TULSA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Julie Woodruff, Associate Professor of English
Mary Millikin, Director of Institutional Research
representing the AtD Data Team
February 3, 2010
© 2010 Tulsa Community College Data Team
TCC Fall 2009 Profile
 19,198 students
 Four campuses city-wide
 62% female and 38% male
 26% minority students
 3,531 first-time freshmen
 44% of students under age
 74% university parallel
21
What’s Wrong?
Why?
Intervention
Assessment and Modification
•Institutional
Research conducted a
comprehensive analysis of student success
disaggregated by demographics
•Core
Team selected three priorities for
further analysis over next four years
Persistence Rate
Persist or Graduate
100
80
60
40
20
0
100%
75%
50% 49%
1972
1485
989
968
40%
781
36%
717
Graduation Rate
by Reading Placement
1404
263
305
Graduation Rate
By Math Placement
648
48
143
1133
YEAR
PRIORITY

2008-09

First-time Freshmen
Persistence

2009-10

Developmental Reading

2010-11

Developmental Mathematics
 African-American Male
Student Persistence
What’s wrong?
• 75% of students do not persist from fall
to spring semester
• 50% of students do not persist from fall
to fall semester
Why?
Intervention
Assessment and Modification
•Student focus groups
•Faculty and staff focus groups
•Literature review
Focus Group Preparation
Planning
 Recruiting students
 Ordering supplies

Student Focus Group Participants
 12 student focus groups
 3 focus groups at each of
4
campuses
 101 students
 Student participants in focus groups
matched demographics of students
in first-time freshmen cohort
Student Results
Most Frequent Barriers

Adjusting to college

Balancing school, employment, and life

Difficulty choosing courses

Communication issues with instructors

Textbook issues
Persistence Findings
Service
Barriers
Academic
Barriers
Adjustment
Barriers
82% of all barriers fell into one of 3 major
types or clusters.
Faculty and Staff Results
Faculty and Staff Focus Groups
2 focus groups offered per campus*
7 total groups conducted
64 total participants; 25 faculty and 39
staff
 First groups on each campus were mixed
groups of faculty and staff volunteers. The
second focus groups on each campus
contained only faculty.
 Asked faculty and staff what challenges
they experience in helping students
persist to their 2nd semester.



*One campus filled one focus group; the second group on that campus was not attended.
Most Frequent Faculty/Staff
Obstacles

Student attitudes/motivation

Students not academically prepared

Textbooks

Part-time instruction issues

Online courses

Advisement-related issues

Financial Aid
Persistence Findings: Clusters
Policies &
Administrative
Practices
Instruction
Student
Attitudes &
Motivation
76% of all barriers fell into one of 3 major
types or clusters.
What’s Wrong?
Why?
• Students: Adjusting to college;
Balancing school, employment and life,
and others
• Faculty: Student under-preparation and
motivation; college policies, and others
Intervention
Assessment and Modification
From student and faculty barriers: Strategies for
Academic Success course
Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention:
Design
Hiring Criteria
Assessments
Enrollment Limits
Training
Course Objectives
Textbook
Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention:
Support

Faculty Support Website on Blackboard

Campus Lead Instructors

Textbook Author Presentation to TCC
Faculty
Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention:
Organization and Structure

Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention Team Leader
◦ Responsibilities
◦ Compensation

Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention Team
◦ Responsibilities
◦ Membership and Structure
Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention:
Organization and Structure cont’d

Campus Lead Instructors
◦ Responsibilities

Faculty (full-time employees of the college
preferred)
◦ Responsibilities
◦ Compensation
Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention:
Focus Groups Reveal Most Frequent
Challenges for Lead Faculty
Time required to update faculty support site
 Getting faculty to read and use available
online support resources in Blackboard
 Number of faculty to mentor
 Dependence of some faculty on lead faculty
for many lesson plans and activities

Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention:
Focus Groups Reveal Most Frequent
Challenges for Faculty

Course Planning, Preparation, Delivery

Academically Unprepared Students

Scheduling Student Support Services

Instructor Collaboration
Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention: Formative
Assessment of Training

Training Survey: Content, Needs, Timing,
Satisfaction

Results to Intervention Team
Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention: Changes

Improved instructor directions for
administering LASSI (Learning and
Study Strategies Inventory)

Improved in-house online collection
tools for instructors’ assessment data
Strategies for Academic Success
Intervention: Next Steps

Common Cognitive Assessment
◦ Complete pilot
◦ Implement Fall 2010

Based on Training Survey, review
training and modify, if needed
Evaluate Strategies for Academic Success
course
•Student results
•Faculty feedback
•Lead faculty feedback
Student Results
Strategies for Academic Success
(ENGL 1003) and College
Survival (ENGL 0903)
Year 1: 2008-2009
◦ 61 sections fall 2008
◦ 42 sections spring 2009
◦ 14 sections summer 2009
 Groups for comparison from Fall 2008 firsttime freshman cohort
◦ Enrolled in Strategies (1,712)
◦ Enrolled in College Survival (92)
◦ Enrolled in neither course (1,851)

Fall-to-Spring Persistence
100%
80%
85%
66%
60%
59%
40%
20%
0%
Strategies
*Significant at alpha < .01
Survival
Neither
Fall-to-Spring Persistence
for Highest At-risk Students
100%
80%
66%
60%
55%
40%
20%
0%
Survival
*Significant at alpha < .01
Reading I
Non-Survival
Fall-to-Fall Persistence
100%
80%
60%
61%
40%
39%
41%
20%
0%
Strategies
*Significant at alpha < .01
Survival
Neither
Fall-to-Fall Retention for the Most
At-risk Students
100%
80%
60%
40%
39%
37%
20%
0%
Survival
*Not significant at alpha < .01
Reading I
Non-Survival
Significant Differences in Course
Grades Between Strategies and
Non-Strategies Students in
 Basic
Math
 Writing II (Developmental Writing)
 College Algebra
 Biology for Majors
 US History 1492 to Civil War Era
 Introduction to Psychology
*Significant at alpha < .01
Persistence Intervention
African-American Male Student
Intervention
African-American Male Student:
Component 1 -- What’s Wrong?

Fall-to-Spring Persistence = 60%
75% overall first-time freshmen

Fall-to-Fall Persistence = 36%
50% overall first-time freshmen

Persistence after three years, including
graduation = 16%
36% overall first-time freshmen
persistence after three years (graduation
or retention)
African-American Male Student:
Component 2 -- Why?

7 student focus groups

Facilitators and scribes: African-American
male TCC employees

Challenges with recruiting participants

Data analysis in process
African-American Male Student:
Focus Group Preliminary Themes
◦ Difficulty balancing school, employment, and life
◦ Needing academic and career goals
◦ Experiencing self-defeating attitudes and low
motivation
◦ Having insufficient academic preparation
◦ Experiencing stereotyping
◦ Wanting to see more AA male mentors, AA role
models, AA male students on campus
African-American Male Student:
Next Steps in Component 2--Why?
 Additional focus groups to be conducted
with general faculty and general staff on all
campuses
 Research Question:
“What are your
challenges/obstacles in assisting AfricanAmerican male students to persist at TCC?”
African-American Male Student
Next Steps cont’d:
Component 3--Intervention
◦ Receive student focus group data
◦ Digest focus group data, literature reviews,
interviews
◦ Design intervention and assessment MarchJuly
◦ Implement intervention Fall 2010
African-American Male Student
Intervention: Next Steps cont’d

Component 4-- Assessment and
Modification
◦ Assess intervention formatively and
summatively
◦ Based on assessment data, modify intervention
to increase effectiveness