Introduction Low Graduation Rates

PROSPECTUS: PART 17

Recommendations to Address the Problem of Low Graduation Rates among Hispanic Minority Students at Glendale Community College

Introduction

Overview

The purpose of this study is to provide recommendations to the problem of low graduation rates among Hispanic students at Glendale Community College California. The problem is that despite the high levels of student satisfaction at Glendale Community College, only 32 percent of students complete their courses on time (Community College Review, 2022). This introduction section is organized into the organizational profile, which describes the project site, and the introduction to the problem, which provides the scope of the problem.

Organizational Profile

The study’s educational site is Glendale Community College (GCC), a public institution offering certificate and associate-level degrees in Los Angeles California (Glendale Community College, GCC, 2022). GCC was established in 1926 to provide vocational and academic instruction to the people of Glendale, La Crescenta, and Tujunga who lacked access to higher education (GCC, “About GCC”, 2022). The overall mission of GCC is to assist students realize their informed educational needs through comprehensive instructional programs and student services (GCC, 2022). GCC offers programs in four areas: basic foundation education in mathematics, writing, reading, and English as a second language to enhance students’ success college-level success; general education to enhance self-development and help students lead meaningful and enriching lives; technical and career education to enhance job advancement or employment opportunities; and post-secondary education to help students transition to four-year courses at a university (GCC, 2022). GCC commits to the values of open communication, equity, inclusion, collaboration, transparency in decision-making, innovation, and democratic governance (GCC, 2022). The institution offers financial and career counseling, as well as distance education programs to help students accomplish learning efficiently (GCC, 2022).

The college is highly diverse. Caucasians make up 52 percent of the student population, followed by Latino Hispanics at 25 percent (GCC, ‘College Profile’, 2022). African-Americans and Asians make up approximately 20 percent of the population (GCC, ‘College Profile’, 2022). Approximately 55 percent of the student body is female and most (38 percent) of the students are working towards obtaining an associate degree and transferring to a four-year institution (GCC, ‘College Profile’, 2022).

The institution has 1,074 employees, including 63 administrators, 204 full-time faculty, 485 adjunct faculty, and 322 classified staff (GCC, ‘College Profile’, 2022). It is headed by a president/superintendent, who is assisted by four vice-presidents and an administrative dean (GCC, ‘Administration’, 2022). The vice presidents (Administrative Services, Instructional Services, Student Services, and Human Resources) are assisted by the Deans, Associate Deans, and Program Managers of the various Sections (GCC, ‘Administration’, 2022). The president, Vice Presidents, Deans, and administrative Dean form part of the administrative cabinet (GCC, ‘Administration’, 2022). Major decisions, however, have to be approved by the six-member board of trustees (GCC, ‘Administration’, 2022).

Introduction to the Problem

The problem at GCC is that on average, only 32 percent of students complete their courses and graduate on time (Community College Review, 2022). According to the 2019 Student Success Score Card produced by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, timely graduation rates are lowest among Hispanic students, who form the focus of this study (California Community Colleges, 2019). Data from 2019 indicates that 60.6 percent of Caucasian students completed their certificate or degree-related outcomes, as compared to only 36.1 percent of Hispanics students (California Community Colleges, 2019). State-wide data indicates a completion rate of 42 percent for Hispanic students, showing that GCC ranks lower than the state average in the completion rates of Hispanic students relative to those from other races (California Community Colleges, 2019b).

To address the problem of low graduation, GCC has, in the past, conducted satisfaction surveys to obtain students’ views on the campus climate and actions that could be taken to enhance student retention. In the 2019 survey, 93.9 percent of students reported that they were satisfied with the campus climate and 96 percent believed the instructional programs offered were of high quality, yet only 68 percent believed they were progressing towards their educational goal as quickly as possible (GCC ‘Student Satisfaction’, 2022). Recently, GCC began to offer distance learning modalities and academic counseling programs to enhance retention and ensure that students complete their courses on time. However, the institution has continued to report low graduation rates among Hispanic students.

Studies have shown that delayed college completion increases the risk of dropping out of college and results in lower post-college earnings (Witteveen & Attewell, 2021). GCC commits to helping students live meaningful lives and realize their best potential in the global community (GCC ‘Mission, vision’, 2022). However, the effects of delayed college completion inhibit this mission. The findings of this study will be beneficial in informing GCC’s policies as the management works towards realizing its mission.

Significance of the Research

Studies have shown that delayed college graduation affects chances of employment and reduces one’s post-college earnings by between 8 and 15 percent because employers tend to use delays as a proxy for low ability (Casalone & Aina, 2011; Witteveen & Attewell, 2021). For college students, finding ways to reduce time-to-degree and ensure that they graduate on time may increase their chances of employment and open avenues for higher post-college wages (Witteveen & Attewell, 2021). Moreover, delayed time-to-degree is associated with higher tuition cost and a high risk of losing financial aid (Casalone & Aina, 2011). For families, therefore, timely college graduation may prevent unforeseen financial burdens, particularly when an overstayed student loses financial aid and has to source for alternative funds to finance their pending semesters.

