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Predictors of Adult Community College Students’ Intent to Transfer from the Community College with the Associate in Science, Associate in Applied Science, or Associate in Arts Degree to a Public University in Florida

By Anthony G. Hill  March 31, 2016

Dissertation Defense

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Introduction

The completion agenda and President Obamas’ goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by the year of 2025

The Adult College Completion Network unites organizations and agencies working to increase college completion by adults with prior college credits

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) facilitates the work of the Network with funding from Lumina Foundation the goal is to increase the percentage of Americans who hold high-quality degrees and credentials to 60% by 2025

1 and 5 young Americans dropout of high school

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Degree Types

AS: 2-year technical degree not intended for transfer to a 4-year college (15-18) general education credits. AAS: 2-year technical degree that a student has trained in a particular field and prepared for employment. Not intended for transfer.AA: 2-year degree designed for transfer to 4-year colleges (36) general education credits.

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Statement of the Problem

Florida’s College System Statewide Articulation Agreement provides for the seamless transfer process between and among Florida postsecondary institutions. This agreement ensures that if the student completes the AA degree, admission to at least one of the SUS institutions is guaranteed, but this the not the case for the AS/AAS degree.

The guaranteed admissions agreement makes no mention of the AS/AAS as codified in the agreement leaving the AS/AAS degree seekers declaring intent to transfer to suffer loss of credit and courses.

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Significance of the Study

The continued growth of adult students on community college campuses increases the needs for adult transfer services to 4-year public institutions. This study should aid in the understanding of intent to transfer for adult students enrolled in AS, AAS, or AA degrees programs and provide a better understanding of the transfer process.

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Research Questions

1. What is the relationship between the following predictor’s: research 4-year colleges, visit 2-year college transfer center, highest degree, and college chemistry, and the outcome variable of either intent to transfer (yes vs. no) the AS, AAS, or AA degree from the state/community college to one of Florida’s public universities/colleges?

2. What are the pre-transfer navigation experiences for either AS, AAS, or AA students at their current college?

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Methods

Research Design Participants and Setting Participant Selection Instrumentation In-Person Structured Interviews Data Collection Data Analysis.

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Research Design

Research Design was nonexperimental, correlational research designed that combined methodological triangulation to examine the predictors. The study attempted to examine the relation between academic degree policy, articulation policy, transfer services, and transfer navigation. The variables of interest were not manipulated.

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Participants and Setting

The settings for the study were two community/state colleges located in the northeast region and central region of Florida. The northeast region total enrollment of 11,071 students for fall semester 2013-2014 across all campus sites; 6,088 students were enrolled in the (AA) transfer program and 2,399 were enrolled (AS) nontransferable programs also known as the school-to-work degree. The central region total enrollment of 17,664 students for fall semester 2013-2014; 5,701 students were enrolled in (AA) and 2, 094 students were enrolled in the (AS) program.

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Participant Selection

The accessible population for this study included students enrolled in AA/AS/AAS degree programs. Only students in credit courses offered during the fall of 2013 semester were invited to participate in the study—non-credit courses were specifically excluded from this study.

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Instrumentation

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) student success literacy survey. This study adapted the STEM Student Success Literacy Survey (SSLS) to answer the research questions. The SSLS is a 63-item questionnaire.

The purpose of the instrument was to measure Community College Students Self-Efficacy, Social Capital, and Transfer Knowledge.

The pilot of the SSLS was conducted by the developers spring 2012 with five Iowa community colleges.

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In-person structured interviews

The structured interviews were conducted to produce evidence to confirm the findings from the SSLS survey due to low survey response rate.

The structured in-person student interviews consisted of three student participants using an interview guide with 38 questions.

The in-person structured advisor interviews consisted of three advisor participants using an interview guide comprised of 23 questions.

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Data Collection

The researcher adapted the SSLS survey from Iowa State University a 63-item questionnaire using the web-based Qualtrics survey system. The reliability and validity of the items Cronbach’s Alpha = .706 was in the acceptable range.

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Data Analysis

IBM SPSS Statistics 22 Software was used to examine the bivariate relationships between each of the 240 variables measured by the questionnaire.Bivariate relationships were examined using chi-square analyses when both variables were categorical and independent t tests when one variable was categorical (with two levels)and one variable was continuous. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the relationship of the predictor variables and the dichotomous outcome.

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Descriptive Statistics

There were more females (n = 75, 74.3%) than males (n = 26, 25.7%) who participated in this study. The students had a mean age of 34.09 (SD = 12.14). Most respondents of both genders (total = 89.6%, female = 74.3%, male = 25.7%) reported having an intent to transfer to a 4-year public or private university.

