Purpose: Nonmedical use of stimulant medications (NMUS) among college students is an important and growing problem. The annual prevalence of NMUS among four-year college students has nearly doubled since 2008 and exceeds NMUS in non-college peers. Community college students are an understudied population regarding NMUS. Given noted NMUS differences in 4-year students and non-college peers, one cannot assume community college students’ cognitions, perceptions, and behaviors mirror either peer cohort. We conducted a web-based survey across 10 community colleges in Tennessee (TN) to assess correlates and consequences of NMUS. Methods: We developed an initial version of the 60-item survey questionnaire using previously validated, theoretically based survey items and other items developed by the research team. The survey instrument was then reviewed and assessed for content validity by our research team, and thereafter pilot tested with East Tennessee State University undergraduate students for range measures, item order, and best practices for survey construction. The final 55-item survey instrument was designed using web-based survey software (i.e., Qualtrics). Ten of 13 community colleges in TN granted approval for their students to participate in the study (N=53096). A modified Tailored Design Method approach was utilized to maximize response rate across four email contacts, and monetary incentives were offered to encourage participation in the study. Regulatory authorities (e.g., institutional review boards, institutional offices) from East Tennessee State University and participating community colleges approved the conduct of this study. Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 22). Descriptive statistics were calculated to evaluate prevalence, source, motives and consequences of NMUS. Student’s t-tests and chi-square tests were conducted to compare nonmedical stimulant users and nonusers across a number of variables. Results were considered significant for p < 0.05. Results: A total of 3113 students completed the survey (response-rate = 5.8%), of which 302 (9.7%) were past-year nonmedical stimulant users. A significantly greater proportion of users were diagnosed with a mental health condition (22.2%) than non-users (9.6%). Compared to non-users, significantly greater proportions of users reported using tobacco products, such as cigarettes (34.5% vs. 14%), e-cigarettes (12.5% vs. 4%), and vapors (18.4% vs. 6.7%). Users further reported using more types of illicit drugs (1.9 ± 0.1), more alcoholic drinks per week (2.9±0.3), and more occasions of binge drinking per month (1.8±0.2) than non-users (1.1±0.02, 1.3±0.07, 0.7±0.04, respectively). Only 14.2% of users (n=43 from 302) reported having prescriptions for prescription stimulants. Common sources of prescription stimulants were friends (62.9%), family members (12.3%), and street suppliers (9.9%). Commonly endorsed reasons for NMUS were ‘to improve academic performance’ (63.9%), ‘to have more energy’ (49.7 %), ‘to relieve tension’ (22.2%), and ‘to feel good or get high’ (16.6 %). Adverse effects resulting from NMUS included: lack of appetite (45.4%), difficulty sleeping (38.4 %), and racing heart (31.1%). Unlike the published findings from 4-year college students, low GPA, male gender, Caucasian race and membership in fraternity organizations were not associated with NMUS in community colleges. Conclusion: The present study provides useful information on characteristics of users and patterns and consequences of NMUS in community colleges students. NMUS appears to be associated with illicit substance use, binge drinking and disrupted mental health in community college students in TN. Friends are the most common source and desire to enhance academic performance is the most salient motive for NMUS. Despite facing adverse consequences, college students continued using stimulants nonmedically. These findings underscore the need for development of public health programs that target prevention of NMUS in community colleges.

Student attrition prior to the completion of a credential is an issue that has increasingly demanded the attention of stakeholders in higher education, particularly in the community college sector, in which less than half of all students complete a credential after six years. The costs of student attrition are high and widespread, ranging from the financial costs for institutions and federal and state governments to the personal and monetary costs paid by those students whose personal and professional goals are not achieved. With the ever-increasing focus on accountability for institutions of higher education and the growing movement toward performance-based funding, institutions are seeking to find ways to support all students on the path to completion of a credential. Building upon Braxton’s theory of powerful institutional levers that serve to promote student completion, Rendon's validation theory, and Schlossberg's theory of marginality versus mattering, this two-part companion dissertation seeks to progress conversation beyond levers of retention as programmatic approaches to increasing student success. Through interviews with community college students serving as peer mentors in a student ambassador program and community college faculty identified by peers and supervisors as high performing in the area of student retention, the researchers seek to identify common characteristics, behaviors, backgrounds, conditions, and values possessed by effective human levers of retention. In doing so, the researchers hope to identify common characteristics among successful human levers of retention in the form of peer mentors and faculty members. This work is in part a collaborative piece that should be read with Kim Russell’s At the Heart of Policies and Programs: Community College Faculty Member and Peer Mentors as Human Levers of Retention.

