Coleman-Latta - Dissertation FINAL-FINAL for submission 9.9.20

THE IMPACT OF OHIO’S COLLEGE CREDIT PLUS PROGRAM ON COLLEGE SUCCESS Joshua Randall Coleman B.A., Wilmington College, 2005 M.Ed., Wilmington College 2011 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty under the supervision of Dr Gail F Latta, PhD in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Leadership Studies Xavier University Cincinnati, OH August 2020 EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS i EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS THE IMPACT OF OHIO’S COLLEGE CREDIT PLUS PROGRAM ON COLLEGE SUCCESS Joshua Randall Coleman Dissertation Advisor: Gail F Latta, Ph.D Abstract The College Credit Plus (CCP) program, adopted and implemented by the state of Ohio in the 2015-2016 school year, presents some unique opportunities for examining the impact of accelerated college credit on preparing students for success in college This study attempts to examine three of these unique features to examine the relationship that the CCP program might have on its participants’ success in college, measured by first year GPA upon matriculation at a university Correlational analysis was first applied to examine any relationships that might exist among the dependent and independent variables The number of credit hours a student completed through CCP demonstrated a positive significant relationship with first year GPA, while the type of course work (General Education and Career Pathway) demonstrated a positive significant relationship but no significance was found between the two types of courses according to a Fisher’s Z-Test The researcher wanted to examine the number of years spent taking CCP courses to see if the amount of exposure of time to these types of courses demonstrated any relationship, but the data could not be determined to examine that relationship ii EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS Acknowledgments The author would like to acknowledge the Ohio Department of Higher Education for compiling and granting access to the data file used in analysis for this study, in particular Jill Dannemiller who worked with us as liaison and kept pushing to get the data request approved The author would also like to acknowledge the dissertation committee members, Dr Shirley Curtis and Dr David Tobergte for their insight, encouragement, and assistance in the dissertation process, and especially Dr Gail F Latta, my dissertation advisor, for her tireless work in navigating the dissertation process, editing, and finding a way to persevere when it looked like this study might not be possible Thanks also go out to all of the Leadership Studies faculty Most of all the author wishes to thank and acknowledge his family, especially his wife and children, who adjusted schedules to provide time to research and write, dealt with the hours locked in the office, and put up with a grouchy husband and father when things got to be too much Thank you to everyone who helped make this study possible iii EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS Table of Contents Chapter – Overview of the Study…………………………………………………… A Research Topic and Background………………………… ….………… B Statement of the Problem C Purpose of the Study D Theoretical Framework E Research Questions F Methodology 10 G Definition of Terminology .10 H Assumptions 12 I Limitations .12 J Delimitations 12 K Significance of Study .13 L Organization of Study 13 Chapter – Literature Review………………………………………………………… 15 A Introduction 15 B Need for Accelerated Credit 16 C Models of Accelerated Credit Programs 20 D Critics .21 E Previous Study Contributions 25 Chapter – Methodology…………………………………………………… …31 A Introduction 31 B Theoretical Framework 31 C Research Questions 33 D Research Design .34 E Population and Data Sources 35 F Instrumentation 36 G Data Collection 37 H Data Analysis 37 I Human Subject Protections (IRB) 38 J Assumptions and Research Bias 38 Chapter – Data Analysis……………………………………………………………….40 A Introduction 40 B Sample 40 C Preliminary Calculations 41 D Descriptive Statistics 41 E Inferential Statistics .43 F Summary of Findings .45 Chapter – Interpretation and Implications…………………………………………… 47 A Interpretations of Research Questions 47 B Discussion of Implications .49 iv EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS C Limitations .51 D Suggestions for Future Research 52 References……………………………………………………………………………… 54 v EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS List of Figures Figure – Theoretical Framework …… ……………………………… ………………8 Figure – Theoretical Framework……………………………………………….… 32 vi EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS List of Tables Table – Descriptive Statistics…………………………………………………….… 42 Table – Correlation Analysis of CCP Hours and GPA………………………… … 43 Table – Correlation Analysis of General Education Courses and GPA…………… 43 Table – Correlation Analysis of Career Pathway Courses and GPA……………… 44 Table – Logistical Regression Model…………………………………………………45 vii EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS Chapter OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY Research Topic and Background Previous Dual Enrollment Research The issue of better preparing students for transitioning from high school to an institute of higher education (IHE) has been plaguing American schools for decades Hebert (2001) indicates that efforts to address this issue can be traced back as early as 1971 Many attempts to improve college readiness have been developed over the year at the national level (Luna, Rush, Gramer, and Stewart, 2014) One prevailing strategy developed to help better prepare students to be successful in college upon graduating high school is to offer an opportunity for students to earn college credits while still in high school This option has taken many forms, under multiple names including PostSecondary Enrollment Option (PSEO), Dual Enrollment (DE), Joint Enrollment, and Concurrent Enrollment, all of which can be applied to courses where students are taking college courses while in high school College courses taken prior to high school graduation may be taken on or off the college campus: College in High School are college courses offered in the high school setting; Dual Credit specifically refers to courses that will count towards both high school requirements and college course work requirements (Hoffman, Vargas, and Santos; 2009) Other accelerated credit options include Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB), which offer other methods of earning college credit in the high school setting Various studies such as those by