Community College First‐Year Experience Programs: Examining Student Access, Experience, and Success from the Student Perspective

Abstract

This chapter examines community college first‐year experience programs using critical race theory and ecological theory. The study draws on diverse students’ experiences with access, support, and long‐term success within community colleges to assess how these programs foster student success, as told through the voices of student participants.

Best Laid Plans: How Community College Student Success Courses Work

“…Indeed, the purpose of these studies, whether regarding learning communities (Blackhurst et al, 2003;Talburt & Boyles, 2005;Tinto, 1997;Tinto & Goodsell, 1994;Windschitl, 1998), first-year seminars (Acevedo-Gil & Zerquera, 2016;Jessup-Anger, 2011;Karp et al, 2017), and others (O'Gara et al, 2009) has been to interpret students' perspectives and disentangle the relationships among participant behaviors, student experiences, and outcomes of participation. Nevertheless, despite their various analytical approaches, these studies have tended to result in thematic findings that focus on the resulting impact of participation.…”

“…The evidence of impact is noteworthy of course and shows that participation (a) enables development of supportive peer groups; (b) facilitates social integration and bridges the academic-social divide; (c) develops students' ability to be active, coconstructors of knowledge with faculty; (d) develops students' time management and metacognitive skills; (e) facilitates self-awareness and appreciation for noncognitive skills; (f) eases the transition to college and beyond the first year; and (g) serves as a unified place to gain and utilize college-related information (Acevedo-Gil & Zerquera, 2016;Blackhurst et al, 2003;Jessup-Anger, 2011Karp et al, 2017O'Gara et al, 2009;Tinto, 1997;Tinto & Goodsell, 1994). Conversely, participation in some cases may (a) result in feelings of isolation from the full college experience (Blackhurst et al, 2003); (b) discourage student motivation as a result of a course having a 1-credit, pass or fail structure (Jessup-Anger, 2011); (c) generate resentment due to compulsion and unclear expectations (Acevedo-Gil & Zerquera, 2016; Jessup-Anger, 2011); or (d) diminish involvement with broader campus life (Talburt & Boyles, 2005).…”

“…Although these qualitative studies begin to provide much needed nuance to understanding the nature of student success programs, their findings tend to be mostly thematic and rarely bring to the foreground the mechanisms and actions (Karp, 2011(Karp, , 2016Karp et al, 2017) that ultimately shape the experiences that participants report. What many of these qualitative studies do illustrate well is how the benefits of student success programs are often presupposed, and that unquestioned assumptions undergirding their implementation can lead to students experiencing undesirable outcomes (Acevedo-Gil & Zerquera, 2016;Blackhurst et al, 2003;Jessup-Anger, 2011;Talburt & Boyles, 2005). This warrants, then, research that meets the call to unpack complex college environments in ways that go beyond summarizing and classifying human experience (Astin & Antonio, 2012) to describing the human activity that brings about those experiences.…”

“…A few qualitative studies have worked to fill this gap in the literature by exploring student success programs in experiential terms of their participants (Acevedo-Gil & Zerquera, 2016;Blackhurst, Akey, & Bobilya, 2003;Jessup-Anger, 2011; O'Gara, Karp, & Hughes, 2009;Tinto, 1997;Tinto & Goodsell, 1994), but such studies are rare compared with quantitative impact studies that dominate the research literature. Only three (Acevedo-Gil & Zerquera, 2016;Karp et al, 2017;O'Gara et al, 2009) come exclusively from the 2-year sector.…”

“…Only three (Acevedo-Gil & Zerquera, 2016;Karp et al, 2017;O'Gara et al, 2009) come exclusively from the 2-year sector. Although these qualitative studies begin to provide much needed nuance to understanding the nature of student success programs, their findings tend to be mostly thematic and rarely bring to the foreground the mechanisms and actions (Karp, 2011(Karp, , 2016Karp et al, 2017) that ultimately shape the experiences that participants report.…”