Studying Transfer in Higher Education E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: J-B IR Single Issue Institutional Research
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 224

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Gain fresh perspectives and approaches to the topic of students transferring among institutions of higher education. Despite the copious research on transfer patterns and students who transfer, this line of research is thronged with conceptual, methodological, and data challenges that warrant continued and more nuanced attention. This volume answers this call and provides updated scholarship and examines emerging issues pertaining to transfer. Organized around two broad, interconnected ways to conceptualize transfer, it first examines students who transfer and then discusses transfer as a complex postsecondary pathway. Engaging empirical research, perspectives, and case analysis from higher education scholars and institutional researchers, this volume offers renewed conceptual and methodological insights that inform future research on transfer, along with concrete recommendations for institutional researchers. This is the 170th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.

Leseprobe

New Directions for Institutional Research

John F. Ryan Gloria Crisp

CO-EDITORS

Studying Transfer in Higher Education: New Approaches to Enduring and Emerging Topics

Xueli Wang EDITOR

Number 170

Jossey-Bass

San Francisco

Studying Transfer in Higher Education: New Approaches to Enduring and Emerging Topics

Xueli Wang (ed.)

New Directions for Institutional Research, no. 170

Co‐editors: John F. Ryan and Gloria Crisp

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THE ASSOCIATION FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH (AIR) is the world's largest professional association for institutional researchers. The organization provides educational resources, best practices, and professional development opportunities for more than 4,000 members. Its primary purpose is to support members in the process of collecting, analyzing, and converting data into information that supports decision making in higher education.

CONTENTS

Editor's Note

1: Advancing a New Critical Framework for Transfer Student Research: Implications for Institutional Research

Studying Transfer Students: Research Designs and Methodological Approaches

Advancing a New Conceptual Model for Studying Transfer Students

Implications for Institutional Researchers

References

2: Narratives of Success: A Retrospective Trajectory Analysis of Men of Color Who Successfully Transferred from the Community College

Conceptual Framework

Relevant Literature

Methodology

Participants

Data Collection

Analysis

Findings

Discussion and Implications

References

3: International Students in Transition: International Community College Transfer Students in a Texas Research University

Community College Transfer Student Experiences

Student Persistence and Degree Attainment

International Transfer Students in a Texas Research University

Implications for Institutional Researchers and Policy Makers

References

4: Upward Transfer in STEM Fields of Study: A New Conceptual Framework and Survey Instrument for Institutional Research

A Conceptual Framework for STEM Transfer

Person Inputs

Contextual Factors

STEM Momentum Through Course-Taking and Active Learning

Motivational Factors

Post Transfer

Expanding STEM Talent: A New Survey Instrument on STEM Transfer

Directions for Future Research on STEM Transfer

Conclusion

References

5: Shining Light on Higher Education's Newest Baccalaureate Degrees and the Research Needed to Understand Their Impact

Applied Baccalaureate Degrees

Research on AB Degrees

Researching AB Degrees

Methodological Considerations

Implications for Institutional Researchers at 4-Year and 2-Year Institutions

Note

References

6: Reverse Credit Transfer: Recognizing and Measuring Transfer Student Success

Introduction and Background

Examining the Potential Possibilities and Pitfalls

Transfer Patterns and Reverse Credit Transfer

New Models Need New Metrics

Concluding Thoughts

Note

References

7: Multiple Paths to Success: Degree Completion of 4-Year Starters Taking Various Pathways

About Pittsburg State University

Data Source and Study Design

Transfer Groups and Graduation Rates

Nontransfer Students

Transfer-Return Students

Transfer-Leave Students

Implications for Institutional Research

References

8: Student Flow and Success at 2- and 4-Year Broadly Accessible Institutions

Broadly Accessible Institutions

National Portrait of Student Transfer to Institutions of Varying Selectivity

Discussion and Implications

Implications for Institutional Researchers

References

9: The Evolving Landscape of Transfer Research: Reconciling What We Know in Preparation for a New Era of Heightened Promise and Complexity

