This page last modified January 9, 2001 (tca)
Title: Transfer and Retention of Urban Community College Students
Principal Investigator: Linda Serra Hagedorn (University of Southern California)
Total Award and Project Period: $1,078,139 (8/01/00 to 7/31/03)
Abstract: What makes for successful transfer or completion of an associate's degree at a community college, particularly in large urban community college districts with many students from lower socioeconomic status, minority, and second language backgrounds? Present rates of transfer to 4-year colleges and/or program completion in such districts leave much room for improvement. This longitudinal study will follow 5,000 first-time students from the nine campuses of the Los Angeles Community College district (LACCD) for three years to isolate and determine factors promoting success and those that hinder progress. The LACCD is a particularly rich setting for the investigation: everyone is a minority, language backgrounds range from Russian to Spanish to Arabic to Korean, the age of beginning students ranges from 17 to 47, attendance is principally part-time in both day and evening sessions, and a majority of the students are the first in their families to continue their education beyond high school. If we can understand how to assist these students through to a meaningful conclusion to their undergraduate studies, the lessons will be transferable to other urban community college districts that serve an increasing proportion of the nation's postsecondary population.
The longitudinal study will begin with a survey of the 5,000 students utilizing a modified form of the Cooperative Institutional Research Project's Freshman Survey. As these students matriculate and move through their educational careers, the research team will use follow-up surveys, interviews, and transcript records to document the processes of retention and transfer. The interviews will focus, in particular, on students who are no longer associated with the campus at which they began their studies and who neither transferred to a 4-year college nor completed a community college degree. Both the data and the interviews will allow for analysis of the roles of remediation, reverse transfer, social integration, instructional practices, course taking patterns, outside employment, and family circumstances in persistence. The results of the analysis will identify specific classroom, college environment, advisement, and supportive services that can enhance the success of students from different backgrounds in community colleges.
This page last modified January 9, 2001 (tca)