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Concordia University St. Paul DigitalCommons@CSP Concordia University Portland Graduate CUP Ed. Dissertations Research Fall 11-27-2018 The Relationship between Social Integration in Learning Community and Retention of Freshmen Minority Students Christopher A. Phekni Concordia University - Portland, christopherphekni@yahoo.com Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/cup_commons_grad_edd Part of the Education Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Phekni, C.

The Relationship between Social Integration in Learning Community and Retention of Freshmen Minority Students (Thesis, Concordia University, St. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.edu/cup_commons_grad_edd/267 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia University Portland Graduate Research at DigitalCommons@CSP. It has been accepted for inclusion in CUP Ed. Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSP.

For more information, please contact digitalcommons@csp. Concordia University - Portland CU Commons Ed. Dissertations Graduate Theses & Dissertations Fall 11-27-2018 The Relationship between Social Integration in Learning Community and Retention of Freshmen Minority Students Christopher A. Phekni Concordia University - Portland Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.edu/edudissertations Part of the Education Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons CU Commons Citation Phekni, Christopher A., "The Relationship between Social Integration in Learning Community and Retention of Freshmen Minority Students" (2018).edu/edudissertations/253 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Theses & Dissertations at CU Commons.

It has been accepted for inclusion in Ed. Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CU Commons. For more information, please contact libraryadmin@cu- portland. Concordia University–Portland College of Education Doctorate of Education Program WE, THE UNDERSIGNED MEMBERS OF THE DISSERTATION COMMITTEE CERTIFY THAT WE HAVE READ AND APPROVE THE DISSERTATION OF Christopher Anthony Phekni CANDIDATE FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION Floralba Arbelo Marrero, Ed.

Faculty Chair Michael Butcher, Ed., Content Specialist Robert Voelkel, Ed., Content Reader The Relationship Between Social Integration in Learning Community and Retention of Freshmen Minority Students Christopher Anthony Phekni Concordia University–Portland College of Education Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the College of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership With a Specialization in Higher Education Floralba Arbelo Marrero, Ed., Faculty Chair Michael Butcher, Ed., Content Specialist Robert Voelkel, Ed., Content Reader Concordia University–Portland 2018 Abstract This dissertation examined whether student social integration through participation in a learning community is associated with the retention of freshman minority students from the first semester to the second semester of their first year in college. A web-based Qualtrics survey questionnaire was administered through social media to the target population of freshmen aged at least 18 years old in learning communities across the United States. A correlational quantitative research design was utilized to address the research questions. The study examined whether retention between freshmen first and second semester relates to their social experiences in a learning community.

In addition, this study looked to see if these factors which were (a) gender, (b) age, (c) high school GPA or (d) end-of-first-semester GPA, had any effect on the retention of minority freshman students between the first and second semester of college. Data was entered and analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 25 (2017) software and the Minitab Express (2017) software. Analysis of the data demonstrated that there was no correlation between social integration in a learning community and retention for the Hispanic, Other Minority, and Caucasian group of participants. However, the African American or Black category showed retention as constant between the first and second semester of college.

The variables of (a) gender, (b) age, (c) high school GPA or (d) end-of-first-semester GPA, had no effect on the retention. Keywords: retention, learning community, social integration, minority freshmen students ii Dedication I am dedicating this dissertation to the memory of my mom, Dora Phekni, who believed in me and offered me her nurturing, loving care and guidance. She molded me to be who I am today. iii Acknowledgements I want to express my gratitude to my faculty chair, Dr.

Floralba Arbelo Marrero, for her invaluable guidance. I would like to thank you for the encouragement and allowing me to grow during the research process. I want to thank also my content reader, Dr. Robert Voelkel and my content specialist Dr.

Michael Butcher, for allowing my defense to be a pleasant moment, and for your powerful comments and suggestions. A special thanks to my wife for her patience and understanding throughout this experience. Most of all, I thank you, my Almighty God, for your guidance and the strength you gave me to persevere through all my hurdles. iv Table of Contents Abstract.

iv Table of Contents. v List of Tables. xi List of Figures. xiii Chapter 1: Introduction.

1 Introduction to the Problem. 1 Background, Context, History, and Conceptual Framework for the Problem. 7 Statement of the Problem. 8 Purpose of the Study.

10 Rationale, Relevance, and Significance of the Study. 10 Definition of Terms. 13 Assumption, Delimitations, and Limitations. 14 Chapter 2: Literature Review.

16 Introduction to the Literature Review. 23 Social integration and history of the learning communities. 26 Models of learning communities. 27 Learning communities and freshmen.

32 Retention of African American or Black students. 34 Retention of Hispanic students. 34 Retention of Native American Indian students. 35 Review of Research Literature and Methodological Literature.

36 Quantitative and qualitative methods in the literature review. 37 Issues with quantitative and qualitative methods. 41 Review of Methodological Issues. 42 Internal and external validity.

43 Synthesis of Research Findings. 46 vi Benefits of learning communities. 46 Types of colleges and retention. 50 GPA /ACT score.

50 First-generation students. 51 Critique of Previous Research. 58 Introduction to Chapter 3. 58 Purpose of the Study.

62 Target Population, Sampling Method and Related Procedures. 67 Operationalization of Variables. 70 vii Learning community. 71 Data Analysis Procedures.

71 Limitations and Delimitations of the Research Design. 74 Internal and External Validity. 76 Ethical Issues in the Study. 78 Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Results.

81 Description of the Sample. 84 Summary of the Results. 91 Question 1 Null Hypothesis. 96 viii Question 2 Null Hypothesis.