What We Know About Transfer

What We Have Just Begun to Know About Transfer

References

Order Form

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Chapter 3

Table 3.1

Table 3.2

Chapter 4

Table 4.1

Chapter 6

Table 6.1

Table 6.2

Table 6.3

Chapter 7

Table 7.1

Table 7.2

Table 7.3

Table 7.4

Table 7.5

Table 7.6

Table 7.7

Chapter 8

Table 8.1

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1

Figure 1.1

Conceptual Model of Studying Diverse Transfer Students and Organizational Contexts

Chapter 3

Figure 3.1

Changes of New International Transfer Students by Nationality at TRU (2006/07 to 2014/15)

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1

The STEM Transfer Model

Chapter 7

Figure 7.1

Frequency of Transfer and Semesters When Graduation Transfer-Return Students Transferred

Figure 7.2

Frequency of Transfer and Semesters When Nongraduation Transfer-Return Students Transferred

Figure 7.3

Count of Students and Semesters When Graduation Transfer-Leave Students Were Engaged In Multi-Institution Attendance

Figure 7.4

Count of Students and Semesters when Nongraduation Transfer-Leave Students Were Engaged in Multi-Institution Attendance

Chapter 8

Figure 8.1

Flow Among Transfer Students Who Moved to and From Institutions of Varying Selectivity. Source: BPS:04/09 Survey Data

Guide

Cover

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Editor's Note

As a prominent part of postsecondary attendance patterns, transfer among institutions of higher education has generated perennial interest from scholars, institutional researchers, and policy makers. This volume provides updated scholarship on enduring topics in the literature and examines emerging issues pertaining to transfer. Despite the copious research devoted to transfer patterns and students who transfer, this line of research is thronged with conceptual, methodological, and data challenges that warrant continued and more nuanced attention. The nine chapters in this volume set out to offer fresh perspectives and approaches to answer this call.

The volume is organized around two broad, interconnected ways to conceptualize transfer. The first examines students who transfer and the second deals with transfer as a complex postsecondary pathway. Primarily centering on students, Chapters 1–3 are of particular use as institutional researchers seek to understand the nuanced experiences and success of the diverse and evolving transfer student population. Chapter 1 addresses how critical lenses can be used to understand today's transfer students, such as cultural capital, critical race theory, and community cultural wealth, in order to (re)conceptualize the framework of transfer student capital. Further challenging the deficit-oriented approach, Chapter 2 offers rich narratives of 15 community college men of color who successfully transferred to 4-year institutions. Chapter 3 focuses on an equally important but relatively new subpopulation, international transfer students, and provides national and specific institutional analyses of international transfer students’ experiences and enrollment trends in American colleges and universities. Intersecting both transfer students and transfer as a pathway, Chapter 4 delves into a new conceptual framework for studying transfer in STEM fields of study, an emerging national priority in broadening STEM participation. A validated survey instrument based on the conceptual framework is presented as a viable data-collection tool for institutional researchers and higher education scholars interested in similar topics.

Chapters 5–8 further explore transfer as a postsecondary pathway, bringing to light the increasingly complex and blurring ways in which transfer occurs. Institutional researchers may find these chapters illuminating in regard to how to measure and assess transfer pathways within the larger scheme of postsecondary completion. In Chapter 5, the authors document the controversial expansion of Applied Baccalaureate degrees through transfer agreements between community colleges and universities as well as through community colleges conferring their own baccalaureate degrees. Chapter 6 discusses the implications of new policies that facilitate the reverse transfer of credits for the purpose of conferring associate degrees to community college transfer students who are pursuing a baccalaureate degree. Drawing upon an analysis of institutional research data, Chapter 7 examines mixed attendance and transfer patterns of first-time degree-seeking students at a 4-year institution, and indicates that complex transfer patterns can be beneficial to the students as long as the transfer serves students’ educational goals effectively. Chapter 8 zeroes in on the varying selectivity of both the sending and receiving institutions of transfer students, and describes student flow among a national cohort of students who transferred to and from institutions of varying selectivity. The volume culminates with Chapter 9, a critical analysis of established and emerging lines of transfer research, based on which future directions for institutional research and higher education scholarship are put forward. Engaging empirical research, perspectives, and case analysis from higher education scholars and institutional researchers, this volume offers renewed conceptual and methodological insights that inform future research on transfer, along with concrete recommendations for institutional researchers.