Choosing a college major and career are the most critical decisions that college students make and students are expected to make these impactful decisions early in their academic careers. First-generation, community college students are a group that are especially affected by this early decision process as they require the knowledge and experience to make informed decisions. Their parents often lack the experience to guide them through this process since they are unfamiliar with being a college student and providing the necessary support in this area. These barriers cause stress among these students and inefficiencies in the decisions that they make. Nevertheless, first-generation, community college students are a group that possess a tremendous amount of motivation and determination for reaching their goals regardless of the barriers they encounter. Community colleges and high schools are in a position to create intervention programs that help promote career development at a time when it’s most critical. The aim of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the decision-making process that first-generation, community college students experienced as they made college major and career choices. The study focused on understanding the factors that influenced students’ college major and career choices. This study found that the factors that influenced students’ college major and career choices were: a desire to break the cycle of poverty for a better life; the desire to set a good example; the desire to become something real; the exposure to knowledge, engaging instructors, and to authentic careers during their educational experience; knowing there is a future; and the support and guidance students received while pursuing their education. Furthermore, students reported that their exposure to knowledge, engaging instructors, and to their authentic careers during their educational experience, as well as the support and guidance they received, helped bolster their level of confidence about reaching their career goals, thus, providing students with a heightened sense of career self-efficacy. Results of this study indicated that having the proper support and guidance, both moral and financial, influenced the choices that they made related to their college majors and careers. Being confident about reaching a career goal gave students the determination and resiliency to keep moving forward in their academic path. Participants described their major and career choice process as confronting unclear futures with determination and resilience; encountering and overcoming financial barriers; being stressful; and as a process of searching. This new knowledge that emerged as a result of this study will assist counselors in utilizing effective counseling approaches in order to maximize the assistance provided to first-generation, community college students based on their actual career development needs. The study results will also help in directing the development of intervention programs focused on career development at community colleges and pre-collegiate institutions.

This research study investigated associations between online community college students' personal characteristics and experiences in online courses (n = 123). Specifically, students' personalities and cognitive styles were examined alongside the perceived quality and outcomes of collaboration. Negative correlations were found between the conscientiousness personality style and both the quality of collaboration (p = .09) and the outcome of collaboration (p = .05). This finding indicates that conscientious students who, according to the literature tend to have higher academic achievement than other students, perceive negative experiences in online collaborative environments. Conversely, a positive correlation was discovered between the extraversion personality type and the perceived outcomes of collaboration (p = .01). Thus, students with a strongly extraverted personality tend to perceive that they benefits from collaborative learning. Approximately 11% of the variance in the collaborative experience was explained by the combined personal characteristics. The reported frequency of collaboration was positively correlated with both the quality (p < .01) and the outcomes of collaboration (p < .01). While not generalizable, these results suggest that not all students perceive benefits from online collaborative learning. It may be worthwhile to teach students traits associated with the extraversion type like flexibility which is important for collaborative learning. Also, teaching students to adopt traits associated with conscientiousness that improve academic achievement like self-regulation may help improve perceptions of collaborative experiences.

The purpose of this study is to critically explore low-income women's experience as they negotiate post secondary education in community colleges. Three research questions explore the context through which low-income women have entered the college experience, what that experience is like for them, and how the community college experience has impacted their consciousness and view of their futures. This study has significance because poverty is a critical social issue for women, post secondary education is a route out of poverty yet social welfare policy does not support access to education, community colleges have traditionally provided access to education but supports for women have been diminished, and poor women's voices and their own definitions of educational access and success are missing from the public and academic debate of these issues. Past qualitative studies that focus on poor women's experience of college are smaller parts of quantitative studies. Other existing in depth studies have focused on obstacles, persistence, and support systems, or have been studies of special transitional programs formed specifically for welfare eligible women. There is little knowledge of women's experience and sense of self from their perspective as students who are also in poverty. This study uses the research technique of in depth unstructured interviews with eight welfare eligible women student parents in Oregon's Parents as Scholars Program. Six themes emerge from the narrative interviews with the participants that that have implications for educational practice and add to and expand the small body of qualitative work that has been done on the college experiences of low-income women students. / Graduation date: 2012