104 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion. 106 Summary of the Results. 108 Question 1 Null Hypothesis. 109 Question 2 Null Hypothesis.

109 Discussion of the Results. 109 Discussion of the Results in Relation to the Literature. 116 Implication of the Results for Practice, Policy, and Theory. 123 Recommendations for Further Research.

128 Appendix A: CARES (I) Survey. 144 Appendix B: CARES (A) Survey. 146 Appendix C: Form for Database Information. 148 Appendix D: Letter to Volunteers.

149 ix Appendix E: Statement of Original Work. 151 Appendix F: Factor Loading Analysis. 152 x List of Tables Table 1 Participant Demographic:Descriptive Statistics of Sample .85 Table 2 Retention by Social Integration Experience Cross Tabulation .92 Table 3 Fisher’s Exact Test Results .94 Table 4 Coefficients, Standard Error Coefficients and Variance Inflation Factors.97 Table 5 Retention Information .98 Table 6 Model Summary of Deviance R2, Adjusted Deviance R2, and Akaike Information Criterion .99 Table 7 Odds Ratio for the Categorical Variables .99 Table 8 Goodness-of-Fit Tests .100 Table 9 Descriptive Statistics: Gender, Age Group, HS GPA and Freshman GPA .101 Table 10 Binary Logistic Regression: Deviance Table for Retention versus Gender, Age Group, high school GPA and freshman GPA .101 Table 11 Backward Stepwise Regression Analysis for Retention versus Gender, Age Group, high school GPA and freshman GPA .102 Table 12 Descriptive Statistics for the Pretest questions on the CARES-I Survey Questionnaire .153 Table 13 Descriptive Statistics for the Posttest questions on the CARES-A Survey Questionnaire .154 Table 14 Correlation Matrixa for the Pretest questions on the CARES-I Survey Questionnaire .156 Table 15 Correlation Matrixa for the Posttest questions on the CARES-A Survey Questionnaire .157 xi Table 16 KMO and Bartlett's Test for the Pretest questions on the CARES-I Survey Questionnaire.160 Table 17 KMO and Bartlett's Test for the Posttest questions on the CARES-A Survey Questionnaire.160 Table 18 Communalities for the Pretest questions on the CARES-I Survey Questionnaire .161 Table 19 Communalities for the Posttest questions on the CARES-A Survey Questionnaire .162 Table 20 Total Variance Explained for the Pretest questions on the CARES-I Survey Questionnaire.164 Table 21 Total Variance Explained for the Posttest questions on the CARES-A Survey Questionnaire.164 Table 22 Component Matrixa for the Pretest questions on the CARES-I Survey Questionnaire .168 Table 23 Component Matrixa for the Posttest questions on the CARES-A Survey Questionnaire .169 Table 24 Rotated Component Matrixa for the Pretest questions on the CARES-I Survey Questionnaire.169 Table 25 Rotated Component Matrixa for the Posttest questions on the CARES-A Survey Questionnaire.170 xii List of Figures Figure 1 The conceptual framework and flow of operations .8 Figure 2 A conceptual schema for dropout from college .24 Figure 3 The independent variables as presented in this figure are race, gender, age, high school GPA, social integration experience and end of semester GPA and the dependent variable is retention .82 Figure 4 Scree plot for the pretest questions on the CARES-I survey questionnaire .166 Figure 5 Scree plot for the posttest questions on the CARES-A survey questionnaire .167 xiii Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction to the Problem Since 1880, the retention of college students has remained a challenge in the higher education sector (Berger, Ramirez, & Lyons, 2012). Despite programs, support systems, and diverse interventions at colleges, undergraduate student retention continues to be a problem today.

Past research has assessed support program interventions and student characteristics to understand what might allay attrition. Braxton et al. (2014) elaborated on Tinto’s (1975) ideas that some characteristics which college students possess, like “family background, individual attributes and pre-college schooling experiences” affect their retention (p. Voelkel and Chrispeels (2017) stressed that some countries endeavor to improve student learning but many of their methods are ineffective in elevating the accomplishment of their students.

Swail (2014) asserted that more minority students are admitted to colleges, but they are ill-prepared for college coursework due to educational systems that fail to prepare them and the increasingly high cost of tuition; these factors present a barrier to many of them to staying in college long enough to graduate. The National Student Clearinghouse (2017), described the overall rate of retention as the percentage of first-year students that returned to the same college for the next year. In the fall of 2016, there was a 61.1% retention rate of first-year students who entered college in fall 2015. This overall rate of retention of first-year students has a subgroup of Asian students with 72.9% as the highest retention rate, while the subgroup with the lowest retention rate was the African American or Black students at 54.

At 4-year public colleges, the retention rate for freshmen students was 69.7% of freshmen students at private colleges and for 2-year public colleges, it was 49.1% during the same period. 1 Tinto (2012a) asserted that the retention of students is shaped by their sense of belonging in campus social groupings, especially freshmen students that experience many adjustments in “forming new relationships” with peers, staff, and faculty (p. In addition, Arana and Blanchard (2018) mentioned Hispanic students possess ethnic loyalties which could be useful instruments for college administrators to improve the integration of these students. Arbelo- Marrero and Milacci (2016) pointed out that undergraduate Hispanic nontraditional students could persist academically if they related more to their faculty and administrators and developed their capacity to move over hurdles inside their social structures which “affect their academic persistence” (p.

Peña (2017) asserted that learning community such as community college First-Year Experience (FYE) programs helped struggling Latino males to complete their education in community colleges and move on to 4-year university programs to complete their bachelor’s degrees.