Hear from our Director about how community colleges can help their communities recover from COVID-19. As well as why the US government should assist them to do so based on lessons learned from the TAACCCT grant!
News and Updates
Growth in Enrollment and Completion of STEM Community College Baccalaureate Degrees in Washington State
Washington State is experiencing substantial growth in the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Community College Baccalaureate (CCB)1 programs. Student enrollments in STEM CCB programs are also growing, providing an opportune time to study these students and their enrollment in and completion of STEM CCB programs. This research on STEM CCB programs shows women complete degrees at nearly the same rate as men but female enrollments lag behind state and national statistics for STEM education. More closely reflecting national trends, the research shows disparities in enrollment by and completion of students of color compared to white and Asian students, though STEM CCB enrollees are more diverse than STEM enrollees in universities. Understanding these student demographics is important to informing state and institutional policy on STEM education where demand for STEM workers continues to grow in the state.
Our Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) group at the University of Washington has partnered with New America’s Center on Education and Skills (CESNA) to refresh and expand understanding of AB and CCB degrees nationally, looking again at state adoption and implementation of these degrees in the two- and four-year institutional contexts. With generous support from the Joyce Foundation and Lumina Foundation, our two-year project documents policies and processes; develops a set of consensus design principles and frameworks featuring evidence-based and equity-focused promising policies and practices on state adoption and institutional implementation; and disseminates lessons from past successes and failures.
Community College Baccalaureate Degree Completion in Washington
Complimenting an earlier data note on enrollment by Meza (2019), results of this data note examine the completion rates of students in Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) programs in Washington state by program area and student demographics. We find CCB degree completion rates are rising and now approach the baccalaureate completion rates for students transferring from a community college to a public four-year university in Washington state. This is notable as the CCB student population includes students who are older and more likely to be underserved by higher education than the transfer student group. Our results also show CCB degree completion rates vary by program area and student demographics, with completion rates for Latinx students of 66 percent and rivaling the completion rates of White and Asian students in the Business program area. However, equity gaps exist in degree completion in other CCB program areas that need to be addressed.
Our Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) group at the University of Washington has partnered with New America’s Center on Education and Skills (CESNA) to refresh and expand understanding of AB and CCB degrees nationally, looking again at state adoption and implementation of these degrees in the two- and four-year institutional contexts. With generous support from the Joyce Foundation and Lumina Foundation, our two-year project documents policies and processes; develops a set of consensus design principles and frameworks featuring evidence-based and equity-focused promising policies and practices on state adoption and institutional implementation; and disseminates lessons from past successes and failures.
How Do Students Earning CCB Degrees Compare to Their Peers at Public Universities in Washington State?
This data note explores the extent to which the student population earning baccalaureate degrees at community and technical colleges mirrors the demographic characteristics of the student population earning baccalaureate degrees in comparable programs of study offered by four public universities in Washington State. Demographic analysis reveals important differences between these two student populations, both broadly and in the specific program areas of business administration and nursing. Among business administration degree earners, for instance, compared to men a substantially higher proportion of women earn CCB degrees (56.6%) relative to women earning baccalaureate degrees in business at public universities (45.8%). In terms of racial diversity, the entire population of CCB degree earners is more diverse than university baccalaureate earners, especially among African American and Latinx students. These results provide important preliminary evidence of the extent to which CCB policy serves as a policy lever to increase gender and racial diversity in baccalaureate attainment in Washington State.
Our Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) group at the University of Washington has partnered with New America’s Center on Education and Skills (CESNA) to refresh and expand understanding of AB and CCB degrees nationally, looking again at state adoption and implementation of these degrees in the two- and four-year institutional contexts. With generous support from the Joyce Foundation and Lumina Foundation, our two-year project documents policies and processes; develops a set of consensus design principles and frameworks featuring evidence-based and equity-focused promising policies and practices on state adoption and institutional implementation; and disseminates lessons from past successes and failures.
New Journal Article on Science Education
We’re thrilled to announce a new STEM publication in Cognition and Instruction that CCRI’s Lia Wetzstein co-authored with former colleagues, Susan Bobbitt Nolan and Alexandra Goodell, from their research together at the LIFE Center, University of Washington.
