Community College and Community Leader Expectations of the “Village”     

David M. Deggs 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2013,37(6):424-432

A level of consistency between community college leaders and community leaders is necessary to demonstrate behaviors, actions, and beliefs that shape, represent, and support expected community values. Likewise, communities, which are collectives of suborganizations, play an important role in aiding individual development, especially related to educational attainment. This study sought to understand ways in which community college leaders and community leaders demonstrate behaviors, actions, and beliefs that shape, represent, and support community values, particularly the influence on an individual's acceptance of formalized education and continued education beyond compulsory schooling. Data were collected from 113 mayors and community college presidents/deans around the United States. Analysis of the data indicated five types of actions consistent among the two groups including the promotion of civic involvement, community growth and development, economic development, well-being of citizens, and value of education.  相似文献   

Effectiveness of Summer Bridge Programs in Enhancing College Readiness     

James M. Kallison Jr.  David L. Stader 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2013,37(5):340-357

An alarmingly high percentage of recent high school graduates are not prepared to succeed in college-level courses, and the impact of this educational shortcoming is substantial. Underprepared college students incur a monetary cost of enrolling in remedial courses, and states and taxpayers subsidize much of the overall cost of developmental education. In addition, underprepared students are less likely to graduate from college, thus impacting their earning potential and the nation's economic need for a more highly educated workforce. One approach to reducing the need for developmental education is high school bridge programs. These programs, which usually take place on a college campus, provide interventions that help targeted students aspire to, prepare for, and achieve college enrollment. This article reports on the effectiveness of bridge programs at Texas colleges in the summer of 2007; it covers two community college programs that demonstrated the highest pre- to postprogram student achievement gains of the participating institutions. Findings from this study and previous research suggest that effective bridge programs (a) have very strong relationships with their partner school districts; (b) provide professional development to all program staff; (c) conduct preprogram orientation sessions and closing ceremonies; (d) provide bus transportation; (e) involve parents in the program; (f) provide students with labs to support classroom instruction; (g) provide academic advising and other support services; and (h) implement both formative and summative evaluation methods.  相似文献   

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Online Learning: Implications for the Globalized Community College     

Daniel R. Smith  David F. Ayers 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2013,37(5-6):401-415

Implicit in the open-door mission of the community college is the mandate that every learning experience should offer full equity and inclusion for all learners, including those of diverse cultural backgrounds. This mission is paramount, given the cultural diversity represented among learners served by the globalized community college. This paper presents a cross-section of research, practice, and discourse focused on expanding our knowledge and understanding of the diverse learning needs of community college learners. The relevance of the literature to the planning, design, and implementation of distance-learning is discussed. In the end, the authors offer distance-learning instructional strategies that may accommodate the unique needs of Hispanic/Latino learners. Implications for community college educators are discussed.  相似文献   

Learning Together: A Family-Centered Literacy Program     

David W. Sink Jr  Molly A. Parkhill  Rick Marshall  Steve Norwood 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2013,37(8):583-590

ABSTRACT

Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, North Carolina serves a rapidly growing Hispanic population through its Family-Centered Literacy Program. The Hispanic population in the region has been increasing at a staggering rate of 50% per year, most of which is in-migration. These newcomers frequently face challenges adjusting to their jobs, schools, and living environment. The Family-Centered Literacy Program is teaching new skills to new residents to minimize the “culture shock”, and to make community immersion a less difficult process. The program offers evening classes 2 nights a week for parents and their children. Parents attend classes in basic and conversational English and General Education Development (GED) preparation; school-age children receive tutoring and help with homework; and preschool children learn from fluency-building games and activities. The college also provides Spanish instruction for school personnel who want to better communicate with Hispanic students and their parents. The program currently operates in 5 elementary schools. Each school has taken on the role of “community center” for Hispanic families.  相似文献   

REFROMING WRITING AMONG STUDENTS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES     

David Hennessy 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2013,37(4):261-275

ABSTRACT

The Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) movement, which swept through all levels of American education during the 1960s and 1970s, seemed a logical remedy for student writing deficiencies. However, the impact of WAC has not lived up to its promise. The WAC movement, as currently implemented in many community colleges, may be ineffective at best. To significantly improve student writing, systemic reform in pedagogical practice in English composition courses and throughout the disciplines is imperative. With no reform, we may unintentionally rob writing of its ability to be a tool for learning, thus negating the movement's primary goal. This article provides an historical perspective of writing across the curriculum, alongside a suggested reform model that includes essential components.  相似文献   

The surprising viability of a simple alternate estimation procedure for construction of large‐scale structural equation measurement models     

David W. Gerbing  Janet G. Hamilton 《Structural equation modeling》2013,20(2):103-115

