15 to Finish: Why don't college students enroll in 15 or more credits?

There has been quite a storm of reaction to the recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, "Redefine 'full time" so students can graduate on time, paper suggests."  Complete College America is holding their annual conference and released another policy brief that endorsed the solution to the college completion problem is to simply make students take 15 credits every semester till they get done.  They do an excellent job of stating the obvious:

• Most college students (69%) not enrolled in a schedule that leads to on-time graduation, even if they never changed majors, failed a course, or took a class they didn’t need
• Even among “full-time” students, most (52%) actually taking fewer than 15 hours, standard course load that could lead to on-time graduation
• At most two-year colleges, less than a third “full-time” students taking 15 or more hours
• At four-year colleges, typically only 50 % or fewer “full-time” students enrolled in 15 hours.

Then they state the obvious consequences of such actions:

• Taking 12 credits per term instead of 15 can add a year to a four-year degree or half a year to a two-year degree, even if students never fail a course, change majors, or take a class beyond their degree requirements.
• Students, parents, and public financial aid programs paying more for a degree when students have to enroll in more semesters.
• Students lose out on a year of employment and income if they spend an additional year in school.
• Fewer students served by institutions with limited capacity—advising, parking, dormitories, etc.
• Dropout rates are higher for students who take fewer credits.  In the 2004/2009 BPS study, 17% of students who completed 30 credits their first year dropped out without a degree by the end of six years, compared to 23% of students who completed 24-29 credits.(The difference in completion rates is even bigger, since the low-credit students are also more likely to remain enrolled without a degree.)

The simple solution, everyone takes 15 or more hours.  Or else.  From the CCA website, "Incentives [for enrollment in 15 or more credits] can be as simple as preferred parking on campus and as substantial as financial aid policies that reward credit accumulation.”  So if you don't keep up, give more financial aid to the students who are taking 15 or more and financially punish those that do not.  I looked through the CCA website and never read anything that explained why students would be so foolish to not enroll in 15 or more credits.  Readers of the article in the Chronicle provided the nuanced answer.  <Click here for a sample of their responses and my posting to a email listserv on this topic.>   Students don't have time due to working multple part-time jobs to pay for rising tuition, students bring to college credits earned elsewhere, students have family obligations, and the list goes on.  The answer is a lack of "time" and the students are smart to limit their course load to a level they can accomplish. 

I decided to dig deeper and went to the research studies the CCA was citing.  the 15 to Finish website, http://www.15tofinish.com/ contains the reports from a community college in Hawaii that has studied this issue.  <Click on this link for one of their research studies.>

Research Objective:  Impact of enrolling 15 or more credits on student performance.  First-time freshmen for the UG Community College campuses Fall 2009, 2010, 2011  Only 7.4% of the 17,960 freshmen took 15 or more credit hours in their first semester.  The average credit hour load was 10.6 hours.  Students divided into two groups:  took less than 15 or enrolled in 15 or more hours..  Each group organized by academic preparation, demographics, and academic success.

Findings of students who took 15 or more hours:

• Higher average Compas placement test scores.
• Were younger, tended to be recent high school graduates, and had a higher percentage with financial need met, and less likely to be an ethnic minority.
• Performed better as measured by first semester GPA, percentage with a “B” or “C+” or higher grade average, credit completion ration above 80%, and persistence.
• Students with higher academic preparation scores performed better academically 

The Research Study Conclusion:  “First-time students at the UH Community Colleges can successfully carry 15 credit hours.  Student success varies by academic preparation, with those students scoring higher on academic preparation preforming better…  Students taking 15 or more credits outperformed students taking fewer than 15 credits across all levels of academic preparation.  The fact that students taking 15 or more credits persist at higher rates may indicate greater student engagement.  The more important question is why so few students at the UH Community Colleges take 15 or more credits.  Analysis indicates that academic preparation is not the limiting factor.  The low percentage of students taking the higher credit load may indicate that 12 credits has become the culturally accepted norm for full-time enrollment.” 