Hoffman, Vargas, and Santos (2009); Shaw (2014); Kanny (2015); Pierson, Hodara, and Luke (2017); and Vargas, EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS Hooker, and Gerwin, (2017) have been conducted on each of these different types of accelerated credit programs showing that they have a tendency to greatly improve college readiness and student confidence Each of these programs demonstrates its own benefits and drawbacks, but up to this point, no program in the state of Ohio had attempted to collect all of these options under a single umbrella until the creation of Ohio’s College Credit Plus program College Credit Plus College Credit Plus (CCP) is a program which was instituted in the state of Ohio to fulfill the requirements of Ohio Revised Code (ORC) section 3365.15 and went into effect in the 2015-2016 school year (CCP 2018 Report) According to recommendations for the program by Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, John Carey (2014), the CCP program is defined as a program that, will govern those arrangements where a student is engaged in nonsectarian, nonremedial educational coursework while in high school that automatically results in transcripted high school and college credit at the successful conclusion of that coursework…[and] will be the primary mechanism to pay for earned, transcripted college credit while in high school…” (pg 9) The recommendations also distinguish Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs that are not recommended to be counted as CCP course options The CCP initiative has replaced all other Dual Enrollment options in Ohio public schools (Carey, 2014) The function of this program is to provide gateways to college credit for high school students to enhance college readiness and to ease financial burdens, EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS CAREER PATHWAY COURSES AND CUMULATIVE GPA CORRELATION Career Pathway Cumulative GPA Courses Pearson Correlation 054 CAREER PATHWAY Sig (2-tailed) 000 COURSES N 23244 23244 Pearson Correlation 054 CUMULATIVE GPA Sig (2-tailed) 000 N 23244 23244 Table Correlation calculations for relationship between the number of career pathway courses a student completed during CCP and First Year Cumulative GPA upon matriculation at a college Similarly, the number of Career Pathway courses a participant took during CCP was positively, and significantly correlated with first year Cumulative GPA after college matriculation, r2 (23244) = 054, p < 001 Because both types of courses demonstrated statistically significant positive correlations, a Fisher’s Z-test was run to determine if the slopes of these two correlations were statistically different, Z (d.f = 23241) = 1.082, n.s The results of the Fisher’s Z were non-significant because it falls short of the critical value of 1.96 for a two-tailed test at p < 05 Thus no significant difference was observed between the correlations of Gen Ed vs Career Pathway courses and first year college GPA Finally, a regression model was tested to determine the proportion of variance in cumulative GPA accounted from by the number Gen Ed and number of Career Path courses taken in the first year of college matriculation Results are presented in Table The overall regression model was significant, R (2, 23241) = 072, p < 001 Based on the analysis of coefficients, the number of Gen Ed CCP courses explained a greater amount of the overall variance in GPA (.051) than the number of Career Path courses taken (.036) These results reflect an interaction between the type of CCP courses taken and first year college GPA 44 EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS Model Summary Model Regression Residual Total R 072 R Square Adjusted R Square Std Error of Estim ate R Square Change F Change df1 005 005 8122 005 60.314 ANOVA Mean Square Sum of Squares 79.585 15333.55 15413.13 df Unstandardize dB Coefficient s Std Error Standardized Coefficients Beta 008 001 003 051 036 23241 df2 Sig F Change 23241 000 F 39.793 660 Sig 60.314 000 23243 COEFFICIENTS (Constant) Gen Ed Career Pathway 2.960 010 014 T 379.988 7.286 5.128 Sig .000 000 000 Correlations Zeroorder Partia l Part 064 054 048 034 048 034 Table Regression Model assessing interaction among variables Summary of Findings The analysis applied in this study did demonstrate several significant results After determining normal distribution the Pearson Correlation tests demonstrated positively and significantly correlated relationships between first year cumulative GPA after matriculation to college and all dependent variables able to be analyzed (CCP Hours Completed, General Education Courses completed, and Career Pathway Courses completed) at p < 001 Since both the number of Gen Ed and the number of Career Pathway courses demonstrated significant results the Fisher’s Z-test was necessary to determine if one type of course demonstrated a stronger correlation While Gen Ed did 45 EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS demonstrate a higher correlation at r2 (23244) = 064, the Z-test demonstrated that the difference was not significant The regression model was able to demonstrate that for students who took both types of courses the number of Gen Ed CCP courses accounted for more of the variance in Cumulative GPA in their first year of matriculation than Career Pathway courses No further analysis was necessary for RQ4 since there was no other variable to examine against CCP hours to determine predictive utility 46 EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS Chapter INTERPRETATION AND IMPLICATIONS Interpretation of Research Questions This study set out to examine four research questions based upon the implications of taking courses through the College Credit Plus (CCP) program Each question focused on one of the unique opportunities that the CCP program offered to participants The analysis of the data provided by the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) has led to some conclusions that can be drawn about the program The first question focused on the ability of participants to partake a large quantity of college credit hours RQ1 asked: Is there a statistically significant relationship between students’ college success, operationalized by their first year GPA after matriculation at a university, and CCP Course Load, operationalized as the number of hours a student completed through the CCP program? The data provided demonstrated a range of single participant credit hours earned from credit hours to 116 credit hours The Pearson Correlation demonstrated a positive and significantly correlated relationship at r2 (23244) = 125, p