The Professional Development of Career College Faculty
Susan L. Mago
Regional Director
Globe University/Minnesota School of Business
763-218-1096
and
Shari L. Peterson
Associate Professor
Department of Organizational Leadership Policy and Development
University of Minnesota
612-624-4980
Stream: #14 Vocational Education, Learning, and Workplace Learning
Type: Work in Progress
Key Words: Career Colleges, Academic Professional Development
The Professional Development of Career College Faculty
Abstract
This work in progress addresses the professional experience and expertise of career college faculty, and identifies data collection in veterinary technology, medical assisting, paralegal, and business administration programs of 16 career-colleges. The purpose of the study is to determine if there is a relationship between the professional experience of faculty and student persistence in those majors. Although over three million students attended accredited career colleges in 2008-2009 (approximately 10 percent of higher education participants), literature and research on the human resource development of faculty in career colleges (also known as for-profit colleges) are lacking. First year student retention rates at all two-year institutions for the academic years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 were 59 and 60 percent respectively; during the same timeframe, for-profit college rates were 65 and 69 percent (United States Department of Education, 2010). Career colleges educate skilled entry-level workers and help to deliver educated adults to meet market needs through an applications-based approach to learning. Faculty who train the students of these programs are the focus of this research in progress.
1 Introduction
As participation in higher education continues to increase, the percentage of students earning degrees has not increased proportionately. While gains have been made in the field of student persistence, there has been little noteworthy progress in improving rates of degree completion in higher education (United States Department of Education, 2010). For example, the American Federation of Teachers (2003) revealed that 75 per cent of all students who enroll in four year institutions graduate with a baccalaureate degree, and that only slightly over 50 percent of students enrolling at two year public institutions eventually earn at least an associate degree.
Research on the career college sector of higher education is limited, although the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) is one of the primary data sources collecting information on this sector of United States higher education (United States Department of Education, 2010). According to the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU), career colleges saw enrollments increase 94 per cent between 2004-2005 and 2008-2009, implying that stronger attention has begun to be placed on this unique sector (APSCU, 2011).
Career colleges serve approximately 12 percent of the United States higher education population, representing over three million students, with populations comprising primarily non-traditional students—the groups most likely to leave college prior to earning their degrees (Tinto, 2002; American Federation of Teachers, 2003; United States Department of Education, 2010). These students are often employed adults interested in obtaining an education specifically related to their career aspirations (APSCU, 2011). The wide gaps in the persistence and completion rates most frequently are linked to income, race, age, and previous education (American Federation of Teachers, 2003). Over 75 per cent of career college enrollees are independent students, 47 percent have dependents, 41 percent are minorities, 39 percent are full-time employees, and over 60 percent are age 24 or older (United States Department of Education, 2008). Martinez and Munday (1998) suggested that students who withdrew from college reported less satisfaction with their courses and classroom experiences than did those who persisted. The nature of the career colleges’ at risk populations calls for a need to identify areas in which career colleges may focus to improve student persistence and degree attainment.
2 Problem, Purpose, and Research Question
The problem being researched has a strong and direct impact on many individuals, and holds negative consequences for additional populations as well. Financial resources are lost or under-utilized not only for the immediate population, through attrition, but also for the community and tax payers in general. The debt created from tuition that does not lead to a degree is problematic not only for the student who fails to earn his/her degree, but by financially strapping individuals who have not received the benefits of additional earning power that a completed degree may offer.
The faculty in career colleges play a critical role in fostering student retention. According to Sax (2008), the faculty and classroom environment are the primary connections in which efforts to improve student persistence and degree attainment occur; the relationship between faculty performance in the classroom and student involvement is part of a larger social network. Upcraft et al. (2005) proposed the relationship with faculty as instrumental in student persistence, noting that little has been done to study this inter-relationship or determine practical applications. Similarly, Nelson-Laird et al. (2008) determined that classroom practices utilizing active learning techniques led to increased rates of student persistence; when student learning was related to professional practices, students were more likely to continue their education. Unfortunately the specific professional experiences of faculty were not included in that study.
The problem is that it the impact of the expert skills and/or any practical experience of career-college faculty on the persistence of these students has not been addressed in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to call attention to the professional development needs of career college faculty—a topic not addressed at HRD Conferences or in the HRD literature—regardless of the fact that the success of career-colleges depends on their reputation for preparing graduates to perform on the job. Faculty play an instrumental role in that outcome.
Thus, the research questions that guide this work in progress are: (a) to what extent do faculty possess professional experience in the career field in which they teach and (b) is there a relationship between that experience to the persistence of students?
3 Review of the Literature
The literature reviewed in this paper focuses on theoretical foundations that inform
student persistence, career colleges, and the role of faculty in the classroom as related to student persistence.
3.1 Foundational Persistence Models
Alexander Astin and Vincent Tinto, two early noted scholars on the topic of student persistence, identified the degree of student involvement in their higher education environment as having a critical impact on whether the student completed or departed from the educational institution prior to degree completion. Astin’s Involvement Theory suggested that student involvement was both physical and psychological in varying degrees, and that learning increased as involvement increased, ultimately suggesting that the more a policy or practice increased student involvement, the more effective that practice was on encouraging student persistence (Milem,1997). In essence, Astin claimed that students would learn and stay in school if they were solidly involved in their college experiences (Metz, 2004).
Tinto’s Interactionalist Model of Student Departure supported the positive role that increased student involvement played in improved rates of student persistence. He explained, “There appears to be an important link between learning and persistence that arises from the interplay of involvement and the quality of student effort. Involvement with one’s peers and with the faculty, both inside and outside the classroom, is itself positively related to the quality of student effort and in turn to both learning and persistence” (Tinto, 1993, p. 71). He argued that student success was enhanced in environments where strong support systems were present (Tinto, 2002).