Xueli WangEditor

Xueli Wang

is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her areas of expertise include pathways and success of students beginning at 2-year colleges, undergraduate STEM education, and assessment in higher education.

1

This chapter explores how critical lenses can be used to conduct transfer research and proposes a new methodological approach to understand the complex experiences and success of diverse transfer students.

Advancing a New Critical Framework for Transfer Student Research: Implications for Institutional Research

Frankie Santos Laanan, Dimpal Jain

The over 1,100 public 2-year institutions have become the college of choice to begin postsecondary education, especially among first-generation, low-income, and other historically underserved students (American Association of Community Colleges [AACC], 2016). For students who aspire to complete a bachelor's degree, developing knowledge and expertise about the transfer process can be a daunting experience. Numerous studies have been conducted with different methodological approaches and various theoretical frameworks to address the study of transfer (Crisp, Carales, & Nuñez, 2016; Wang, Wickersham, & Sun, Chapter 9). However, there are many challenges in studying the experiences of diverse community college students. For some researchers, using a longitudinal design to investigate students’ experience at the community college and eventual transfer and performance is a preferred research approach. Another method is the use of a cross-sectional design where students are administered surveys and asked to reflect on their prior and current experiences. Conversely, other researchers employ qualitative approaches to understand how students make meaning of their transfer experiences.

In the last decade, there has been a wave of research conducted by scholars who employ critical lenses to understand community college transfer students from qualitative and quantitative approaches (Crisp & Nuñez, 2014; Harris & Wood, 2013; Jackson, 2013; Jain, Herrera, Bernal, & Solórzano, 2011; Laanan, Starobin, & Eggleston, 2010; Zamani-Gallaher & Choudhuri, 2016). However, only recently have scholars advanced new ways to conceptualize, operationalize, and measure the complex social, academic, pre- and posttransfer experiences of first-generation, low-income, and underserved transfer students of color critically.

This chapter contributes to the knowledge base and also makes recommendations for designing and implementing critical and innovative research approaches to the study of transfer students. The objectives are threefold: (a) to review and synthesize past community college transfer research; (b) to advance a new methodological approach to transfer research that centers on critical lenses such as cultural capital, critical race theory, and community cultural wealth; and (c) to explore implications for institutional research (IR). With the use of multiple theoretical lenses from sociology, psychology, ethnic studies, and organizational theory, the authors advance a (re)conceptualized framework of transfer that challenges traditional forms of transfer student research.

Studying Transfer Students: Research Designs and Methodological Approaches

In the last two decades, the growing accountability demands by higher education stakeholders require institutions to demonstrate institutional effectiveness and student success, resulting in a marked increase in developing, designing, and implementing research and evaluation approaches to understand the complex transfer process. Although not an exhaustive review, the next section highlights key studies that have helped shape our conceptualization of a model that centers the complex transfer process for diverse students.

Quantitative Approaches

Quantitative studies on transfer students can be organized into two major categories: (a) studies using national data sets, and (b) studies using survey instruments and institution-level data.

National data sets

Many quantitative studies have utilized the Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) Longitudinal Study. For example, LaSota and Zumeta (2015) investigated the relative significance in upward transfer of individual and institutional factors for different groups of students. This study accounted for state policy contexts of variable support for improved articulation and transfer between 2-year and baccalaureate-granting colleges. Crisp and Delgado (2014) utilized BPS: 04/09 to measure the impact of developmental education on the likelihood of community college students’ persistence and vertical transfer.

