rethinking grade transfer shock: examining its importance in the community college transfer process...
TRANSCRIPT
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Rethinking Grade Transfer Shock: Examining Its Importance In The Community College Transfer Process
(Article published In The Journal Of Applied Research In The Community College Vol. 14, No. 1, Fall 2006, p. 19-33).
Presented By:Ron Pennington, Director Of Institutional Research
6th Annual Conference Of The Institute For The Study Of Transfer StudentsJanuary 23-25, 2008
Dallas, Texas
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Introduction
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What is Grade Transfer Shock (GTS)?
A decrease in a student’s grade point average during their first semester at a four-year institution when compared to their cumulative GPA at a community college (CC).
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Why Is GTS A Problem?
Native student studies: CC transfers have lower graduation rates even with SES and academic ability controls
GTS could be an intervening variable adversely affecting four-year student success
Academic integration first/social integration later
Native four-year students will not experience GTS
CC TransferExperience
Level of GTSExperienced
Eventual 4-yearSuccess
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Research Shows GTS Is A Persistent Problem
Review of the literature suggests students lose about1/3 of a grade point
e.g. 3.0 down to 2.70
2.5 down to 2.20
Studies consistent over time
Hills (1965)Richardson & Doucette (1980)Diaz (1992)Carlan & Byxbe (2000)
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Why Might CC Transfers Experience GTS? Poor academic prep at the CC level (Dougherty,
2000)
Within an institution – academic in-process measures
Between institutions
Poor transfer prep (Nolan & Hall, 1978; Holahan & Kelley, 1978; Land, 1996; Laanan, 1996; Lee & Hoey, 1996; Rhine, 2000, Debard, 1996)
Poor cognitive maps (Lovitts, 2001)
Attribution Theory (Heidner, 1958; Weiner, 1974)
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Potential Interventions To Reduce GTS Change the emphasis from traditional transfer
counseling strategies like: Where to transfer Meeting the prerequisites of four-year schools
To:
More proactive strategies designed to reduce GTS Workshops on the new four-year academic culture Student mentoring programs at the four-year school
(Laanen, 1996; Rhine et al., 2000)
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Research Questions
Is GTS related to four-year student success?
Does GTS occur when student demographic and institutional process variables are controlled?
Do traditional two-year and four-year transfer counseling practices reduce GTS levels?
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Methodology
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Measuring GTS Is Problematical Gain score:
(4-year term GPA) – (2-year cumulative GPA)
Problem: The two GPA measures are different
Based on two schools’ grading system
4-year term GPA is less reliable than the CC cumulative GPA
Less course taking Shorter time period
Regression to a lower 4-year GPA scale
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Two Basic Solutions Using a lower level of measurement:
A dichotomous variable
An ordinal variable
Regress the CC cumulative GPA on the 4-year term GPA
-.25 0
GTS No GTS
+.25
-.25 +.25
Negative Grade Change (GTS)
No Grade Change Positive Grade Change
0
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Data Collection Methods
Telephone survey of MO community college transfer students – Summer 1999
Student data came from community colleges Demographic Academic in-process measures
Student outcome data (MO EMSAS file)
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Study’s Sample Initial list of 7,055 CC transfer students completed 24
credit hours from 1995 to 1998
2,656 were surveyed using several call back attempts (response rate = 38%)
Many outdated telephone numbers
Additional criteria used to eliminate cases
Senior transfers (>96 credits) Pooling of 5 urban community colleges First-time transfers prior to fall 1998 semester
Usable cases = 686
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Findings
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Is GTS Related To Four-Year Student Success?
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Modest relationship between GTS and CC transfer success at four-year schools.
Grade measure of GTS better predictor of transfer success than survey measure
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Nearly three times as many students actually experienced GTS than reported it in the survey
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Regression Findings
Does GTS occur when student demographic and institutional process variables are controlled?
Do transfer two-year and four-year traditional counseling practices reduce GTS levels?