For institutions, delayed graduation increases the risk of non-completion, which influences how potential applicants perceive it, resulting in reputational concerns that limit the effective recruitment of students (Aina et al., 2019). The findings of the research may provide crucial insights to institutional policymakers on the factors that lead to delayed college graduation and strategies for addressing the same. Ultimately, high graduation rates may result in higher college ratings, a positive reputation, and better ability to attract students (Aina et al., 2019). At the national level, delayed college graduation denies the workforce the skills and manpower that these students would offer in post-college employment (Aina et al., 2019). Thus, identifying the factors that hinder timely college graduation may ensure that the workforce benefits from the additional skills and human resources that students offer in post-college employment, resulting in higher labor productivity and increased revenues (Aina et al., 2019). The research is timely because while a lot of studies exist on the factors hindering timely college graduation, most studies focus on four-year colleges, leaving community colleges understudied. The standards in community colleges differ from four-year colleges and the findings may not be generalizable to both settings.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of this study is to provide recommendations to help address the problem of low graduation rates among Hispanic minority students at Glendale Community College in Glendale, California. To realize this purpose, the study will employ both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques. Quantitative data will be collected through an online survey that will be administered via the Google forms web-based platform to 50 students and 30 faculty at GCC. The researcher will invite interested students to participate through the Latino Student Association at GCC. They will attend several meetings organized by the association every week to advertise the study and invite interested participants to register their email address, where they will receive the link to the online survey. Faculty members will receive a call to participate vie e-mail and the link will then be sent to the willing participants.

As part of the qualitative data collection, the researcher will conduct semi-structured interviews with 10 Hispanic student leaders at GCC. The research targets 10 of the 15 leaders of the Latino Student Association on campus. The final data collection approach will be document review, which will seek to obtain insights about the institutional climate at GCC. Documents of interest for this review will include the curriculum map in use currently, admission guidelines, financial aid beneficiary records, faculty’s supplemental instruction reports, reports from past student surveys, and student class attendance registers.

Central Research Question

How can the problem of low graduation rates among Hispanic minority students be solved at Glendale Community College in California?

Definitions

1. Student persistence – “the desire and action of a student to remain in college until graduation” (Haverila et al., 2020, p. 359).

2. Student retention – “the ability of an institution to retain a student from admission to the university through graduation” (Haverila et al., 2020, p. 359).

3. Time-to-degree - “the total time, in calendar years, between initial enrolment in a post-secondary institution and subsequent degree attainment, regardless of whether or not the student was actually enrolled” (Shapiro et al., 2016, p. 5).

4. Financial aid – “grant aid from all sources, loans from all sources, federal work-study, and federal tax benefits” lent out or given to college students to cover their cost of education (Dynarski & Scott-Clayton, 2013, p 69).

5. Institutional climate – “the quality of an organization’s internal environment distinguishing it from other organizations, which results from the behaviour and policies of members of the organization, especially top management” (Banwo et al., 2022, p.2).

6. Student support services – “services providing assistance to students in their studies…including academic help, financial support, and career growth and mentoring services” (Haverila et al., 2020).

7. Social integration – “the degree of congruence between the individual student and the social system of a university… Informal peer group associations, extracurricular activities, and interactions with faculty and administrators are mechanisms of social integration” (Haverila et al., 2020, p. 365).

Chapter Three: Procedures

Overview

The purpose of this study is to provide recommendations to the problem of low graduation rates among Hispanic students at Glendale Community College, California. The problem is that despite the high levels of student satisfaction at Glendale Community College, only 32 percent of students complete their courses on time (Community College Review, 2022). This section is organized into the interview, online survey, and document review procedure sections, which describe the specific data collection and analysis procedures to be adopted in answering the research questions.

Interview Procedures

The researcher will conduct semi-structured interviews with 10 student leaders at GCC. Semi-structured interviews are preferred because, like structured interviews, they allow one to assess participants’ responses based on the same set of predetermined questions, while at the same time, offering the flexibility to ask follow-up questions for better understanding (Ferraro & Andreatta, 2017). Students experience campus life differently and hence, a limiting closed-ended interview may not accurately capture their attitudes, experiences, and perceptions. At the same time, an unstructured interview may present challenges in comparing participants’ responses as it is not guided by a set of pre-determined questions (Ferraro & Andreatta, 2017). Semi-structured interviews combine elements of both and are more advantageous to the proposed study.

The 10 student leaders will be selected through purposeful sampling from the 15 leaders of the Latino Student Association on campus. After attending several meetings of the association, the researcher will select 10 leaders they would wish to engage as respondents. Respondents will be selected based on how outspoken they are, their ability to communicate in English, and how well they articulate issues facing the students. The study prefers to engage Hispanic student leaders because GCC leaders have been at the institution longer and have a better understanding of issues and institutional policies. At the same time, student leaders serve as the link between the students and the administration and are thus, more likely to give neutral and reliable responses.

