Achieving the Dream: Texas Southern University

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Achieving the DreamTexas Southern University

• Focus Group Analysis
• January 2008
• Jacqueline Fleming, Ph.D

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Focus Group Plan

• Student Groups
• Sociology 211-Freshmen
• Business Administration-Freshmen
• Psychology 131-Freshmen
• Student Athletes
• Honors Students
• Pharmacy Students Orientation
• Pan Hellenic Student Organizers
• Student Government Association

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Focus Group Plan

• Open End Questions
• Personal hopes dreams
• What is TSUs retention rate? (49.9) Why?
• What is TSUs graduation rate? (11.7) Why?
• What freshmen courses have highest failure rates?
  (Reading-intensive courses) Why?
• What does TSU do to promote a culture of
  learning?
• What can TSU do to strengthen its culture of
  learning?
• Written evaluation asked last two questions.
• Written evaluations used for this content
  analysis.

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To Strengthen TSUs Culture of Learning Most
Frequent Student Responses
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Student Responses to Responsibility Questions
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Improve Teaching

• Teachers need to build a relationship with the
  students.
• Communicate with its students providing more
  avenues for a student-teacher relationship.
• Caring more about the students.
• Establishing relationship with students.
• Understanding the students.
• Get more involved with the students.
• Learning methods and offering help to students.
• Give them a reason to go to class not just to
  pass but have a good learning experience.
• Listen to the students more
• Visual learning, hands on learning, 90 of the
  teachers need to be more excited about their
  lessons.
• Improve its learning environment, improve the
  student- teacher interactions help students
  learn better learning techniques
• Promote Reading
• Focus on different types of learners

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Improve Instructors

• More passionate professors have professors that
  want to help the community and students and not
  there for the pay check.
• Hire more professors that want to teach and not
  just speech. Also re-evaluate a teacher with
  tenure just because they use to teach well
  doesnt mean that is still the case.
• Hire more instructors that care about students
  getting an education.
• TSU can strengthen its culture by having teachers
  be into their teaching.
• Have better attitude toward students
• Having more teachers that care more about the
  students future
• More interactive instructors
• More interaction with students and teachers
• Have teachers give students a better opportunity
  to learn and be able to have one on one
  relationship regarding the subjects.

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Help Students Focus

• Encourage students to try their best to succeed
  and prosper.
• Promote more tutoring for those who need it.
• Keep reminding students the real reason they are
  in college in the first place.
• Make students read more
• Enforcing students to go to class
• Help students focus on what is really important-
  graduation
• By just focusing more on helping students with
  more than one time
• Facilitating students with available help
• Train all advisors for all departments to know
  the classes they need to take and which classes

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Motivate Students

• Getting students motivated to be at TSU.
• Believe that there are people that want to see
  this school succeed
• Doing everything to better TSU Understanding the
  students and all things that they need to
  succeed.
• Help give students that extra push by using
  different ways or creating new ideas and
  implement them.

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More Programs/Activities

• Have more events, merging our culture and success
  together.
• Have more social events.
• Have more events to attempt to create a stronger
  community.
• Have more Seminars
• By having learning seminars and more learning
  activities
• Study groups
• Offer longer hours of operation in the library
  and computer lab for students to do work and
  projects.
• Have special seminars about learning.
• Promote more Learning abilities for students.
• By implementing more programs that would draw the
  student body attention and actually obtain the
  interest of students.
• Have more programs for students at night to
  socialize that they can receive help form fellow
  students who can help

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Improve Campus Environment

• Trying to understand what is going on around TSU
  life.
• They should take the time and acknowledge whos
  attending the University.
• Alumni support
• More learning facilities. Nice places with chairs
  and tables so that students can study between
  classes.
• By outreaching to the people as a community
• Promote more learning among everyone
• Upgrade Library
• Have a more positive environment
• A fun way to retain education, something like a
  Starbucks lounge

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Improve (Media) Image

• Strengthen school pride
• We need to improve our image and market our
  school better.
• Focus more on the great thing about its history
• Expose the positive history of TSU
• Learn more about TSU history, black history, etc
• Give more positive view in the media of ourselves
• Do more to promote the university strength and
  cancel the negative media
• More and better Advertisement
• Improve the school

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Assessment of Student Response

• Students like being included in the discussion
• want more communication of this kind
• want to be heard
• Average students (e.g., Soc 211 freshmen) want
  classroom changed
• interactive teaching
• more enthusiastic instructors
• to be motivated
• to be helped
• Student leaders want positive side of TSU
  promoted
• Expressed desire for more programs activities,
  but
• Existing programs activities under-utilized

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Comparison of Students vs. Faculty/Staff Responses
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Assessment of Student vs. Faculty/Staff Responses

• Biggest issue for students is improving classroom
  experience instruction and instructors (30.9)
• Faculty/staff do not recognize this issue (0.0)
• Otherwise, all groups identify same issues but
  faculty/staff weight them more

