In Search of New SLO Measures in Student Services Jerry Rudmann, PhD and Shaon Gonzalez, MA Coastlin

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In Search of New SLO Measures in Student
ServicesJerry Rudmann, PhD and Shañon Gonzalez,
MACoastline Community CollegeKari Tucker,
PhDIrvine Valley CollegeStrengthening Student
SuccessAssessment ConferenceOctober 6, 2006

• Let us think of education as the means of
  developing our greatest abilities, because in
  each of us there is a private hope and dream
  which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit
  for everyone and greater strength for our nation.
  
• -- John F. Kennedy

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Agenda

• Region 8 studies currently underway
• Purpose Do cognitive variables have potential as
  student learning outcomes in Student Services?

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Possible New Measures

• Self Efficacy
• Stories of two Coastline students
• Hope
• Some research findings
• Academic and Career Goal Clarity
• Developing own instrument

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Academic Self-Efficacy(Albert Bandura)

• Beliefs about ones capabilities to learn or
  perform at designated levels.
• Compared with students who doubt their learning
  capabilities, those who feel efficacious for
  learning or performing a task participate more
  readily, work harder, persist longer when they
  encounter difficulties, and achieve at a high
  level.
• Much research shows that self-efficacy influences
  academic motivation, learning, and achievement.

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Four Sources of Efficacy Beliefs

• Mastery experiences -- Outcomes interpreted as
  successful raise efficacy, those interpreted as
  failures lower efficacy
• Vicariously success or failure of models
• Verbal persuasions by others positive or
  negative appraisals by others
• Physiological states (e.g., anxiety, stress,
  arousal, fatigue, mood) act as information about
  efficacy beliefs and can raise or lower efficacy

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Hope for Academic Success(CR Snyder)

• The three components of the HOPE model
• Goals that which we want to have happen
• Pathways routes to get to the goal
• Agency motivation to work toward goal

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Hope for Academic Success(CR Snyder)

• Hope scores reliably predict academic success
• GPA
• graduation rate
• lower drop rates
• High Hope versus Low Hope students
• More readily find multiple pathways
• Are more motivated to pursue goals
• Can more readily articulate their goals
• Less sidetracked by self-deprecatory thinking
• Less counterproductive negative emotions (e.g.,
  stress, test-taking anxiety)

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To SummarizeHere are potential SLOS Suggested by
the Efficacy and Hope Models

• Hope-
• Hope that one will achieve short and long
  term academic goals
• Goal clarity (academic and career)
• Pathways
• Agency
• Stress management
• Replacing negative self-talk with positive
  self-talk

• Academic Self-Efficacy- Confidence in reaching
  positive academic outcomes built upon the
  following
• Successful experiences
• Success of models
• Positive appraisal
• Positive emotions associated with academic
  activities

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Current or Potential Services for Enhancing These
SLO Domains
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Current / Potential Services for Enhancing These
SLO Domains
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Study Website
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DSPSRegion 8SLO Study Phase I Report
Presented at Rio Hondo CollegeMay 26, 2006
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Possible New Measures

• Academic Self-Efficacy
• Academic and Career Goal Clarity
• Dispositional Hope
• Optimism
• Self-Esteem, Mood

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Current / Potential Services for Enhancing These
SLO Domains
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Preliminary Research Findings from the Spring
Pilot Test for DSPS
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Participation in Spring 2006 Pilot Study
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Gender

• Male 128 40.5
• Female 188 59.5

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Age Group

• 19 or under 57 18.0
• 20 26 145 45.9
• 27 35 38 12.0
• 36 or more 76 24.1

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Ethnicity

• African American 36 11.4
• American Indian/PI 7 2.2
• Asian 21 6.6
• Caucasian 119 37.7
• Filipino 4 1.3
• Hispanic/Latino 79 25.0
• Middle-Eastern 8 2.5
• Other 27 8.5
• Rather not say 15 4.7

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Descriptive Statistics (N316)
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Transformed Data
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Preliminary Findings of Exploratory Analyses

• Having a focused academic major was related to
• Having received assistance in choosing the right
  classes for ones career goal
• Having completed a career success course

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Preliminary Findings of Exploratory Analyses

• Goal clarity has a positive relationship to
  pathways and academic self-efficacy
• Thus, helping students formulate realistic goals
  and ways to reach them probably increases
  self-efficacy, or confidence, for succeeding in
  academic challenges

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Preliminary Findings of Exploratory Analyses

• Compared to students having no interest or unsure
  about transferring, those hoping to transfer had
  higher scores on
• Academic self-efficacy
• Pathways
• Academic goal clarity

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Preliminary Findings of Exploratory Analyses

• There was a positive relationship between the
  number of services received by DSPS and
• Academic self-efficacy
• Self-regulated learning

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Preliminary Findings of Exploratory Analyses

• Seven of the 8 scales studied passed a
  reliability analysis (.70 or higher on Chronbach
  Alpha)

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• Received assistance over past academic year
• 
  
  Count Pct. Percent
• Dealing effectively with life
  105 6.3 33.3
• Choosing the right classes for your career_
  200 12.0 63.5
• Communicating better with teachers
  140 8.4 44.4
• Dealing with text anxiety
  95 5.7 30.2
• Effective study strategies
  146 8.8 46.3
• Finding alternative solutions and strategies
  119 7.1 37.8
• Forming clearer academic goals
  129 7.7 41.0
• Forming clearer career goals
  93 5.6 29.5
• Speaking to your instructors about accommodations
  154 9.2 48.9
• Thinking more positively about your chances
  success158 9.5 50.2
• Making schedule adjustments
  159 9.5 50.5
• Information about the services available
  142 8.5 45.1
• Other
  28 1.7 8.9
• 
  -------
  ----- -----
• 
  Total responses 1668 100.0 529.5

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Phase II Fall 2006

• All new EOPS and DSPS students complete the
  online survey during first 8 weeks of classes.
• End of fall semester, before holiday break Same
  students complete online survey 2.

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Phase III - Spring 2007

• By mid-spring 2007 analyze data, send reports
  to colleges.
• The reports will include recommendations for
  local use of any of the instruments used in this
  study. It is hoped that the instruments will be
  useful for
• Identifying students in need of assistance
• More clearly specifying the types of help the
  students need
• Assessing student growth in terms of academic
  self-efficacy, goal clarity, success strategies,
  and so on. (new SLOs?)
• By Fall 2007 relate growth scores to actual
  academic outcomes (e.g., GPA, persistence,
  units earned)

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Copies of PowerPoint and Progress Report

• http//research.ccc.cccd.edu/success_assess_conf.h
  tm

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SLO Research Team

• Jerry Rudmann, PhD Coastline College
  (Supervisor of Research)
• jrudmann_at_coastline.edu
• Shañon Gonzalez, MA Coastline College (Research
  Analyst) sgonzalez_at_coastline.edu
• Kari Tucker, PhD Irvine Valley College
  (Psychology Professor)
• ktucker_at_ivc.edu