Community Colleges on the School-To-Work

¶ … Community Colleges on the School-to-Work Transition

What problem did the researcher present for research?

The problem being researched in the article "The Impact Of Community Colleges On The School-To-Work Transition: A Multilevel Analysis" by Catherine Mobley is the ability of community college students to effectively adjust from the school setting to the work setting. School-to-work transitions for community college students, according the authors, have traditionally experienced difficulties in terms of social adjustment despite the notion that community colleges are often considered to be "transitional institutions" Their focus on local labor markets has helped the transition process, as has the technological focus of their curricula. However, "Critics have claimed that community colleges are not fully accountable for student outcomes because they are not required to substantiate their positive claims about job availability, placement, and potential salaries." Furthermore, some critics claim that community colleges to do not adequately prepare students for the social and occupational differences between school and work, and thus fail to meet expectations.

2. Is the problem relevant/important for the socio-cultural context of community colleges?

The problem is relevant to the socio-cultural context of the community college because it addresses the preparedness of students to transition from one type of cultural context (school) to another (work). The study also examines race and gender variables as they relate to influences on student outcomes.

3. Does the researcher provide an appropriate rational for why such a study is important?

The researcher explains the importance of the study by stating that it is designed to fill a gap in the current literature, which has tended to focus more on demographic characteristics of students. The purpose of this study, according to the author, is "to illuminate the multilevel nature of the school-to-work transition. More specifically, the main objective was to investigate whether and how community college-level variables influence student outcomes."

4. If a qualitative approach is used, is the researcher's perspective and relationship to the problem discussed?

There is no discussion on the researcher's perspective and relationship to the problem

5. Does the literature review draw from multiple sources, past and present?

The literature review is quite extensive and draws mostly from scholarly journals dating from 1980 to 2000 (The article was published in 2001). The literature review also covers as wide array of topics related to the subject, without venturing off course and discussing irrelevant studies. Proper support and citations are provided throughout the literature review.

6. Does the literature review provide support for the study, and does it put the problem in context?

The literature review provides support for the study by discussing the many studies that have been performed on school-to-work transition in the past, and how they fail to fully answer the questions posed in the present study. The literature review puts the problem in context by citing several studies that have attempted similar research to the present study, but with different variables or constructs.

7. What were the research questions/hypotheses used/proposed?

The hypotheses were stated as follows: "Hypothesis I, those students who attend community colleges with lower enrollments; a higher percentage of full-time faculty; a lower transfer rate; and the availability of career counseling and job placement services will experience better outcomes on average in terms of wages and use of training on the job. The strength of a multi-level analysis is its ability to analyze how higher levels of variables mediate the relationship between lower levels of variables. Thus, Hypothesis II is as follows: the more 'supportive' a community college is toward vocational education (along the lines described above for Hypothesis I), the smaller the race, gender, and SES gap in wages and use of training on the job."

8. Is the specific research design identified and described.

The research design is identified and discussed in great length, including identification of the independent and dependent variables. The dependent variables were wages and use of training student; and the independent variables were identified as: enrollment size, faculty (part-time/full-time), vocational emphasis, and availability of student services. The researcher used student transcripts and GPAs to construct the variables. Gender and race were not included on the list of independent variables, however these demographic factors were incorporated in data analysis.

9. Who were the subjects, how were they obtained?

The subjects consisted of a national sample of community college students who had earned at least 30 credit hours at a community college. The author arrived at this number based on previous research by Kane and Rouse (1993). The sample did not include any students who had attended a four-year college.

10. What methods were used to collect data, and analysis data? What strategies were used to ensure validity and reliability?

The author used two sets of basic hierarchical models designed to analyze the relationships within and between student-level and community college-level outcomes. Validity and reliability were not discussed.

11.What measures did they use?

According to the author, "These models resulted in an equation for each community college that consisted of regression coefficients, called Betas in HLM, that estimated how the independent variables influenced student outcomes."