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Part 2

• A Culture of Learning
• Veon McReynolds
• March 2008

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Project Plan

• Develop a persona of TSU that exemplify
  scholarship and academic pride.
• Develop facilities that exemplify scholarship and
  academic pride.
• Develop staff and faculty to exemplify all
  student learning as their primary objective.
• Develop students to believe and exemplify
  learning as their primary objective.
• Develop community to support learning as a means
  of social and physical emancipation
• Develop partnerships that will facilitate the
  promotion of a culture that is dedicated to
  learning.
• Develop common values of a learning culture

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Project Plan
A cultural revolution that places TSU with
Harvard, Princeton, or MIT. as an institution of
higher learning The accomplishments of students
indicate education received at TSU Immediate
increase in retention rate Increase in GPA
overall and between groups Increase in
graduation rate Increase in employability of TSU
students Increase in donated dollars to TSU by
alumni Increase in student applications to
TSU Increase in applications for employment

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Rationale

• Things are not always what they seem to be but,
  most of the time they are.
• Behavior, appearances and results should indicate
  that TSU is a place to learn

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Project Plan

• Target
• Top administration buy-in
• All staff/faculty buy-in
• Student/ group buy-in

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Overview
Develop a campaign that defines a culture and
develop indices of learning. We are
all in this together What we do today will
effect us in the future Do others perceive us
as we want to be perceived
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Time line/ Duration

• Initial development of idiocies spring and summer
  semesters during the summer as pilot
• When did, or will the project start ?
• Frequency of evaluation?
• Date of related focus groups and/or discussion
  groups?
• Will there be a scheduled end? If so, when?
• Date of final evaluation (if applicable)?

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Lessons Learned
A cultural revolution that places TSU with
Harvard, Princeton, or MIT. as an institution of
higher learning The accomplishments of students
indicate education received at TSU Immediate
increase in retention rate Increase in GPA
overall and between groups Increase in
graduation rate Increase in employability of TSU
students Increase in donated dollars to TSU by
alumni Increase in student applications to
TSU Increase in applications for employment
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Part 3

• Supplemental Instruction _at_ TSU
• Shannon Thomas

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Supplemental Instruction (SI)

• Developed at University of Missouri Kansas City
  in 1973
• Peer learning/teaching
• Targets historically difficult courses
• Goals
• Improve student grades in targeted courses
• Reduce attrition rate in those courses
• Increase graduation rates

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Percentage of D,F,W Final Course Grades for SI
and Non-SI

• SI participants receive D, F or W at a rate
  between one-third and one-fourth that of
  non-participants

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Training

• Conducted by UMKC staff
• Mandatory ½ day training for all faculty members
• Full day of training for all SI Leaders
• On-going training of SI Leaders throughout the
  semester
• Weekly team meetings

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SI Sessions

• Master Student facilitates sessions
• Does not lecture or re-teach
• Integrates how-to-learn with what-to-learn

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Pilot Semester Approach

• Offered in
• English 131 7 sections
• History 231 2 sections
• History 232 1 section
• Psychology 131 6 sections
• Minimum of 3 out-of-class sessions offered per
  week
• Some SI sessions are held in class
• Some instructors offer extra credit for session
  attendance

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Current/Expected Results

• Low participation numbers
• Average session attendance 2
• Many informal sessions are held in tutoring
  center
• Mid-term grade analysis in process
• Participants show average 12 point higher grades
  on Exam 1

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Next Semester

• SI sessions will be MANDATORY for all students
  enrolled in the selected course section
• Increased support from faculty and administration
  is vital to success
• Possibly broaden program to include math and
  science courses
• Improved marketing to increase awareness of
  program across campus

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Tell me, and I forget, Show me, and I
remember, Involve me, and I understand.   -
Chinese Proverb
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Part 4

• ACTION RESEARCH FOR QUALITY ENHANCEMENT PLANNING
• E. Dianne Mosley, Ph.D.
• March 14, 2008

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Project Plan

• Critical Reflection about local questions,
  problems or challenges
• Identification of problems along with
  potential resolution.
• The resolution is implemented in the
  form of a Faculty Action Research Project.

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Project Plan

• Texas Southern University has found failure rates
  in freshman level courses that range from 49 to
  55.
• Failure rates were highest in reading-intensive
  courses of history, political science, and
  psychology.
• A strategy to address this problem is to offer
  Faculty Action Research grants to faculty members
  to conduct research projects in their classes
  involving innovative instructional practices
  where they evaluate outcomes.
• The Texas Southern University Faculty Action
  Research Committee is disseminating the RFP for
  Innovative Teaching Strategy Proposals to faculty
  in the departments of history, political science,
  and psychology in March, 2008.
• Proposals are due May 1 and announcement of
  awards will be May 30.

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Conclusion
Faculty Action Research Projects are to be
conducted during the fall semester 2008.
Reports including research design, implementation
and outcomes will be submitted to the Faculty
Action Research Subcommittee for analysis.