Too bad they didn't ask the students why they did not take 15 or more.  More than half of the report are data tables that carefully document their findings.  But they did not analyze number of hours worked, number of jobs worked, and a host of other factors that help explain why students do not have time to enroll in 15 or more.  The study said the 15 or more students were younger.  I wonder about relationship status and number of dependents between the two groups.  Younger, academically prepared students with full financial aid probably do not have the financial needs and time obligations of the others.  And those that take less than 15 hours.  They number over 90 percent of the student body.  Would you not want to understand WHY?  This is the research the CCA cites as proof the answer is simple, make everyone take 15 or more credits without concern why they behave the way they do. 

It is obvious CCA is displeased with the federal government's definition of full-time status to receive Pell Grants is 12 credits.  Here is my question for the CCA, how long until you begin to lobby for raising the minimum credits to 15 to receive a Pell Grant?  It is only a matter of time.  It is such a simple answer.  Supposedly H. L. Mencken said, "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Best Education Practice: Tutoring College Students with Disabilities

Tutoring for Students with Disabilities.  Wichita State Univesity (KS)  (approved Promising Practice 10/15/13)  Taken from the abstract:  "TRIO DSS tutors are trained to work with students with disabilities, whether the disability is physical, psychological, neurological, or other.  Their training includes specific workshops on different types of disabilities and how to work with students with disabilities in individual situations.  Tutors are given the student’s learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or a combination) and work with a student’s learning style, adapting their tutoring methods to match the student’s learning methods.  The tutoring program model of student academic support is designed to assist students with disabilities at the college level pass courses in which they face academic hardship due to their disabilities, and to help them move forward toward their goal of a four-year degree while experiencing new and innovative learning strategies".  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]  

10 'Best Practices' for Serving First-Generation Students and Searchable Database of Best Practices

By Justin Doubleday from the Chronicle of Higher Education. 

A report released on Thursday by the Council of Independent Colleges gives guidance to institutions that want to improve resourcesfor students who are the first in their families to attend college.<Click on this link to download the entire report of identified best practices.> 

<Click on this link for the website established for the identified best practices from the project.> With two generous grants from the Walmart Foundation, the Council of Independent Colleges funded 50 college success programs across two cohorts of private colleges and universities in 2008 and 2010. For a full list of funded programs, see the Program Profiles page. Although all 50 programs focused on assisting first-generation students succeed in higher education, each program went about this in different ways. CIC identified 13 broad strategies that were implemented by multiple institutions. The programs are grouped by these strategies in order to help other colleges and universities find and implement the best strategies for a given institution.

• Academic Support
• Alumni Involvement
• Campus Life
• Career Preparation and Internships
• Course Planning and Faculty/Staff Development
• Cultural Experiences
• Faculty/Staff Mentors
• Family Involvement
• Peer Mentors
• Scholarships
• Stipends and Vouchers
• Summer Bridge/Orientation Programs
• Target Student Populations

Based on the experiences of 50 colleges that received grants from the group and the Walmart Foundation to enhance such programs, the report lists 10 "best practices" to promote first-generation students' academic success. Those suggestions are as follows:

1. Identify, actively recruit, and continually track first-generation students.  Aid eligibility is one indicator institutions can use to help identify first-generation students.

2. Bring them to the campus early.  Summer bridge programs let colleges better prepare first-generation students for the rigors of higher education. The programs also give students a chance to bond with classmates, meet faculty and staff members, and become familiar with the campus.

3. Focus on the distinctive features of first-generation students.  First-generation students on any given campus will often share one or more characteristics. Building support systems around those similarities can help colleges better meet students' needs.

4. Develop a variety of programs that meet students' continuing needs.  Colleges should develop programs that prepare first-generation students for academic success during college and for careers after graduation.

5. Use mentors.  Mentors, whether they are fellow students, staff or faculty members, alumni, or people in the community, can provide valuable guidance to first-generation students. Some of the best mentors are those who were also the first in their families to attend college.

6. Institutionalize a commitment to first-generation students.  Colleges should involve the entire campus community in promoting the success of first-generation students. That approach creates a supporting and welcoming environment.

7. Build community, promote engagement, and make it fun.  Colleges need to focus on more than academic performance to improve retention. Through nonacademic activities, students can build meaningful relationships.