Keywords: Science education, project-based learning, motivation and engagement, material tools, design-based research, cultural-historical activity theory
Designing Material Tools to Mediate Disciplinary Engagement in Environmental Science
Published online February 4, 2020
ABSTRACT
Disciplinary activity in science is tool-mediated, and instructional designers often build in opportunities for students to use the conceptual and material tools of the discipline as they engage in activity. When this activity takes place in schools, students and teachers may modify or reject disciplinary tools to fit the goals of schooling. We report collaborative, design-based research to develop and optimize material tools to mediate student and teacher activity in a project-based high school environmental science course along dimensions thought to promote productive disciplinary engagement. We use Engestrom’s Cultural-Historical Activity Theory to understand both the collaborative design process (university-based researchers and classroom teachers) and the implementation in classrooms. In addition to quantitative analyses of student engagement, two cases of design-test-redesign-retest cycles are presented to illustrate our methods and provide evidence for the use of material tools to support productive disciplinary engagement. Based on our research, we suggest design principles for developing material tools to support disciplinary engagement which take into account the necessary hybridity of project-based learning in schools. Implications for design and implementation of project-based science are discussed.
Here is the suggested citation and access the full article:
(2020) Designing Material Tools to Mediate Disciplinary Engagement in Environmental Science, Cognition and Instruction, DOI: 10.1080/07370008.2020.1718677
CCRI at NISTS 2020
We’re looking forward to having some of our teammates attend the NISTS 2020 conference this February in Atlanta, Georgia. Check out the catalog for the conference below!
Lia Wetzstein, CCRI Associate Research Director (pages 22 & 45)
An analysis of college and career readiness emphasis in ESSA state accountability plans
Our Director, Debra Bragg, recently released a new EPAA journal article! The article examined the extent in which college & career readiness (CCR) is emphasized in 52 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) state accountability plans.
Read the journal article below or visit EPAA’s website here.
Data note on the Complexity of STEM Transfer for Underserved Students
We’re pleased to release a new data note from CCRI’s research on STEM, authored by research scientist, Elizabeth Apple Meza titled, Underserved Community College Students and the Complexity of STEM Transfer.
Abstract
Community college students aspiring to transfer into STEM majors at a four-year institution face a complicated and nuanced admissions process. In some cases, students may be admitted to the four-year transfer institution but face additional requirements to enter a STEM major. This study of community college underserved students of color, women, and first-generation students in a program aimed to help them succeed in STEM finds gaps in knowledge around transfer and STEM specific major requirements. These findings point to the need to build more knowledge about STEM-major transfer requirements and processes among community college students as well as advisors and STEM faculty so they can better inform students of transfer pathways. This research also points to the need to strengthen transfer partnerships between two-year and four-year institutions in support of community college students who aspire to a STEM baccalaureate degree.
This research was supported by grant #1304776 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Education & Human Resource (EHR) through the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP).
Equity workshop in Oregon for guided pathways implementation
Debra D. Bragg. (2019, November 14). Approaching guided pathways with an equity and evaluative lens. Workshop presented for the Oregon Student Success Center at the Oregon Guided Pathways Institute in Eugene, Oregon.
Debra Bragg presented a workshop on using an equity lens for guided pathways implementation in Oregon’s community colleges. This interactive session engages participants in examining how their colleges align their campus work on diversity, inclusion, equity and equity-mindedness with guided pathways. Participants identify action items to address systemic inequities that have been overlooked in guided pathways implementation.
ASHE Conference Presentations
Our team’s research was well-received at this year’s Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) conference in Portland, November 13th – 16th, 2019. Learn more about each presentation CCRI was involved in below and click on the titles to open their respective slide deck:
>>Advancing Evidence-Based Policy: Meta-Analysis Findings from TAACCCT<<
Presented by Grant Blume, CCRI Affiliate Faculty; Elizabeth Apple Meza, CCRI Research Scientist; Ivy Love, New America Policy Analyst and Debra Bragg, CCRI Director. The United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) TAACCCT program represented an unprecedented federal investment in community colleges. This study leverages a meta-analysis framework to gauge the extent to which federal grants increased the likelihood of positive academic and employment outcomes at the nation’s community colleges.
>>A Spectrum of Partnerships: Intentional Collaborations to Improve Transfer Outcomes<<
Presented by Theresa Ling Yeh, CCRI Research Scientist and Lia Wetzstein, Associate Director of CCRI. Community college and four-year university partnerships that focus on improving transfer outcomes are critical to advancing equity, as many underserved populations pursue baccalaureate degrees through community colleges. This paper examines qualitative data from a mixed-methods study and proposes a typological continuum of ways in which transfer partnerships can be enacted.
>>An integrative framework for evaluating the impact of career pathways<<
Debra Bragg participated in a research symposium on career pathways policies and programs held at the ASHE conference on Saturday, November 16, titled Career Pathway Programs: Building Connections between College, Employers, and Careers. Sandra Staklis, RTI was chair, Matt Giani, UT-Austin was discussant. Other presenters were Lauren Eyster, The Urban Institute; Laura Foster and Sandra Staklis, RTI; and Myriam Sullivan and Deborah Kobes, Jobs for the Future (JFF).