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Independent Variables- CC Lib Arts Maj (0=N,1=Y)- CC Bus Maj (0=N, 1=Y)+ CC Degree (0=N, 1=Y)+ CC Financial Aid (0=N, 1=Y)+ Cumulative CC Credits- Dev course work
Transfer Experience+ CC Prep (0=not SAT, 1=SAT)
+ CC Acad Adv (0=no, 1=yes)
+ CC Fac Adv (0=no, 1=yes)
+ CC Couns (0=no, 1=yes)
+ Cred Transfer Success (0=no, 1=yes)
+ 4-year Couns (0=no, 1=yes)
+ 4-Year First-Term Credits
+ CCGPA
- 4-Year ACT
CC Academic ChallengeCC1CC2
± CC3CC4CC5
+ Age- Gender (0=F, 1=M)- African American (0=AA,1=Oth)+ Previous College (0=N, 1=Y)
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Summary Of Key Regression Findings CC GPA was the strongest predictor variable of 4-year GPA by 4 to 1
4-year and 2-year academic challenge variables were the second strongest set of predictors
Other significant variables were:
Taking developmental CC coursework (indicator of academic readiness?)
Age (indicator of maturation?) CC financial aid (indicator of financial dependency at the CC?) 4-year credits (indicator of clearer transfer goals) Controls on demographic and institutional process variables
actually enhanced GTS Traditional counseling variables were not significant individually or
as a set
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Regression Findings: Results
Significant Not Significant
Variable Exp. Actual BetaCC GPA Pos Pos 0.46 Gender4-Yr. ACT Neg Neg -0.12 African-American
CC4+ — Neg 0.11 Previous collegeAge Pos Pos 0.10 Bus major at CCDev Crs Wk Neg Neg -0.10 Lib Arts major at CCFin Aid Pos Neg -0.09 CC degree4-Yr. Cr Pos Pos 0.08 CC credits
All other transfer experience variables+ All CC academic vars sig as a set (F=4.99)
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Summary of the Regression Results By Sets and CC GPA Coefficients
Set By Order of Data EntryVariables
In SetChange inCC GPA b R2
R2
Change1. Transfer Shock (CC GPA) 1 .91 .29 .29 255.27 ***2. 4-Year Academic Challenge 1 .93 .30 .01 11.95 **3. CC Academic Challenge 5 .93 .32 .02 3.15 *4. Student Background 4 .85 .33 .01 3.57 *5. CC Experience 6 .80 .35 .02 2.55 *6. 4-Year First Sem Term Experience 1 .79 .36 .01 5.35 *7. Transfer Experience 6 .78 .36 .00 0.86* p<,05, ** p<.01, *** p<.001
Changein F
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Implications And Discussion
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GTS can be measured as a
CC GPA 4-year regression study
Or
As a dummy variable in a regression study
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Regression study question
Will the relationship between GTS and 4-year outcome success hold up under various controls?
This study shows that the GTS variables should be split at -.25 to -.30 if coded as a dummy variable
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Other predictor variables should be examined
More academic process variables at the CC level
Like this study’s CC developmental coursework, CC financial aid, and 4-year credit variables
Other examples: school attendance, course scheduling (Karl Boughhan)
Student engagement
Inter-institutional variables like the 4-ACT and set of CC variables
Will be needed for institutional accountability assessments Hierarchical linear modeling could be used to “level out the
playing field”
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Need to test if new transfer counseling programs should be adopted
Specific program interventions
Better financial aid assistance and information Counseling program (two or four-year) targeted to
increase students’ Cognitive maps (campus visits, student mentoring, etc.)
More systemic strategies and explanations
Attributional Theory vs.
Academic and Social Integration models
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What is Attributional Theory?
A psychological theory – instead of a sociological theory
An achievement-motivational theory that predicts a person's future motivation to act based on causative explanations for why certain outcomes have occurred in the past
Concepts include: Locus of control Controllability Event stability
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Many have argued that intervention programs based on attribution theory could improve the academic success of CC transfers (Finley & Cooper, 1983; Pascarella, Edison, Hagedorn, Nora, & Terenzini, 1996; Perry, Hector, Menec, & Weinberg, 1993; St. Clair, 1993; Valla, 1989)
But all future program interventions to improve GTS need to be evaluated Need a program logic for how the intervention is
suppose to work Need to implement an experimental design to see
if it does work
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