The interviews will be conducted face-to-face at an agreeable time between the researcher and interviewees. Each interview is expected to take between 20 and 30 minutes. Face to face interviews will help the researcher create rapport with respondents, making it easier for them to share sensitive information (Bougie & Sekeran, 2019). Further, face-to-face interviews would provide a means to observe respondents’ gestures, facial expressions, and body language, which could provide crucial additional information or form a basis to dig deeper into issues raised (Bougie & Sekeran, 2019).

The interviews will be recorded on an audio tape, after which the data will be transcribed verbatim in a word processing document (MS Word) that will be saved in the researcher’s personal computer. Thematic analysis will be used to identify common themes across the data. In the first step of analysis, the researcher will familiarize with the data by re-reading the transcripts while listening to the recorded audio tapes to ensure that they have captured all the details accurately. The second step will involve reading while underlining every data segment that captures something or relates to the research questions. In the third step, the researcher will assign codes to the underlined data segments. Segments that respond to the same research question or issue will be assigned the same code. The researcher will then identify themes across the data by grouping related codes together. Maguire and Delahunt (2017) define a theme as “a pattern that captures something significant or interesting about the data and/or research question” (p. 3356). The final step in analysis will involve creating a thematic map that will outline the main themes, their respective sub teams and the relationship between themes (Maguire & Delahunt, 2017).

Interview Questions

1. In your view, what factors influence a student’s choice of college?

This question seeks to determine the specific factors that college students consider when selecting institutions of higher learning. Insights obtained from this question would inform the GCC administration about student expectations, thus providing a means to evaluate how well the institution meets these expectations. By comparing students’ expectations with the actual environment, the researcher could obtain clues on areas of dissatisfaction that the institution could improve to increase both enrolments and retention.

2. What specific factors or programs attracted you to GCC?

This question seeks to determine what students find most attractive about campus life at GCC. By asking this question, the researcher will obtain a general feel about how the students perceive the institutional climate at GCC (Buckman et al., 2021). It will also provide a means to assess the student leaders’ understanding of the available student support programs and initiatives at GCC. Unless students are aware about the existing programs and initiatives, they are unlikely to use them. This question provides a platform to determine what programs/initiatives exist and how effectively the institution has marketed the same among the students.

3. What is your experience with these initiatives and programs and how helpful have they been;

a. For you as a student at GCC?

b. For you as a student leader?

This question seeks to assess the relevance of the student support services and programs available at GCC. It plays a two-fold role – to determine the specific needs of the students at GCC and to evaluate how well the available programs meet these needs. The assumption is that some of the existing initiatives may not have been beneficial to the respondent individually, but may have been helpful to the students they represent since they interact with a lot of students. By assessing the available initiatives from these two perspectives, the researcher will obtain a broader view of the relevance of student support programs available at GCC.

4. If I could take you back to when you began college here at GCC; did you consider yourself prepared academically? If so, are there specific factors in your pre-college life that helped you prepare? If no, were there any support programs on campus that helped you gain ground academically?

This question seeks to assess the pre-college factors and on-campus academic initiatives that influence academic achievement in college. Studies contend that both past academic performance and college GPA influence timely course completion (Guzman et al., 2021). By asking this question, the researcher seeks to determine whether academic support programs such as private tuition and service learning are in place at GCC. Through follow-up questions, the researcher can assess the success or effectiveness of such programs in supporting weaker students to catch up.

5. Talk to me briefly about your expenses here in college. Have you received any form of support in grants or aid from GCC to cover these expenses? If so, what form of support? If not, how then have you been able to meet your college expenses (follow up with how this has affected performance)?

Studies have shown that socioeconomic factors such as availability of financial aid and family income are significant determinants of the time one takes in college (Guzman et al., 2021). By asking this question, the researcher will obtain insights into the financial challenges facing students at GCC and the strategies adopted to address the problem. Some students may be dependent on parental income, while others may have sought employment while in college. The question provides a means to understand how GCC supports its students to cover their college expenses and the possible role of socioeconomic factors in delaying students’ graduation.

6. What are some of the ways by which GCC attempts to create a sense of belonging for students from ethnic minorities? In your view, have these strategies been effective?

According to Buckman et al. (2021), there is a positive association between students’ feelings of belonging and college retention. This question seeks to obtain respondents’ views on their involvement in decision-making and student activities at GCC. Students who do not feel like part of the GCC community are likely to report lower satisfaction levels and are more unlikely to graduate on time (Buckman et al., 2021).

7. Is there someone at GCC (peer, faculty member) with whom you share a strong, positive relationship? Please explain how the relationship developed and its significance in your campus achievements

Studies have shown that faculty-student relationships significantly influence the likelihood of timely completion, particularly for minority students (Srairi, 2021). Positive relationships between faculty and staff foster a sense of belonging that drives higher levels of student satisfaction and timely course completion (Srairi, 2021). By asking this question, the researcher will obtain a view of the nature of faculty-student relations at GCC and also understand the factors that either enhance or hinder healthy relations between faculty and staff. The responses obtained will provide a means to assess the student-staff ratio and staff quality as possible causes of low course completion rates at the institution.