Date of Award
1992
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education
Advisor
Jane E. Matson
Keywords
Students
Abstract
Valencia Community College has implemented an Honors Programs for the purpose of serving those students entering the collage who meet the established criteria indicating that they are students who can master advanced work. The Program began in 1988 with the Interdisciplinary studies classes and was extended to all disciplines in 1990. The College enrolled more than 1000 students in the Fall of 1990 in a variety of honors classes collegewide. Students must meet the specific criteria to be accepted in the Program and must maintain specific criteria to be retained. The records of the honors students in 1988, 1989, and 1990 showed that there was a retention problem among honors students. It was the purpose of this project, utilizing research methodology, to analyze the characteristics of honors students and to describe how intervention strategies can Improve retention.
Four groups of honors students were studied to determine what characteristics could suggest interventions that would prevent drop-out or failure. Two of these groups, used to study entrance testing, were honors students who entered the Honors Program in Semester I of 1990 (fall). Semester II of 1991 (spring), and Semester I of 1991 (fall), and the part of that sample that opted to take the Local Items (Questionnaire. Another group consisted of the students in the Honors Program in Semester I of 1991 who were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test in their honors classes. The fourth group studied were honors students who were surveyed on several community college campuses in Florida and at local and national honors conferences.
The honors students that were studied for entrance testing were referred to as low-risk high-ability (those retained or continuers) and high-risk high-ability (those not retained or leavers). Criteria were identified that would separate the high-risk high-ability honors students from the low-risk high-ability honors students so that comparisons could be made.
Characteristics of honors students that were studied were the result of entrance testing, learning skills assessment, demographic surveys, and student and faculty surveys. The results Indicated some Inadequacy in cumulative averages, and some in the writing and math skills. The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), on the other hand, helped to identify some learning styles that need special consideration in the classroom. Similarly, it was suspected that some students who commit to the Honors Program are hampered by other constraints in their socio-economic environment, so the Local Items Questionnaire used along with an Honors Student Survey helped to study these areas. Students indicated that their most important reason for attending the community college was to prepare for a four-year college or university and that they have a strong commitment to this goal. Many indicated that they do not go to the instructor for advice regarding their class progress and that financing their academic commitment is a major concern. This survey was conducted at Valencia, at other area campuses, and at state and national honors conferences.
All of these characteristics were analyzed along with responses from an honors faculty survey. Faculty ware surveyed from Valencia Community College, Seminole Community College, Brevard Community College, and Miami-Dade Community College. Some significant clusters of responses from the faculty led to specific ideas for intervention strategies.
A total of 1042 honors students were studied for entrance testing data, 189 cases were studied taking the LIQ, 387 were administered the GEFT, and 160 responded to the student survey. There were 74 faculty respondents to that survey. Much of the data were gathered from the Valencia computer tracking system.
Valencia has a Retention Program designed for high-risk low-ability students. Students in this program enter the College with a CPA below 2.0 or have a low score on the ASSET test. Although honors students enter with much higher scores, it is expected that the results of this study will encourage the inclusion of high-risk high-ability students in the existing Retention Program. This study provides information for planning and evaluating intervention strategies specifically for honors students. There are twenty-five strategies recommended along with an action plan for implementation and for assessment measures. These strategies have been submitted to the office of Planning, Research, and Development to be considered for implementation.