The purpose of this investigation was to examine the influence of selected
historical, fiscal, and organizational factors on enrollment patterns in Oregon Community
Colleges during the academic years 1978-79, 1981-82, and 1984-85. Oregon
was selected insofar as it is one of the few remaining states which observes the
principle of local control and maintains state institutional reimbursement for five
categories of enrollment, including adult self-improvement.
The 13 Oregon community colleges formed between 1961 and 1971 provided
the population for this study. A telephone instrument was developed to gather historical
data from the president of each college. Additional information was gathered
from state agencies. The data collected were analyzed using stepwise regression and
the determination of simple correlation coefficients. The five dependent variables
were each of the reimbursable categories of enrollment. It was hypothesized that 19
separate factors, the independent variables, could have influenced the reimbursable
categories.
Research findings identified the following influences upon FTE by enrollment
categories:
1. instructional staffing patterns for increasing transfer and vocational
preparatory;
2. presidential ratings of vocational education for increasing vocational
preparatory;
3. stability of property taxpayer support for increasing transfer;
4. unsuccessful budget elections for increasing developmental education;
and
5. unemployment for decreasing vocational preparatory and increasing
transfer.
However, none of the factors considered had an impact upon vocational supplemental
and self-improvement FTE categories. In addition, the completion of this investigation
demonstrated that it is possible to develop a predictive model for enrollments by
category.
Although a number of the factors considered did not prove to be significant,
the findings from this study provided an initial research model that can be used to
facilitate the examination of other factors which may influence predictive enrollment
modeling by category in various settings. Further studies should include consideration
of additional variables, including community characteristics and population
migration rates as well as the impact of local control on enrollment trends. The
following variables should be subject to continuing reexamination: President's ranking
and rating of enrollment categories; the impact of budgetary elections, subject to
improved methodology; state funding achievement for years when funding redistributions
occur; changes of chief executive officer and changes at the division and/or
department level, in comparison to changes of higher level administrators. In addition,
those factors which constitute barriers placed between unemployed workers and
vocational training should be closely examined. / Graduation date: 1991
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/37469 |
| Date | 19 October 1990 |
| Creators | Smart, Ann Dillie |
| Contributors | Grigsby, Thomas E. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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