Do Student Success Courses Actually Help Community College Students
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ISSN 1526-2049 COMMUNITY COLLEGE RES EARCH CENTER BRIEF NUMBER 36 JUNE 2007 careers (Derby & Smith, 2004). A wide spectrum of Do Student Success Courses students may find these courses useful. Although Actually Help Community such courses are not themselves considered to be remedial, sometimes colleges require that they be College Students Succeed? taken by students who need academic remediation. Student success courses have certainly become well- Matthew Zeidenberg, Davis Jenkins, established. Indeed, several publishers offer textbooks and Juan Carlos Calcagno for these courses, in some cases allowing colleges to Many first-time college students arrive on campus customize the course material with institution-specific unprepared to succeed in college. This is especially information such as support services available on a the case at community colleges, which pursue an given campus. Student success courses, and their effectiveness, “open door” mission of serving all students, regardless are the focus of this Brief. Despite the prevalence of of prior educational background. According to a these courses at community colleges, little research survey of degree-granting institutions by the National has been conducted on their effectiveness. Recently a Center for Education Statistics (2003), 42 percent of research team headed by Dr. Patricia Windham at the entering first-time students at public two-year colleges Florida Department of Education compared the in fall 2000 took at least one remedial course (or one outcomes of students who completed a student “developmental” course; we use these terms success course — which in Florida is known as a interchangeably), compared to 20 percent of entering “student life skills,” or “SLS,” course — with those of students at public four-year institutions. Among recent students who did not take or complete such a course high school graduates who entered higher education (Florida Department of Education, 2006). They found through community colleges in the mid-1990s, over 60 that SLS course completers were more likely than percent took at least one remedial course (authors’ non-completers to achieve one of the following three calculations based on the National Education indicators of success: earning a community college Longitudinal Survey of 1988 [NELS: 88]). credential, transferring to the state university system, Underpreparation is typically viewed in terms of or remaining enrolled in college after five years. deficiencies in students’ basic academic skills, Results of this study are shown in Figure 1. Among specifically in those skills integral to the reading, students who needed at least one remedial course, writing, and mathematics subject areas. Community those who passed an SLS course were more likely to college educators maintain, however, that many achieve these milestones than were those who did not entering students are also unprepared in other take or complete an SLS course. The same pattern important ways. It is widely believed that many holds for students who were required to take remedial students have poor study habits and lack clear goals courses in all three subject areas — students who are for college and careers. Some experts contend that generally plagued by high rates of failure. helping students address these non-academic In Florida’s 28 community colleges, SLS courses deficiencies is just as important as helping them are open to all students, but some of the colleges acquire basic academic skills through remedial require that certain students take them. According to classes, which typically do not address issues such as an earlier study (Florida Department of Education, study skills, goal setting, and the like (Boylan, 2002; 2005), 13 colleges have no requirement that any Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). particular students take an SLS course; it is, rather, an In response to this increasingly acknowledged elective course. Most of the other colleges tie a need, community colleges now offer “student requirement to enroll in SLS to enrollment in success” courses that teach students how to write developmental courses, although the rule varies in notes, take tests, and manage their time; that help terms of which, and how many, developmental students explore their learning styles; and that courses students need to enroll in before they are encourage students to develop plans for college and required to take SLS. One college requires all students 1 on academic probation to enroll in an SLS course, and or persisted in school into the fifth year. one college requires all students, whether they need It should be noted that while Windham and her remediation or not, to take an SLS course. colleagues compared the outcomes of students who completed an SLS course to those who did Figure 1. Outcomes of SLS Students and Non-SLS Students, not, we were interested in the effect of 1999-2000 through 2003-2004 (Windham Study) enrolling in such a course. We decided to 70% examine the effect of enrolling in an SLS course rather than completing one because 60% we were concerned that selecting just those ■ No SLS ■ SLS who completed SLS would bias the results 50% toward students who might have latent characteristics that also increase their 40% likelihood of completing a credential. We used logistic regressions to control 30% for student characteristics that we hypothesized could be related to the 20% decision to enroll in an SLS course or to the completion of a credential. The factors we 10% controlled for in our models include: gender, race and ethnicity (including Hispanic 0% status), age, citizenship status, limited Academic Success Still Enrolled Transfers to the SUS Awards Earned English proficiency, and regular high school completion (as opposed to a GED or any The analysis by Dr. Windham and her colleagues other non-standard diploma). We also controlled for was “descriptive” in that it compared the mean math, reading, and writing test scores because outcomes of SLS completers and non-completers students with higher test scores generally earn without controlling for student characteristics or credentials at higher rates than those with lower considering latent differences between completers scores, and there may be significant differences in test and non-completers that might be related to the scores between those who enroll in an SLS course outcomes observed. This Brief reports the recent and those who do not. The test scores we used as findings of a more in-depth analysis of the relationship controls in our models were also used for placement between enrollment in student success courses and purposes, so they are likely correlated with the student outcomes using a dataset on Florida remediation variable that was also included in some of community college students similar to the one used in the models (as described below). the Windham study. Researchers at the Community All students enrolling in an associate degree College Research Center (CCRC) used statistical program at a public community college in Florida must models to see if student success courses still appear present scores from the SAT or ACT or take a College to be related to positive outcomes even after Placement Test (CPT) administered by the college. We controlling for student characteristics and other restricted our sample to those students who factors that might also influence the relative success completed test scores on one of the three tests (ACT, of students who take such courses. SAT, or CPT) and whose scores were all from the same test (e.g., a student’s math, writing, and reading Data and Methods scores were all from the ACT). This reduced the sample size by about 29 percent, to somewhat less To further examine the effects reported by Dr. than 37,000 students. We converted all of the test Windham and her colleagues, we used individual scores to an SAT scale using the test maker’s formula. student record data provided to us by the Florida We also created a flag to indicate whether a student Department of Education on a cohort composed of all submitted an ACT or SAT score, as opposed to taking students who entered a Florida community college for the CPT. Since only SAT and ACT scores are the first time in fall 1999. We tracked these students accepted in the State University System (SUS), taking for 17 terms (or five and two-thirds calendar years) one of these tests may indicate an expectation of and examined the percentage of these students who transferring to a baccalaureate institution. completed a credential (a certificate or an associate About 26 percent of students in our sample degree) during that time period. As in the Windham completed a credential in the allotted time of 17 study, we also examined the percentage of students terms. Most of those who completed credentials who transferred to the Florida State University System obtained an associate degree: about 22 percent were 2 awarded this degree, and about 3 percent were independent variable on the dependent variable awarded a certificate. About 1 percent were awarded (here, the probability of completing a credential) is both. About 25 percent of students in our sample the effect of a unit change in the independent were still enrolled in the fifth year, and about 16 variable on the dependent variable, evaluated at the percent transferred to the SUS. mean values of the other independent variables. We Overall, about 36 percent of the students in our report marginal effects rather than the logistic sample enrolled in an SLS course. Of these, about 79 regression coefficients themselves because the latter percent passed the course with a grade of D or better. tend to be difficult to interpret (Kennedy, 2003, Since students placed in developmental p. 266), while the interpretation of marginal effects is coursework are often encouraged and, in some cases, similar to that of linear regression coefficients. required to enroll in an SLS course, we also created a Marginal effects that are statistically significant with a binary variable indicating whether or not students took p-value of five percent or less are marked with an at least one remedial credit during their 17 terms.