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[pt] Os estudantes que ingressam por meio da política de ação afirmativa encontram inúmeras e graves dificuldades para permanecer na universidade e concluir seus cursos. O acesso desses novos alunos deu ênfase às políticas de permanência e, a partir de então, a temática vem despertando um crescente interesse de pesquisadores que buscam conhecer e compreender os aspectos que perpassam a permanência universitária. A Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro teve a sua primeira experiência com a política de ação afirmativa para ingresso em seus cursos de graduação, em 2011, quase dez anos após ter se tornado realidade em outras instituições públicas. Especialmente a partir da Lei de Cotas, sancionada em 2012, houve o ingresso massivo de estudantes com um novo perfil, o que teve maior impacto nos cursos de alto prestígio, onde a maioria dos estudantes é oriunda das classes sociais mais altas. Desta forma, o presente estudo busca analisar as trajetórias universitárias de estudantes ingressantes pela ação afirmativa, em cursos de prestígio, a partir de suas percepções acerca do cotidiano universitário. Para atender aos objetivos da pesquisa entrevistamos o total de treze estudantes, que têm mantido uma trajetória improvável, na medida em que vêm sobrevivendo em um espaço onde a sua presença é pouco esperada. Os resultados empíricos demonstram que a permanência desses estudantes, embora permeada pelas dificuldades de ordem financeira, não está restrita a elas. As situações que se apresentam também se relacionam ao aspecto simbólico, que envolve a sua integração ao ambiente universitário e o pertencimento ao espaço e ao grupo. A questão da permanência, portanto, se amplia para além do provimento de recursos materiais, exigindo da universidade novas posturas e práticas. / [en] Students entering through affirmative action policy encounter numerous and serious difficulties to stay in university and complete their courses. The access of these new students emphasized the policies of permanence and, from then on, the theme has been attracting a growing interest of researchers who seek to know and understand the aspects that are involved in the permanence of the students in the university. The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro had its first experience with affirmative action policy for admission to its undergraduate courses in 2011, almost ten years after it became a reality in other public institutions. Especially from the Law of Quotas, sanctioned in 2012, there was a massive influx of students with a new profile, which had a greater impact on the high prestige courses, where most of the students come from the upper social classes. In this way, the present study seeks to analyze the university trajectories of students entering through affirmative action, in prestigious courses, based on their perceptions about daily university life. In order to meet the objectives of the research, we interviewed the total of thirteen students, who have maintained an improbable trajectory, since they have been surviving in a space where their presence is little expected. The empirical results demonstrate that the permanence of these students, although permeated by financial difficulties, is not restricted to them. The situations that are presented also relate to the symbolic aspect, which involves their integration into the university environment and belonging to space and to the group. The question of permanence, therefore, extends beyond the provision of material resources, demanding from the university new postures and practices.

The student retention behavior of stopping-out is widely misunderstood and yet very important in explaining community college student enrollment patterns. Stopping-out remains understudied in higher education literature as it is challenging to collect data from students who discontinued their enrollment. Since these students are not retained, they may be categorized as dropping-out within institutional data. The behavior of students who temporarily discontinue their enrollment and intend to re-enroll in the future is characterized as stopping-out. A clear distinction between stopping-out and dropping-out is vital to understanding the characteristics of students who stop-out and the student-level, institutional, and economic factors that influence their decision to discontinue their enrollment. By identifying the characteristics of these students and the factors that lead them to stopping-out, this study provides a foundation for shifting resources to programs that specifically target students who stop-out. Previous retention studies primarily utilized quantitative designs, lacking a student perspective. This mixed-method study, informed by rational choice and prospect theory, analyzed quantitative and qualitative data collected through a fall 2023 student survey administered in partnership with the community college research site. Quantitative analysis revealed that stop-out students at the community college are disproportionately Black, African-American, or Hispanic, of non-traditional age, and Pell Grant eligible. The students who stopped-out for economic reasons were most likely to be part-time enrolled and full-time employed and were more likely than students who stopped out due to institutional factors to discontinue enrollment due to COVID-19. The qualitative analysis of student responses to open-ended survey questions revealed the following themes, which described the factors influencing students' stop-out decisions. These were academic goal attainment, dual enrollment, institutional policies and academics, economic or life events, and ongoing student identity. The qualitative findings corroborated the quantitative findings that economic factors predominantly drive stopping-out decisions and stop-out students still identify as college students. The qualitative findings also confirmed that a number of students included in the stop-out survey did not stop-out. The students who reached their academic goals and dual enrollment students discontinued their enrollment because they met their academic goals. In order to analyze the students who stopped-out, these students were categorized as not-stopped-out for data analysis. The categorization allowed for the focus to be on students most closely aligned with the definition of stopped-out at the research site. My research contributes to the existing literature by including the experiences of stop-out students through their perspective. The research results provide a foundation for community college administrators and policymakers to advocate for reallocating resources toward programs supporting the retention of this unique group. Since the research revealed that many students who stop-out still self-identify as college students, there is an opportunity to provide a pathway to re-enrollment. College leaders can create an environment that lowers the economic barriers driving these students out of the classroom, thereby increasing the student success initiatives associated with community college missions. / Educational Administration

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which minority students in the Peralta Community College District in California, specifically, Merritt College have succeeded in gaining access to Merritt College and whether Merritt is providing needed remedial and other pertinent services/programs, necessary for the success of minority students enrolled in the institution. Merritt College in the Peralta Community College District was selected for this study because the Peralta District has a reputation for providing quality education along with innovative programs. A survey was designed in an attempt to ascertain students' perceptions of the importance and satisfaction with remedial and supportive services/programs that were available at Merritt College. The Statistical Package for the Social Science Computer Program was used to calculate FREQUENCIES, CROSSTABS and CHI SQUARES. The findings indicate that the majority of students felt open admission was very important or important in assisting students in accomplishing their goals. The findings also revealed that students felt that supportive services were important in community colleges. It was also indicated that students felt that it was important to have minority representation on the faculty and staff. The findings revealed that students were satisfied with the supportive services/programs and related work experience or internship programs at Merritt College.

