Using Hybridization and Specialization to Enhance the First‐Year Experience in Community Colleges: A National Picture of High‐Impact Practices in First‐Year Seminars

Abstract

This chapter draws from national data to explore unique attributes of first‐year seminars in community college contexts as well as high‐impact practices that are often connected to them. Findings point to areas of opportunity for practice and directions for future research to better understand how community colleges can be poised to meet the increasing number of demands to support student success in effective ways.

Content Validation of the Community College Student Success Program Inventory

“…Most directly, low CVI scores indicate questionable validity of the items. However, qualitative data suggested that SMEs may have tended to score items as less relevant due in part to their rarity, which agrees with the relative frequency of course features in national surveys (CCCSE, 2012;Hatch & Bohlig, 2016;Young & Keup, 2016). Because the conceptualization and definitions of these programs are fluid and contested (Hatch, 2016), and because there were double the number of SMEs than in typical content analyses, which arguably led to lower relative acceptable CVI scores in the range of .42 (Lawshe, 1975), we argue that the instrument's content, though not appropriate for a closed-ended survey, is valid for limited purposes.…”

“…All but seven of these had high CVI scores except for whether the course/program has an online component (CVI = .74) and if so, to what extent students dedicate time to online activity (CVI = .68). Indeed, online modalities are rare, though increasingly more common (CCCSE, 2012;Young & Keup, 2016).…”

The Structure of Student Engagement in Community College Student Success Programs: A Quantitative Activity Systems Analysis

“…Traditional definitions point to important distinguishing features, for instance, such as whether a program is skills focused (1st-year seminar), of relatively brief duration (orientation), or utilizes co-enrollment in multiple courses or activities (learning community, co-requisite developmental education). Yet, despite these idiosyncrasies, research shows that student success programs across college sectors share a large extent of curricular and programmatic features and that hybridization is more the rule than the exception (Hatch & Bohlig, 2016; Young & Hopp, 2014; Young & Keup, 2016). But even more pointedly, despite their particulars, 1st-year student success programs invariably all share common, fundamental objectives, which are to socialize entering students to college life and equip them with the self-regulatory skills, knowledge, and social and academic networks to succeed (Hatch, 2016; Robbins, Oh, Le, & Button, 2009).…”

Best Laid Plans: How Community College Student Success Courses Work

“…Many studies show that participation in these kinds of interventions is associated with positive outcomes including persistence, academic and social engagement, and higher grades (Bailey & Alfonso, 2005;CCCSE, 2012;Crisp & Taggart, 2013). Still, the evidence overall is mixed (Karp, Raufman, Efthimiou, & Ritze, 2017), and most published studies come from the 4-year sector, thereby providing limited implications for community college practitioners as student success programming has been found to have goals and curriculum tailored to the community college mission despite going by similar names in the 4-year sector (Young & Hopp, 2014;Young & Keup, 2016). That is, the programs described in the literature are not what community colleges necessarily do or need.…”