ERIC Number: EJ903055
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Dec
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0361-0365
EISSN: N/A
The Bird's Eye View of Community Colleges: A Behavioral Typology of First-Time Students Based on Cluster Analytic Classification
Bahr, Peter Riley
Research in Higher Education, v51 n8 p724-749 Dec 2010
The development of a typology of community college students is a topic of long-standing and growing interest among educational researchers, policy-makers, administrators, and other stakeholders, but prior work on this topic has been limited in a number of important ways. In this paper, I develop a behavioral typology based on students' course-taking and other enrollment patterns during a seven-year observation period. Drawing on data for a population of 165,921 first-time college students, I identify six clusters of behaviors: "transfer," "vocational," "drop-in," "noncredit," "experimental," and "exploratory." I describe each of these student types in terms of distinguishing course-taking and enrollment behaviors, representation in the first-time student cohort, predominant demographic characteristics, and self-reported academic goal. I test the predictive validity of the classification scheme with respect to long-term academic outcomes. I investigate the relationships between the primary classification scheme and several alternative classification schemes. Finally, I demonstrate the replicability of the classification scheme with an alternate cohort of students. (Contains 6 footnotes and 7 tables.)
Descriptors: Community Colleges, Educational Research, Enrollment Trends, Classification, Cluster Grouping, Student Behavior, Behavior Patterns, Student Characteristics, Replication (Evaluation), Transfer Rates (College), Noncredit Courses, Academic Persistence, School Holding Power, Vocational Education, College Freshmen, Predictive Measurement
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A