In recent years, institutions of higher education have dramatically increased the number of online courses and degree programs offered to students, and yet it remains unclear what factors determine student satisfaction with online course and instructor effectiveness. Accordingly, the purpose of this exploratory correlation study was to examine how factors related to courses and instructors contributed to student perceptions of course quality (CQ) and instructor effectiveness (IE). Six stepwise regression procedures assessed the effects of specific course and instructor characteristics on perceptions of CQ and IE across one year of course evaluation data collected in a northeastern 2-year college. Results revealed that IE, quality of readings and assignments, and quality of threaded discussions had significant effects on CQ. In turn, student ratings of CQ, instructor-inspired interest in course material, and instructor availability and helpfulness had significant effects on IE. The results of the study can allow higher education administrators to make more effective decisions regarding online instruction and course structure, thus leading to increases in student persistence and success within online courses and programs.

Current research shows that students with a growth mindset are more motivated to learn, want to work harder, are less discouraged by difficulty, use more effective strategies for learning, and have higher academic performance in comparison to students without this mindset. Despite these promising findings, a growth mindset is sometimes not reinforced or is even refuted by classroom conditions. The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to explore how community college educators create classroom environments that foster a growth mindset. The conceptual framework for this study was a social constructivist approach where the interviewer and the participants co-constructed the interpretation of how to influence a growth mindset in the community college classroom. Data were collected through 14 in-depth interviews with community college educators who completed a workshop on influencing a growth mindset. Data were analyzed through categorizing, coding, and identifying themes that answered the research question. The findings of this study indicated that the mindset of the student and the teacher play an important role in academic success at the community college and that faculty desire training in tools and strategies to create classroom environments that foster a growth mindset. Recommendations include an in-depth, experiential professional development program based on research where community college educators from a variety of disciplines can collaborate to gain new knowledge and skills. Training community college educators using the most effective ways of fostering a growth mindset to increase students' motivation, effort, and persistence will lead to greater academic success and degree completion.

Research on organizational change theory confirms the importance of leaders' ability to establish a sense of urgency, create institutional support for change, develop a vision, communicate the vision, empower others toward action, generate results, and ultimately create change in the organizational culture. Organizational change in nested systems, in which CEOs of individual units report upward through a state, regional, or corporate hierarchy, has not been extensively studied. To address this gap in the literature, this phenomenological study explored perceptions of college leaders who in 2002-2003 participated in the transformation of seven 2-year technical colleges into a community college system. The study probed leaders' perceptions of organizational change at the campus level in a nested organizational structure. Two research questions addressed (a) how 2-year college leaders in a nested leadership structure reporting to a system president perceive and describe their experiences of transformational change; and (b) lessons, if any, that these leaders offer other state-governed, 2-year college systems attempting similar levels of transformative change. The study was based on Kotter's change model, which was used to examine the nature and degree of organizational change that occurred in the institutions studied. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed through a transcendental phenomenological process. Results highlighted the importance of communication, leadership, exploiting a sense of urgency, and addressing internal and external concerns chance to participate in the economy. This study will help leaders of multi-campus or nested state systems facilitate transformational change to better achieve those social goals.

Although the major responsibility for community college governance falls to presidents and administrators, researchers have recognized the integral role of faculty in governing higher education institutions. Few studies, however, have explored the effectiveness of contributions of faculty elected to community college academic senates. The purpose of this research was to investigate the background traits and leadership skills of elected academic senate presidents in order to identify both their perceptions of themselves as leaders and the perceptions of other faculty senate members. This study was based in the theory of transformational leadership in organizations and its impact on the effectiveness of organizations. The research question for this quantitative study focused on the extent to which the elected academic senate presidents' background and leadership traits affect the performance of faculty senates. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Form 5X; MLQ 5X) and supplemental demographic data were used with faculty at the 112 community colleges in a western state to measure the relationship between leadership behavior and organizational effectiveness. Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation and z and t tests. Results indicated that there is a significant relationship between senate presidents who were transformational leaders and more effective in leading faculty senates. The implications for social change include informing community college faculty senates and their presidents about effective leadership styles and skills and providing resources to improve faculty governance. The anticipated results are improved college governance, enhanced college service to their communities, and enriched education for their students.

The problem addressed in this study was to understand the knowledge gap between project management competencies available and those needed for successful implementation of technology projects at a community college. The purpose of the qualitative study was to evaluate, compare, and analyze the performance of project managers of 2 large technology projects in a specific community college with respect to each other and what was known about achieving project success at a public institution of higher education (IHE). The research questions for this study examined the competencies exhibited by the project leaders, the success parameters established for the projects, and how the individual project leaders were selected. The conceptual frameworks that supported this study were enterprise wide technology implementation, project management, success assessment, and public IHE operational structures. A comparative case study approach using responsive interviewing techniques with 10 stakeholders from each of the projects yielded dialog that was coded in combination with documentation and observation evidence using recognized competency standards. The relationships and significance of patterns found in this data were analyzed against the proposition that the level of project success is a function of the application of project management competencies of the project leader. The results identified 9 elements that characterized competencies specific to effective project outcome success within the context of the community college. The results contribute to positive social change include implementation of organizational project management initiatives that will enable community colleges to continue to serve a vital role in providing an affordable college education.