Investigating Ten‐year Trends of Learning Outcomes at Community Colleges

Abstract

Community colleges currently enroll about 44% of the undergraduate students in the United States and are rapidly expanding. It is of critical importance to obtain direct evidence of student learning to see if students receive adequate training at community colleges. This study investigated the 10‐year trends of community college students' (n = 46,403) performance in reading, writing, mathematics, and critical thinking, as assessed by the ETS® Proficiency Profile (EPP), an assessment of college‐level learning outcomes. Results showed that community college students caught up with and significantly outperformed students from liberal arts colleges by the end of the 10‐year period and made significant improvement in critical‐thinking skills. An increasing gender gap was observed in mathematics at community colleges. Prevalent ethnic minority and English as a second language (ESL) gaps were noted but gaps between ESL and non‐ESL students and between Hispanic and White students were decreasing. Additionally, Asian students at community colleges showed an overall decline in performance. Findings from this study provide significant implications for community college leaders, researchers, and policymakers.

Preliminary Evaluation of the Psychometric Quality of HEIghtenTM Quantitative Literacy

“…Results showed that as high school and cumulative college GPA increased, quantitative literacy scores also increased, suggesting that pre-college and within-college academic performance has a relationship with students' quantitative literacy performance. These results are consistent with previous research also investigating the relationship between SLO performance and GPA (e.g., Kuncel et al 2001;ACT 2012;Liu and Roohr 2013;Liu et al 2016;Graduate Management Admissions Council 2017).…”

“…Results revealed that students at four-year institutions performed significantly higher than students at two-year institutions. These results are consistent with previous research (Baer et al 2006;Liu and Roohr 2013). For instance, results from the National Survey of America's College Students (NSACS), which used the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) to measure quantitative literacy, also showed students at four-year institutions outperforming their peers at two-year institutions (Baer et al 2006).…”

“…Results showed that males outperformed females by 7 percentage points (39% compared to 32%), or by about 0.36 SDs; this difference was statistically significant (Welch's t(991.8) = 6.46, p < .001). Previous studies found effect sizes ranging from zero to as much as 0.29 (Hyde et al 1990;Lindberg et al 2010;Liu and Roohr 2013). In comparison to these previous studies, the effect size here was slightly larger, indicating a larger difference between males and females.…”

“…Results revealed a gender performance gap favoring males of 0.36 SDs, which is larger than results from previous research that have also evaluated gender performance differences (Hyde et al 1990;Lindberg et al 2010;Liu and Roohr 2013). Other research such as the NSACS, however, has shown that males and females did not perform significantly different in quantitative literacy at both two-and four-year institutions (Baer et al 2006).…”

Assessing Quantitative Literacy in Higher Education: An Overview of Existing Research and Assessments With Recommendations for Next‐Generation Assessment

“…Concurrent validity refers to the relationship between a predictor and a criterion measured at the same time rather than at a later time (AERA et al, ). Concurrent validity has been evaluated for EPP Mathematics by examining the relationship between student performance on EPP Mathematics and grade point average (GPA), finding that across a 10‐year period, students with higher GPA consistently yielded higher EPP Mathematics scores (Liu & Roohr, ). A similar relationship was found between test takers' EPP Mathematics scores and the number of college credit hours they had taken (Liu & Roohr, ).…”