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., Wilmington College 2011 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty under the supervision of Dr. 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. 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. 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 1 – Overview of the Study…………………………………………………….

Research Topic and Background…………………………. Statement of the Problem. Purpose of the Study. Definition of Terminology.

Significance of Study. Organization of Study.13 Chapter 2 – Literature Review…………………………………………………………. Need for Accelerated Credit. Models of Accelerated Credit Programs.

Previous Study Contributions. Population and Data Sources. Human Subject Protections (IRB). Assumptions and Research Bias.38 Chapter 4 – Data Analysis……………………………………………………………….

Summary of Findings.45 Chapter 5 – Interpretation and Implications……………………………………………. Interpretations of Research Questions. Discussion of Implications.49 iv EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS C. Suggestions for Future Research.54 v EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS List of Figures Figure 1 – Theoretical Framework …….………………8 Figure 2 – Theoretical Framework……………………………………………….32 vi EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS List of Tables Table 1 – Descriptive Statistics…………………………………………………….42 Table 2 – Correlation Analysis of CCP Hours and GPA………………………….43 Table 3 – Correlation Analysis of General Education Courses and GPA…………….43 Table 4 – Correlation Analysis of Career Pathway Courses and GPA……………….44 Table 5 – Logistical Regression Model…………………………………………………45 vii EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS Chapter 1 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 Post- Secondary 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, 1 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, non- remedial 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. 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, 2 EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS making college a viable pathway for all Ohio students. Nearly all funding is paid for by the state of Ohio; however, students in private schools or home school students may encounter some fees. This includes the cost of tuition, fees, instructor pay, and books. All public-school students admitted to public universities will always have zero costs for their CCP courses.

Private universities can negotiate with secondary schools to determine the cost to students based on a formula used to determine a minimum and maximum price range. All public schools are required to offer two pathways through the CCP program: one that results in 15 transcripted credit hours of accumulation, and one that results in 30 transcripted credit hours of accumulation (Carey, 2014). The courses offered in these pathways must contribute to a degree or a professional certificate. Ohio students may enroll in any college and in any courses they wish as long as the courses selected contribute to a degree or professional certificate and as long as all pre-requisites for their chosen course are met; only remedial courses are not permitted to be taken as a part of CCP.

These students have the option to attend classes at their high school taught by either post-secondary faculty member or a certified secondary faculty member, attend class on the college campus, or take the courses online. Courses offered that take place off the college campus must be the same as the courses that take place on campus. Secondary faculty teaching CCP courses must be provided annual professional development by the sponsoring post-secondary institute, and the partnering post-secondary institute must conduct at least one observation of all courses taught to ensure that they match the quality and culture of the post-secondary course. 3 EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS Those students that apply for post-secondary courses must be deemed college ready (Carey, 2014).

This measurement may be determined by a remediation free score on a standardized instrument designed to measure college readiness, such as the ACT, Compass, or Accuplacer test. However, in order to better meet the spirit of the function of the CCP program, schools must also look at a wholistic profile of the applicants, including GPA and teacher recommendations. Once accepted, students may earn up to 30 transcripted credit hours a year, and up to 120 transcripted credit hours throughout their enrollment period in the program which may begin as early as 7th grade. CCP also stipulates that when students graduate from their secondary education and enroll in college that they do so as first year student status for sake of determining scholarship eligibility, housing, and any other considerations.

Statement of the Problem Because Ohio’s new CCP program will be replacing all of the dual enrollment options in Ohio schools, there is a need for scholarly research to determine the program’s effectiveness in preparing students for the college experience. Currently, there is little scholarly research, currently consisting of two dissertations by Wilson (2016) and Roberts (2019) and an article by Dever (2017), to develop a clear understanding of what effects the various aspects of individualization of this program has on its participants’ preparation for enrolling and being successful in college. There is a need for research to help determine what CCP factors contribute to a significant impact on a student’s readiness for completing a college program. The flexibility of the program affords researchers a wide range of variables to study, with the goal of identifying aspects of the program that enable students to identify a pathway to achieve desired outcomes.

4 EXAMINATION OF CCP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS While schools do build out a 15-credit hour pathway and a 30-credit hour pathway, these are merely ready-made examples for students to take or at least to use as a model for how to build their own path. Students have the option of building any sort of schedule they wish beginning as early as 7th grade. Reports from CCP (2017) show that the average number of hours students took during the 2016-2017 school year was 2.58 credit hours of course work. Harper, current Director of the College Credit Plus program, has indicated a rise in the number of students taking course loads that qualify them as full-time enrollment status (personal communication, 9/20/2018).

While Adelman (2006) reports that students who earn at least 20 credit hours of course work in their first year of college increases the likelihood of persistence towards a degree, it is unclear how this trend would be influenced by credit hours gained prior to enrollment, nor does it address how this might influence student success in relation to performance. It is also reported that students who fall in to the top 40% GPA in the first year are more likely to persist (Adelman, 2006), but it is not clear how credit hours earned, and GPA interact with each other. There is a need to understand the impact students’ course loads prior to matriculation has on their future post-secondary success.