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News and Updates

News and Updates

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听rates of students in Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) programs in Washington state by program area and听student demographics. We find CCB degree completion rates are rising and now approach the baccalaureate听completion rates for students transferring from a community college to a public four-year university in Washington听state. This is notable as the CCB student population includes students who are older and more likely to be听underserved by higher education than the transfer student group. Our results also show CCB degree completion听rates vary by program area and student demographics, with completion rates for Latinx students of 66 percent and听rivaling the completion rates of White and Asian students in the Business program area. However, equity gaps exist听in degree completion in other CCB program areas that need to be addressed.

Read Data Note 4

Our Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) group at the 91探花 has partnered with New America鈥檚 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听and technical colleges mirrors the demographic characteristics of the student population earning baccalaureate听degrees in comparable programs of study offered by four public universities in Washington State. Demographic听analysis reveals important differences between these two student populations, both broadly and in the specific听program areas of business administration and nursing. Among business administration degree earners, for instance,听compared to men a substantially higher proportion of women earn CCB degrees (56.6%) relative to women earning听baccalaureate degrees in business at public universities (45.8%). In terms of racial diversity, the entire population of听CCB degree earners is more diverse than university baccalaureate earners, especially among African American and听Latinx students. These results provide important preliminary evidence of the extent to which CCB policy serves as a听policy lever to increase gender and racial diversity in baccalaureate attainment in Washington State.

Read Data Note 5

Our Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) group at the 91探花 has partnered with New America鈥檚 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, 91探花.

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鈥檚 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:

Susan Bobbitt Nolen, Lia Wetzstein & Alexandra Goodell听(2020)听Designing Material Tools to Mediate Disciplinary Engagement in Environmental Science,听Cognition and Instruction,听DOI:听

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)

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听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.听 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鈥檚 research was well-received at this year鈥檚 Association for the Study of Higher Education () 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:

Presented by Grant Blume, CCRI Affiliate Faculty; Elizabeth Apple Meza, CCRI Research Scientist; Ivy Love, New America Policy Analyst and Debra Bragg, CCRI Director.听The United States Department of Labor鈥檚 (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鈥檚 community colleges.

Presented by Theresa Ling Yeh, CCRI Research Scientist and Lia Wetzstein, Associate Director of CCRI.听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.

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).

NSF ATE Project Update

Leveraging statewide longitudinal data to improve technical education pathways

Phase one, in this three-year landscape study of听National Science Foundation听Advanced Technological Education () programs funded in Washington in the last ten years, has begun. Our team, consisting of 91探花 researchers, and faculty and administrators from Seattle Central College, Green River College, and Skagit Valley College are working to understand the current use and need for student-level outcomes data in technical programs. This phase of our research will inform phase two, where we work to be the connective tissue that gets听relevant听data in the hands of technical program faculty. The first advisory committee meeting will be held on January 8, 2020, at the 91探花.听 The meeting will provide an overview of the project from the 91探花team, college co-PIs, and partners and gather input on key aspects of the research听plan.

View our STEM page for ongoing information about this study as well as other STEM-focused research and/ or evaluation projects.

Keynote on the Equity Imperative at the NWCCU Annual Conference

Bragg, D. D. (2019, November 20). . Keynote presented at the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) annual conference, Seattle, WA.听

Debra Bragg presented a distinguished lecture for the NWCCU annual conference. The keynote focused on systemic inequities in higher education that detrimentally impact students of color. She spoke about the ways in which higher education perpetuates wealth inequality and disparities in funding and status negatively impact student transfer from community colleges to universities. Her presentation offered insights into equity-minded, data-driven processes that colleges and universities need to adopt to engage in on-the-ground improvement work. She closed her keynote with Eldridge Cleaver, American Writer, and Political Activist (1935-1998) famous quote,听 “There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem” to emphasize the urgency with which higher education needs to address systemic racism to ensure upward mobility is a reality for underserved students.