8. Involve families (but keep expectations realistic).  First-generation students often struggle more than their peers with moving away from home. Communicating with families can help keep them connected to their student while he or she is away.

9. Acknowledge, and ease when possible, financial pressures.  With many coming from low-income families, first-generation students often struggle with finances. Colleges should provide financial-aid information to students and parents whenever possible. Creating scholarships specifically for first-generation students can help as well.

10. Keep track of your successes and failures: What works and what doesn't?  Colleges should look beyond grade-point averages and retention rates to assess its first-generation programs. Other methods for measuring success include: college records, surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus groups.

Best Education Practice: College Tutor Training and Professional Development Activities

Tutor Training and Professional Development.  Wichita State University (KS)  (approved Promising Practice 9/25/13)   Taken from the abstract:  "Peer tutoring has become a familiar tool that many schools utilize to reinforce classroom teaching and increase student success.   For this reason, the Student Support Services (SSS) Project at Wichita State University (WSU) has implemented a Tutor Training and professional development program to assist new and returning tutors to develop strategies to support learning and enhance academic performance and improve the tutoring process to establish, implement, and maintain a comprehensive and quality tutor-training program."  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]

Tactics That Engage Community-College Students Get Few Takers, Study Finds

"Most community colleges have begun using a suite of expert-approved strategies to get more students to graduation. But those programs are often just window dressing, as relatively few students participate in them.  Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/17/community-college-completion-strategies-lack-scale-report-finds#ixzz2hzE3Mnqe  at Inside Higher Ed

That’s the central finding of a new report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement. And Kay McClenney, the center’s director, places blame for the shallow adoption of “high impact” completion practices squarely on colleges and their leaders, rather than on students.  “Requiring students to take part in activities likely to enhance their success is a step community colleges can readily take,” McClenney said in a written statement. “They just need to decide to do it.”  The study draws from three national surveys that seek to measure student engagement at community colleges that collectively account for 80 percent of the sector’s enrollment. One is the center’s flagship survey -- the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)....The 13 strategies include the use of academic goal-setting, student orientation, tutoring, accelerated remedial education tracks and student success courses (see box for full list). While experts and faculty members might not agree on whether all of the practices work well, there is an emerging body of evidence that they help boost completion rates.

For example, 84 percent of two-year colleges offer student success courses, which are designed to help new students navigate college and get off to a good start. The courses are particularly helpful to large numbers of lower-income, first-generation college students who attend community college, and who rarely get the support of family members who know the skinny on how college works.  Yet only 20 percent of surveyed students took a success courses during their first term, according to the report.  The other 12 practices showed similar gaps between being offered and being used. Take tutoring, which has obvious benefits to struggling students. Fully 99 percent of the surveyed colleges offer some form of tutoring, but the report found that only 27 percent of students had taken advantage of it during the current academic year."

Asking students to volunteer for service will not work.  They don[t want to face stigma for doing so, they don[t have time for activities that conflict with their two or three part time jobs they have to pay for tuition, and for all the others commitments in their life.  The solution is Universal Design for Learning where essential services and support are built directly into classes and required for all students. 

Best Education Practice: McWrite Scholarly Writing Skill Seminar Series

McWrite:  Developing Scholarly Writinig Skills.  Wichita State University (KS)  (approved Promising Practice 10/15/13)  Taken from the abstract:  "The McWrite model for developing scholarly writing skills was developed at Wichita State University to help students with difficulty mastering the mechanics of writing (punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, paragraph development) and scholarly writing required for graduate studies.  According to Schumacher and Gradwohl-Nash (1991), three purposes of writing are fostering understanding, changing conceptions. and developing thinking skills.  This is consistent with Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (1958).  All participants of the Wichita State University TRiO McNair Scholars Program participate in monthly, hour-long group sessions to develop increased competency in these three essential skills.  McWrite benefits students in all areas of their academics, fostering increased confidence in their writing abilities, and success in graduate school.  A unique feature of the McWrite program is the sustained and systematic approach to development of writing skills for all McNair Scholars, regardless of previous academic success.  This program is part of the core of the TRiO McNair program rather than an optional activity with limited attention".  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]