Another national data set in the literature is the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) and its supplementary Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS). Wang (2012) utilized NELS: 88/2000 and PETS to identify factors to explain transfer to 4-year institutions among baccalaureate aspirants beginning at community colleges. Another study by Melguizo and Dowd (2009) compared the effect of being a community college transfer student as opposed to a “rising junior” in a 4-year college on bachelor's degree attainment. In addition, Wang (2009) identified factors that predict baccalaureate attainment and college persistence among community college transfer students. The studies utilizing these data sets contribute uniquely to our understanding of community college students given the national representativeness of their student samples, longitudinal design, and use of results for policy-relevant implications about educational processes and outcomes of students. Given the comprehensive nature of the variables in each data set, researchers are able to design rigorous studies and employ multivariate statistical techniques to measure various student outcomes (e.g., transfer, persistence, and vertical transfer).

Survey design and institutional studies

A more common approach in quantitative scholarship on transfer is the development and use of survey research. Several studies utilized the Laanan-Transfer Students’ Questionnaire (L-TSQ). The L-TSQ was developed by Laanan (1998) and further modified to reduce the number of survey items (Laanan et al., 2010; Moser, 2012). The L-TSQ assesses transfer students’ community college and university experiences and identifies factors that predict their academic and social adjustment. The multidimensional scales advanced by Laanan (1998) have been validated with confirmatory factor analysis (Young & Litzler, 2013) to understand the complex transfer adjustment process better. In an earlier study by Laanan and colleagues (2010), the authors utilized a shorter version of the L-TSQ and applied a trifold theoretical framework: (a) model of student learning and cognitive development, (b) human capital theory, and (c) notion of transfer as student retention in postsecondary education.

More recently, a study by Lopez and Jones (2016) sought to determine academic and social adjustment factors that influenced the success of STEM students. Specifically, the authors investigated factors that predicted academic adjustment and cumulative GPA for community college transfer students in STEM fields. Jackson and Laanan (2014) utilized the L-TSQ and examined the socialization factors that impact the transition and adjustment experiences of community college transfer students in STEM disciplines. Moser (2012, 2013) re-examined the L-TSQ and advanced new constructs to understand transfer student capital better.

Administrative data sets

A growing research design is the use of administrative data sets maintained either at the institution or at the statewide level to study transfer. Dietrich and Lichtenberger (2015) utilized data from the Illinois high school graduating class of 2003. With the use of propensity score matching techniques, the authors tested the community college penalty assumption. Bahr (2012) conducted an event history analysis to investigate lateral transfer based on data from the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges (COCCCs) from Fall 2002 to Summer 2009. In another study, Bahr (2009) explored the occurrence and frequency of lateral transfer in California and its effect on students’ completion of a credential. Finally, with the use of cluster analysis, Bahr (2010) develop a typology of community college students in California and identified six clusters of behaviors: transfer, vocational, drop-in, noncredit, experimental, and exploratory.

Combining survey and student records

Recent studies have utilized both survey and student records to measure and evaluate the success of transfer students. Gaalswyk (2014) conducted a study connecting academic records and data from the L-TSQ of over 600 transfer students. Specifically, Gaalswyk (2014) sought to investigate differences between transfer students choosing STEM and non-STEM related majors, to provide insight into the switching between non-STEM and STEM majors, and to examine academic adjustment.

Qualitative Approaches

Scholars have also studied transfer with the use of qualitative approaches to explore transfer students’ lives from an experiential perspective and to understand the lived experiences of students in order to illuminate the nuanced and intersectional nature of their college life (see Vasquez Urias, Falcon, Harris, and Wood, Chapter 2, as an example). Moreover, qualitative researchers are interested in an in-depth scope of a study, instead of making generalizations to a larger population. Thus, they aim to provide a thorough account of a particular community or phenomena (Maxwell, 1996). Although qualitative research can add a textured and rich description to community college studies, it is often underutilized by the higher education researcher community (Howe & Eisenhart, 1990).