3.2 College Student Persistence
Although dropping out of college was initially attached to individual student skill sets
and commitment to learning and education, research has demonstrated there are a
variety of reasons students leave college prior to graduation (Tinto, 1993, 2002, 2006;
Braxton, 2000, 2008). The National Center for Education Statistics (2007)
reported that after a six year study of cumulative student persistence rates, the range of
completion varied from 34% of students enrolled in large public institutions completing
their programs up to 58% completion for those enrolled in other not-for-profits. Further,
the National Center determined that both two-year public and degree-granting for-profit institutions awarded more associate degrees than other types of degrees or certificates.
However, the above data also suggested that, in some instances, nearly 66% of students enrolling in higher education did not complete their degrees, further strengthening the need for additional research on student persistence and what could be done to assist students in staying in school and completing their programs of study.
Overall, the number of non-traditional students participating in higher education increased dramatically since the mid-nineteen seventies as compared to the participation rate of traditional student growth, yet the rate of attrition for non-traditional students was near 50% during their first academic year (Freer-Weiss, 2004). Although progress has been made in increasing college access, particularly with non-traditional and underrepresented populations, these increases have not led to increased graduation rates )McHugh Engstrom, 2008). Some colleges have attained higher rates of student persistence and graduate a greater percentage of their students, but when viewed in a larger context, throughout higher education in the United States, attrition rates continue to be higher than desired.
The American Federation of Teachers (2003) reported that fewer students follow the
traditional path to degree attainment; rather, they attend part-time with more interruptions to their education. Tinto (2002) determined that the more time spent to degree attainment, the less likely the student was to complete his/her degree.
3.3 Career Colleges
Career colleges in the United States date back to the colonial period, and have
maintained primarily vocationally-oriented curricula. Career colleges are also referred to
as for-profit or proprietary institutions, and they are major providers of entry-level
members of our workforce (Honick, 1995). In the early twentieth century, slightly over
900 trade schools enrolled nearly 200,000 students. By the mid-1960s, over 7000 of
these institutions were training over 1.5 million students (Lee and Merisotis, 1990).
Today there are over 3300 hundred career colleges in the United States and Puerto
Rico (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). The College Board reported that,
“Career colleges are greatly outpacing traditional colleges and universities in terms of
the percentage of total degrees granted by higher education institutions” (Association of
Private Sector Colleges and Schools, 2011).
The primary mission of career colleges is to provide quality skills training while making a profit, and they accomplish this by placing strong emphasis on customer service in settings that largely eliminate the bureaucratic processes often associated with more traditional institutions (Morey, 2001). A fundamental difference between nonprofit and for-profit higher education lies within their institutional missions. The mission of the nonprofit sector of higher education focuses on providing access through open enrollment and community support, compared to the career college emphasis on skills training and entry-level employment of their graduates as a means for enhancing the labor market, along with a profit motive derived from tuition revenues (Pusser and Doane, 2001). Since career colleges focus on a limited scope of programs with an applications-based approach to learning, they have done well serving the adult student population, as these colleges concentrate on active learning environments and career-specific training (Morey, 2001)
Career colleges generate their operating revenues solely from tuition dollars and although they typically participate in Federal Title IV and state financial aid programs, they receive no forms of tax appropriations. In contrast, funding for community colleges comes primarily from tax appropriations from state and local governments (National Center for Education Statistics, 2008).
3.4 Faculty and Persistence
Decades ago, Pascarella and Terenzini (1979) studied the relationships students developed with faculty, both in and out of the classroom, and found that informal contact with faculty outside the classroom led to higher rates of student persistence. However, more recently, in a two-year institution, social integration was found to have a significantly lesser impact on student persistence, with academic integration holding a stronger correlation to persistence (Bean and Metzner, 1985; Nippert, 2000). In a later study, Pascarella et al. 2008 identified that student perceptions in the classroom were linked to their achievement levels. This finding is not news; for example, Metz (2004) noted that success in the adult learner’s first year of college, particularly academic success, is a critical component to staying in school and graduating, and the role of faculty is the most logical means to accomplish this goal. Gordon (2009) explained that industry experience of faculty, coupled with academic background, were two important considerations for effective preparation of career and technical faculty members. Thus, students have been well-served by faculty who effectively utilize active and collaborative learning methodologies, which subsequently increases the likelihood of persistence (Kinzie et al. 2008).
Student engagement also has been shown to play a significant role in first-year student persistence, so in a commuter college scenario where student housing does not exist, common to the career college environment, this involvement may only occur in the classroom. According to Tinto (2006), if student engagement is not present in the classroom, it is likely not to occur at all. Active learning in the classroom promotes student participation in hands-on learning while applying those skills in various practical scenarios (Braxton, 2008). Further, (Braxton et al. 2008) asserted that “Faculty use of active learning practices plays a significant role in the retention of first-year college students” (p. 81).
4 Method
This relational study will identify faculty members’ professional experience in their curricular area and determine the extent to which their experience may be related to student persistence.
4.1 Population and Sample
The study sample will consist of students who have enrolled in four different programs offered at sixteen branch campuses of a privately-held proprietary institution representing two career colleges. These sixteen campuses enroll approximately 7000 students. Four additional campuses belong to the system but do not offer all four programs being studied and will be excluded from the sample.
The sample consists of students enrolled between January 1, 2007 through March 31, 2012 in four associate degree programs: (a) veterinary technology, (b) business administration, (c) medical assistant, and (d) paralegal associate degree programs, and all faculty teaching core courses in these programs during the same timeframe.