This study was designed to investigate a phenomenon, retention of Hispanic adult second language learners in Washington State's community colleges, from a qualitative paradigm and phenomenological approach. The focus of this study was to capture eight foreign-born Hispanic ESL non-continuators' voices and experiences, in their native language of Spanish, who dropped out of Washington State's community colleges and unveil the phenomenon behind the factors leading to their retention barriers. The following questions guided the research: (1) What are the retention barriers of Hispanic English as a Second Language population in Washington State Community Colleges? (2) What is the profile of the foreign-born Hispanic ESL learner in Washington State's Community Colleges? (3) Why do Hispanic ESL participants drop out? (4) What services are needed and provided to increase retention patterns of Hispanic ESL learners? (5) What services could make a difference in retention of Hispanic's English as a Second Language participants? A qualitative methodology and phenomenological approach of in-depth interviews was the research paradigm utilized for data collection. Participants were recruited from a survey implemented at various community colleges' and communitybased organizations' ESL programs in Washington State. Criteria for inclusion as a potential participant in this research required adult participants to be: (1) foreign-born Hispanic, (2) a resident of Washington state, (3) in the age range of eighteen to thirty years of age, (4) a prior drop out student from one of Washington State's community colleges adult basic education ESL programs, and (5) a volunteer to participate in the study. This study unveiled factors that caused retention barriers for eight foreign-born Hispanic ESL adult learners that dropped out of Washington State's community colleges Adult Basic Education ESL programs. In many Adult Basic Education ESL programs in Washington State, foreign-born Hispanic adults are largely voluntary candidates, and the role of student is just one of the countless roles competing for their time and attention. From the eight foreign-born Hispanic non-continuators' voices and experiences, the findings indicate that retention is a complex phenomenon involving various institutional, situational, and dispositional factors. This study's findings also unveiled structural issues for the eight foreign-born Hispanic participants, creating systemic structural barriers to their socioeconomic and education development in the United States. This means no one factor could provide an explanation for the retention phenomenon. The eight foreign-born Hispanic adult non-continuators' situational and dispositional factors overwhelmed their zeal for ESL instruction, ESL level completion, and/or ESL program completion. The interview question guide unveiled reasons often voiced as the causes for non-continuation: (1) family struggles and hardships, (2) lack of childcare, healthcare, and transportation, and (3) long work hours. At the same time, the eight foreign-born Hispanics adult non-continuators had pragmatic reasons for engaging in ESL, and felt that the programs would provide meaningful contextual learning for immediate or long-term goals for the home, workplace, or community. / Graduation date:2005

This study was purposed to extract, collate, and statistically format data contained in the national Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) Longitudinal Study: 1996-2001 database that pertained to persistence and attainment rates of GED recipients who began their postsecondary education at a community college during the 1995-96 academic year. The primary objective was to reckon the attrition rate of GED recipients during their first year of enrollment (FY 1995-96), and to measure degree or certificate attainment rates of that particular cohort of GED enrollees at the end of a 6-year study period (FY 2000-01). Several significant findings related to the academic prowess and characteristics of a cohort of GED students who enrolled in public 2-year educational institutions during the BPS:1995-96 study period are presented in this study. One of those findings is that the attrition rates of the GED recipients and the high school graduates who concurrently enrolled full-time at community colleges during the 1995-96 academic year were closely proximate by the end of their first year of enrollment (52.6% HS dropout rate versus 54.8% GED dropout rate). Another interesting finding is that accumulated GPAs of GED recipients who participated in the BPS:1996/2001 and who persisted through their first academic year as full-time enrollees in community colleges were slightly higher than their counterpart BPS:1996/2001 cohort of high school graduates who concurrently enrolled at community colleges. The statistical data reported in this study were garnered from a database administered by the US Department of Education; however, because this study presents its findings in the form of raw, unweighted data, it does not statistically reflect national representativeness. / Graduation date: 2004