Most respondents reported a grade point average of 3.25-3.74 (n = 34, 34%), 2.75-3.24 and (n = 30, 30%) during the spring 2014 semester.

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Analysis of the Survey Data

Binary logistic regression was used to predict categorical variable outcome (yes intent to transfer, no intent to transfer) from a set of predictor variables (research 4-year college, visit transfer center, highest degree, college chemistry).

Dependent variable coded (yes intent = 1, no intent = 0).

Intent was recoded from the survey question 45 as things stand today, do you intent to transfer to a ?

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Results of Binary Regression RQ1

 Missing 117 cases

Predictor B Wald p Odds Ratio

Research 4-year college 1.19 5.55 .018⃰ 3.31Visit transfer center -1.12 3.95 .047⃰ 0.32Highest degree 0 .84 5.58 .018⃰ 2.33College Chemistry 3.00 6.81 .009⃰ 20.2

Note. N = 58 ⃰ = p≤ .05 -2 Log Likelihood = 49.85; Cox and Snell = 0.433; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.577; X2 = (df = 8) = 5.36, p > 0.5), the model correctly classified 75.4% of the cases. Employing a .05 criterion Wald statistic, all variables significantly predicted intent.

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t Test for Independent Means RQ1

Intent group (M = 4.50, SD = 2.21) no intent group (M = 2.70, SD = 1.77) research 4-year institutions t(91) = 4.33, p = 0.01; as expected, for students with intent to transfer.

Highest degree intent group (M = 5.83, SD = 1.08) no intent group (M = 5.17, SD = 1.33) High academic intent t(92) = 2.52, p = 0.01; as expected, for students with intent to transfer.

Intent group (M = 0.50, SD = .508), college stats no intent group (M = 0.28, SD = .452) gen education requirement t(66.14) = 2.04, p = 0.45.

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Chi square/Crosstabs RQ1

Students enrolled in AS/AAS/AA degree programs had intent to transfer to a 4-year college. The results were found to be significant, X2 (3, n = 94) = 8.14, p = 0.04.

The proportion of student respondents with intent to transfer the AS was (61.1%), which was greater than the AA student respondents (30.6%). The proportion of student respondents for the AAS was (5.6%).

Highest degree respondents aspire to obtain X 2 MH (1, n = 94) = 5.97, p = 0.01 The higher proportion of respondents (39.9%) with intent planned to earn a MA/MS degree. The next highest proportion of respondents (33.3%) with intent planned to earn at least a BA/BS/BAS or more.

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Chi square/Crosstabs RQ2

AS/AAS/AA Visits to the 2-year community college transfer centers with intent to transfer AA degree respondents, X2 LRT (3, n = 93) = 7.74, p = 0.05. AS/AAS degree respondents, X2 LRT (5, n = 93) = 4.77; p = 0.44; X2 LRT (2, n = 93) = 2.77, p = 0.25.

AA respondents (60.0%) with no intent to transfer neither agreed nor disagreed with visits to 2-year college transfer centers. AA respondents (45.5%) with intent to transfer strongly disagreed with visits to 2-year college transfer centers. Only 9.1% of the AA degree respondents with intent to transfer strongly agreed with visits to 2-year college transfer centers.

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Chi square/Crosstabs RQ2 Continued

Research 4-year colleges AA/AS respondents X2 LRT (5, n = 93) = 11.5, p = 0.41; X2 LRT (5, n = 93) = 18.7, p = 0.02; AAS degree respondents X2 LRT (2, n = 93) = 2.77, p = 0.25.

AA intent to transfer, 27.3% of the respondents agreed with research of 4-year colleges and the other percentage (27.3%) of AA respondents strongly agreed with research 4-year colleges.

AS respondents, 40.9% of the respondents with intent to transfer agreed with research of 4-year colleges. Another 13.6% of the AS respondents with intent to transfer strongly agreed with research of 4-year colleges

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Conclusion

This study revealed a trend of AS/AAS students who had the intent to transfer degree programs that were not codified within the state of Florida articulation agreement.

This study further revealed a lack of knowledge of the students and advisors regarding the complexities of transfer requirements.

The Florida Articulation Agreement is not seamless, students are loosing credit at the receiving institution. Students are not receiving the correct information in a timely manner.

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Conclusion Continued

Transfer centers are needed at the state/community college and university level. Seminars are needed for transfer. AS/AAS should be treated as if they have intent to transfer.

All state/community college should be required to provide transfer seminars. All incoming students should be required to attend transfer seminars.

The AS/AAS degree should be codified in the articulation agreement.