With the use of critical race theory (CRT) as a theoretical perspective, Jain (2010) examined women leaders of color and perceptions of transfer. A few years later, Jain et al. (2011) advanced a framework of a “transfer receptive culture” (TRC) and proposed five elements that examine transfer from a 4-year perspective concentrating on pre- and posttransfer efforts led by the baccalaureate-granting institution. Ellis (2013) also explored perceptions of students who successfully transferred to the University of Texas system by conducting focus groups with 68 individuals. The importance of effective and meaningful collaboration was a recommendation to improve the transfer process.

A topic that has received attention is the experience of students in the STEM pathway or in STEM disciplines at the 4-year institution (Starobin, Smith, & Laanan, 2016). Allen and Zhang (2016) examined motivations and learning experiences of adult learners in STEM disciplines. Jackson (2013) explored the impact of support systems on the experiences of female community college transfer students in STEM majors. Packard and Jeffers (2013) utilized phenomenology to understand advising and progress in the community college STEM transfer pathway.

Other studies explored students’ experiences in community colleges prior to transferring to a 4-year institution (Zhang & Ozuna, 2015). A study by Wilson (2014) utilized Padilla's model of minority student success and components of Yosso's (2005) community and cultural wealth model to explore the experiences of African American community college students at a research university. Dowd, Pak, and Bensimon (2013) utilized a life history of 10 low-income students and used attachment theory to guide their study. Specifically, they sought to understand the role of institutional agents in facilitating college access and success for students from nondominant racial-ethnic and low socioeconomic status groups. Qualitative transfer studies that engage in complex theoretical frameworks allow one to understand the more nuanced aspects of the transfer process, go more in depth in students’ lives, and provide a venue for students to speak about their transfer journey directly.

Critical approach to transfer student research

Although there has been extensive quantitative and qualitative research centered on the transfer function, deficit approaches unfortunately still tend to get reinforced and duplicated as they pertain to transfer student success. Deficit thinking is the belief that students who do not succeed in school have internal deficits or deficiencies, that they are not intellectually capable of advancing through their coursework, and/or that they are not academically succeeding because they lack a motivation of learn (Valencia, 1997).

Another large body of transfer student research is often operationalized through sociological status attainment theories such as social and cultural capital. These studies focus on the capital that students are imagined to possess or lack. Social capital can be defined as the relationships and networks that one engages in that can provide positive outcomes (such as interactions with friends, mentors, and faculty that can lead to successful transfer outcomes), and cultural capital can be defined as non-financial assets that often wealthy families pass down to their children (such as information on how to navigate higher education and knowledge of upper class social norms. These forms of capital are often used in tandem to help explain why students do or do not transfer, and to what extent they are successful as transfer students at the 4-year level. Widely used in educational research, social and cultural capital approaches have also been expanded by researchers who engage in critical theory and critical race theory (Welton & Martinez, 2013; Yosso, 2005).

Critical race theory

Similar to critical theory, critical race theory highlights how issues of privilege, power, and capital result in structural and institutional outcomes that disproportionately impact marginalized families and communities (Solórzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000). The difference, however, is that CRT takes into account the role of race and racism and how it impacts educational structures and practice, resulting in inequitable outcomes for students, staff, and faculty of color (Solórzano, Villalpando, & Oseguera, 2005). Solórzano (1998) defines CRT in education as the following: “a critical race theory in education challenges the dominant discourse on race and racism as they relate to education by examining how educational theory, policy, and practice are used to subordinate certain racial and ethnic groups” (p. 122). Critical race theory explicitly and unapologetically centers race and racism in its design, implementation, and analysis of educational research (Solórzano et al., 2000). Solórzano (1998) has established five tenets to a critical race theory in education approach: (a) the intercentricity of race and racism with other forms of subordination, (b) the challenge to dominant ideology, (c) the commitment to social justice, (d) the centrality of experiential knowledge, and (e) the transdisciplinary perspective.