In order to explore the differences in engagement levels between entering and returning community college students, the researcher analyzed 13,300 surveys from the 2007 Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) pilot data set utilizing a quantitative methodology. This study focused on analyzing engagement levels of entering and returning students in six constructs: Active and Collaborative Learning, First Day, Student Effort, Student-faculty Interaction, Support for Learners, and Motivation. After the comparison between the two groups was performed, data were disaggregated by eleven groups to further explore differences. Differences in engagement levels were explored in terms of students’ characteristics such as remedial background, age, gender, full-time status, ethnicity, degree seeking, first generation, and traditional status. The results of this study revealed that returning community college students in general, are more engaged in educational practices associated with persistence than entering students. In addition, findings suggest that with the exception of one variable (overall high school grade average), students commonly categorized as “at risk” or “disadvantaged” (developmental, non-traditional, part-time, first generation, minorities) overwhelmingly held higher levels of engagement in all positive engagement variables of the six analyzed constructs. Furthermore, in an analysis of disaggregated data by eleven groups of students, the following was found: o Students who placed in three developmental courses were by far the most highly engaged group in all positive engagement variables of the six constructs. o Students with the highest level of engagement in the two negative variables of the Student Effort construct (skipped class or came to class without completing readings or assignments) were traditional, 18-19 year olds, not-first generation, and non-developmental students. o Students who reported that success courses had helped them to get the knowledge necessary to succeed in college were overwhelmingly disadvantaged students (developmental, non-traditional, females and minorities). o Developmental students showed higher levels of engagement with regard to college services. o Financial aid advising and skill labs (math, reading, and writing) were the two services with the highest number of statistically significant differences throughout the eleven groups. This study was concluded with recommendations for further research and strategies that community college stakeholders could implement to increase student retention. / text

A qualitative study of how first year foreign language students perceive different interactions in an online environment. In depth interviews were conducting with ten students after the completion of an online second semester Spanish course. Individual case studies recorded the unique experiences of each study participant and those experiences were then compared and analyzed for common themes. Emerging themes included the value of explanatory feedback programmed into the course, the use of message boards for making interpersonal connections, the difficulty of conducting online chats, the role and value of announcements and the importance of immediacy behaviors for creating social presence. The themes were then applied to the following research questions: 1) What is the effectiveness of the available interactions in a web-based Spanish course as perceived by community college foreign language learners? 2) How do these interactions work together to facilitate learning based upon their purpose? 3) How do these interactions work together to facilitate learning in an online foreign language learning environment based upon with whom or what the student is interacting? The results of this study included three attributes of effective interaction. The participants indicated a need to make a connection between their personal learning goals and the available interactions. Timeliness was also identified as a key component of effective interactions. Automatic feedback, archives for previous information and a quick turnaround on email correspondence were listed as important aspects that created a feeling of timeliness. The third attribute was identified as a low level of frustration when compared to the potential benefit of an interaction. The study participants indicated a willingness to endure some frustration if they thought it would be worth it in the end. Final recommendations suggested that designers of online foreign language courses should include non-linear instructional activities, carefully designed chat opportunities, quality automatic feedback and reading and listening passages that are level appropriate. Instructors should engage in behaviors that enhance the effectiveness of interactions by making regular announcements, helping learners draw connections between the interactions and their learning goals, maintaining and organizing archives and keeping response times as close to 24 hours as possible. / text

Over the last decade, community college researchers and practitioners increasingly have focused on student engagement as a cornerstone of a successful student success agenda. This study investigated community college student engagement using an ex post facto quantitative methodology. This study reports the results of the five special-focus survey items from 2009 CCSSE national administration and data collected from institutional Facebook pages. This study measured student engagement levels based on five constructs from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (Active and Collaborative Learning, Student-Faculty Interaction, Academic Challenge, Student Effort, and Support for Learners), including more than 170,000 survey respondents. Differences in engagement levels were explored in terms of student characteristics including gender, race/ethnicity, developmental status, weekly preparation, commute time, age (traditional/nontraditional), and enrollment status (full-time/part-time). The results of this study revealed the following: •An institutional Facebook page can provide both academic and non-academic information. An institutional Facebook page is a central location that students, parents, fans, and others can go to ask questions about the college, either general or specific. •Students are using social networking tools for academic purposes. •Students who took honors course(s) and students who commuted six hours or more per week were more likely to use social networking tools to communicate about coursework. •Students’ use of social networking tools for academic purposes is associated with an increase in student-level benchmark scores. A proportional relationship exists between use of SNT and engagement scores. In general, students who frequently used SNT for academic purposes achieved higher engagement scores. •However, a corollary is also true: Student Effort scores tend to be lower among students who use SNT for any purpose multiple times per day. / text