As part of developing a comprehensive strategy for structural equation model building and assessment, a large‐scale Monte Carlo study of 7,200 covariance matrices sampled from 36 population models was conducted. This study compared maximum likelihood with the much simpler centroid method for the confirmatory factor analysis of multiple‐indicator measurement models. Surprisingly, the contribution of maximum likelihood to model analysis is limited to formal evaluation of the model. No statistically discernible differences were obtained for the bias, standard errors, or mean squared error (MSE) of the estimated factor correlations, and empirically obtained maximum likelihood standard errors for the pattern coefficients were only slightly smaller than their centroid counterparts. Further supporting the recommendations of Anderson and Gerbing (1982), the considerably faster centroid method may have a useful role in the analysis of these models, particularly for the analysis of large models with 50 or more input variables. These results encourage the further development of a comprehensive research paradigm that exploits the relative strengths of both centroid and maximum likelihood as complementary estimation procedures along an integrated exploratory‐confirmatory continuum of model specification, revision, and formal evaluation.  相似文献   

Longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis: Common,time‐specific,item‐specific,and residual‐error components of variance     

Herbert W. Marsh  David Grayson 《Structural equation modeling》2013,20(2):116-145

Following Cronbach (1970) and others, it is useful to decompose test score variation into common factor, time‐specific, item‐specific, and residual components. In the traditional approach to factor analysis, only two sources of variance can be estimated: common factor variance and a uniqueness term that confounds specific sources of variation and residual error. When the same items are measured on different occasions, however, it is possible to separate specific variance and residual error. Two approaches, the first‐order approach described by Raffalovich and Bohrnstedt (1987) and a second‐order approach based on Jöreskog and Sörbom (1989; Jöreskog, 1974) are considered initially. The two approaches, although based on different rationales, both suffer a similar weakness in that two of the four sources of variance are confounded. In the Raffalovich and Bohrnstedt approach, time‐specific variance is confounded with common factor variance that generalizes across items and time. In the second‐order approach based on Jöreskog and Sörbom, time‐specific variance is confounded with residual error. Here we demonstrate that by combining features from both approaches we can eliminate these weaknesses and estimate all four of Cronbach's sources of variance, and that this combined approach is easily generalized to a wide variety of applications.  相似文献   

Resampling and Distribution of the Product Methods for Testing Indirect Effects in Complex Models     

Jason Williams  David P. MacKinnon 《Structural equation modeling》2013,20(1):23-51

Recent advances in testing mediation have found that certain resampling methods and tests based on the mathematical distribution of 2 normal random variables substantially outperform the traditional z test. However, these studies have primarily focused only on models with a single mediator and 2 component paths. To address this limitation, a simulation was conducted to evaluate these alternative methods in a more complex path model with multiple mediators and indirect paths with 2 and 3 paths. Methods for testing contrasts of 2 effects were evaluated also. The simulation included 1 exogenous independent variable, 3 mediators and 2 outcomes and varied sample size, number of paths in the mediated effects, test used to evaluate effects, effect sizes for each path, and the value of the contrast. Confidence intervals were used to evaluate the power and Type I error rate of each method, and were examined for coverage and bias. The bias-corrected bootstrap had the least biased confidence intervals, greatest power to detect nonzero effects and contrasts, and the most accurate overall Type I error. All tests had less power to detect 3-path effects and more inaccurate Type I error compared to 2-path effects. Confidence intervals were biased for mediated effects, as found in previous studies. Results for contrasts did not vary greatly by test, although resampling approaches had somewhat greater power and might be preferable because of ease of use and flexibility.  相似文献   

Factor Analysis with Ordinal Indicators: A Monte Carlo Study Comparing DWLS and ULS Estimation     

Carlos G. Forero  Alberto Maydeu-Olivares  David Gallardo-Pujol 《Structural equation modeling》2013,20(4):625-641

Factor analysis models with ordinal indicators are often estimated using a 3-stage procedure where the last stage involves obtaining parameter estimates by least squares from the sample polychoric correlations. A simulation study involving 324 conditions (1,000 replications per condition) was performed to compare the performance of diagonally weighted least squares (DWLS) and unweighted least squares (ULS) in the procedure's third stage. Overall, both methods provided accurate and similar results. However, ULS was found to provide more accurate and less variable parameter estimates, as well as more precise standard errors and better coverage rates. Nevertheless, convergence rates for DWLS are higher. Our recommendation is therefore to use ULS, and, in the case of nonconvergence, to use DWLS, as this method might converge when ULS does not.  相似文献   

Orthographic Learning During Oral and Silent Reading     

Peter F. de Jong  David L. Share 《Scientific Studies of Reading》2013,17(1):55-71

This study examined orthographic learning in oral and silent reading conditions. Dutch third graders read, either aloud or silently, short texts containing novel target (pseudo) words. The acquisition of new word-specific orthographic knowledge was assessed several days later by comparing target spellings with homophonic spellings in tasks requiring orthographic choice, spelling, and naming. It was predicted that orthographic learning would be evident in both oral and silent conditions but stronger in the oral condition. As expected, orthographic learning was evident in both oral and silent conditions. This finding suggests that support for the self-teaching hypothesis of orthographic learning obtained in studies of unassisted oral reading can be generalized to the more common form of independent reading: silent reading. In addition, the results on the naming task provided some evidence for stronger orthographic learning during oral reading, but the two spelling tasks did not.  相似文献