ninth of an annual Full-Time Equivalent Student (since all
courses in the Behavioral Sciences Program are 5 credit courses).
Grades – These data count each grade submitted in the quarter. Decimal grades from 0.0
through 4.0, and letter grades of NC (no credit) and W (withdrawal) were included.
Student enrollments – These data represent unduplicated student counts (headcounts).
Thus, a student who took two or more courses in the BSP would only be counted once in each
quarter in which they were enrolled. The same definition was used for students in OGE courses.
There is a problem, however. The same student would be counted in each group if he/she took
courses in both the Behavioral Sciences Program and Other General Education courses. It is
therefore necessary to conceive of the student enrollment data as representing a sample of
students who chose to take courses in the behavioral sciences compared to students who chose to
take other general education courses. The overlap (i.e., students who took courses in both
groups) has the effect of reducing the size of any observed student differences between BSP
courses data and OGE courses data. Since many (maybe most) of the students who took courses
in the behavioral sciences would also be counted in the OGE courses data, the overlap is likely
extensive. Thus, any statistical comparisons are conservative, and any observed student
enrollment differences likely reflect real differences between the two groups of students, and
therefore, reflect differences between the two groups of courses. This concern is not relevant for
comparisons within the BSP, i.e., when comparing academic years within the BSP to identify
trends. In both kinds of comparisons, however, the reasons for any differences that might be
found are uncertain.
The following student enrollment characteristics were analyzed, compared with OGE
course enrollments and examined for possible trends over the period covered:
Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Prior Educational Level
Family Status
Full-time/Part-Time Attendance
Day/Evening Attendance
Student Intent (original reason for enrolling)
Planned Work While Attending
Prior Credit Level (when enrolling)
Disability Status
Running Start Students
Program Completions
Statistical Comparisons
Two-sample tests of the significance of the difference between percentages were used to
compare student enrollments in BSP courses with student enrollments in OGE courses. The
same test was used to evaluate trends in enrollments by comparing enrollments in academic year
1999-2000 with enrollments in academic year 2002-2003 (the last year for which complete fourquarter-data was available).
Statistical significance indicates how likely the observed difference would occur by
chance. Differences that would occur by chance less than 1 time in 100 independent replications
are considered “statistically significant” in this report. Statistical significance does not indicate
that a difference is large or meaningful; only that it is reliable. It is important to note that, due to
the large numbers of enrollments in each group of courses, differences between the two groups
as small as two percentage points were generally found to be statistically significant. Since the
number of enrollments in each academic year was much smaller than the total enrollment,
percentage differences between the two academic years had to be larger to reach statistical
significance. Differences of five percentage points or greater were generally found to be
statistically significant for BSP data.
As discussed above, the tests of significance are conservative, because some of the same
students were counted in both programs. In many cases, the observed differences may be due to
the educational context (e.g., course scheduling) rather than some intrinsic characteristic of the
program itself. The instructional significance of any differences is arguable.
The two-sample test of significance is not valid for a joint percentage that is less than 5
percent or greater than 95 percent of the two groups combined. For this reason, some categories
had to be combined for analysis purposes. If the percentage in a single or combined category
was less than 5 percent of the combined total, no test of significance was computed.