SUPPORT AND RETENTION WITHIN A

2+2 UNIVERSITY CENTER TEACHER

EDUCATION PROGRAM

Laura Bilbro-Berry, Kathy Bradley, and Karli Ruscoe

North Carolina Community College ConferenceOctober 10, 2016

EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

OVERVIEW National and state teacher shortages have

prompted mandates for production by public institutions.

In response to the shortages and mandates, varied pathways into teacher education have been created.

2+2 university center model was developed as a pathway to increase production.

The current economic climate has created pressure on recruitment of 2+2 university center students.

Understanding how to promote persistence within the model toward successful completion is a first step in creating retention policies.

EAST CAROLIN

A UN

IVERSITY

SECU PARTNERSHIP EASTEAST CARO

LINA U

NIVERSITY

NC Community College +Bachelors Degree online at ECU = TEACHER!

B.S. Elementary Education, K-6 B.S. Special Education – General

Curriculum, K-12 B.S. Middle Grades Education, Language

Arts & Social Studies, 6-9

EAST CAROLIN

A UN

IVERSITY

ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS Community college coursework Praxis Core exams GPA Meet with SECU PE Coordinator Apply to SECU Partnership East Apply to ECU by deadlines (Jan/Feb)

www.ecu.edu/pe

ONLINE COHORT MODEL AT ECUEAST CARO

LINA U

NIVERSITY

Students placed in cohorts Follow predefined plans of study Each cohort has an ECU advisor from

SECU PE

PURPOSE OF THE STUDYThe study examines persistence factors of specific cohorts of SECU PE students by exploring student perceptions about their experiences to include advising and support structures. An understanding of the factors that best motivate students to persist and be successful within the online 2+2 university center teacher education model is the goal of the qualitative research such that information gleaned can be a first step in the development of critical retention strategies for the 2+2 university center model within teacher education.

METHODS Site Description

At East Carolina University Within SECU Partnership East degree

completion model Elementary majors (N=24)

Sample Description Transfer from community college Students within cohorts Non-traditional students who are employed

and completing degrees part-time and online Primarily Caucasian females who live in rural

areas

INITIAL SURVEY RESULTSSurvey Question -

Which of following is influential in your

continued participation in PE? No Yes

Support from classmates/cohort members 31.80% 68.20%Convenience of course delivery 6.13% 93.87%

Faculty support 47.89% 52.11%Financial aid received or plan to receive 44.83% 55.17%Assistance from PE advisor 19.16% 80.84%Faculty to teach my classes 79.31% 20.69%

Other 95.79% 4.21%

Survey Questions: Overall

(Poor=1;Outstanding=5) 1 2 3 4 5

Mean(SD)

Overall Advising Rating 0.39% 1.95% 6.61% 24.12% 66.93% 4.55(0.74)

Overall Instruction Rating 0.00% 0.78% 10.16% 47.27% 41.80% 4.30(0.68)

Overall Support Rating 1.22%

10.98% 45.12% 42.28% 0.00% 3.28(0.74)

DATA COLLECTION: FOCUS GROUPCentral Question: What factors have been most influential in your continued persistence as online student within the SECU Partnership East degree completion program? Subquestions:

Why did you choose to join the online, 2+2 degree completion program?

What has been a helpful resource to you as a distance education student?

Is there anything about your experience as a distance education student that you would change? If so, what?

How has your advisor impacted your experience as a distance education student?

FOLLOW-UP FOCUS GROUP RESULTS

Hierarchal NamePercent of Total Coded

Responses

Advisor Support 21.17%

Convenience 13.37%

Instructor Support 12.45%

Quality of Program 6.03%

Financial Support 5.97%

Technology/Social Media 5.84%

Cohort Support 4.19%

Family/Other 1.98%

FOCUS GROUP ADVISING NOTES

Students indicated advisor support was important in regards to 3 areas:

MotivationInformationAccessibility

ADVISOR SUPPORT - MOTIVATION He sent us Monday motivations, just to keep our

head above water when we felt like we were sinking he was always there!

She made it seem so manageable. You can do this! I remember calling her and saying, “When I have a third baby….Should I have a 3rd baby? Can I do this with a 3rd baby? Can I manage all this?” and she said, “You’re fine.”

She just put me in touch with someone who could just put me at ease and realize that you can have this life outside of school and it is manageable.

ADVISOR SUPPORT- INFORMATION If he didn’t know an answer he was like, “I’m

going find out and I’ll let you know as soon as possible.” He’d get an answer. So he was always there for us too.

She sent out flyers to our schools and the principal put it in our boxes…

I sent the parking e-mail this morning to my advisor to ask him about it because he is always very responsive… he is great about reminding you of what is coming up. And he has the forethought to say, “hey, this is coming in two weeks or get ready for this…”

ADVISOR SUPPORT- ACCESSIBILITY The advisors were willing to do anything we

needed, you didn’t have to come to the office. They were willing to meet you any way. That’s a big deal especially if you have little kids, a bad schedule or something…they were willing to meet you any way possible.

And we always expressed these last minute questions and then our advisor will always be right there at the computer and shoot emails out and we would shoot each other emails about what the advisor said telling them this is what you need to do.

INSTRUCTOR SUPPORT I think having the same people in place at East

Carolina … really helped because we really felt closer to our own instructors...being able to send a quick email saying, “I’m having a problem with this and she (instructor) would always be like oh, here, you need to call me, here’s my number.

Good instructors and accessibility when there was an issue. I remember calling Dr. Y or calling any professor and they were always there to help. I feel like they were there because they wanted us to be successful. They weren’t there to “get us.” They were there to see us through. Personally, there were some professors that made me want to say, “I want to be you when I grow up.” I feel like they really helped us a lot.

COHORT SUPPORT You can’t do this in isolation because we are

geographically separated, away from our teachers… we’re doing everything virtually in Blackboard…so I think that that’s something with you guys putting us in a group and making those kind of connections with each other, was good.

We also have a Facebook group, and any questions that we have, we’ll post it and we use it to talk to each other and spread information. We are able to post questions and have them answered. If we have a question, one person e-mailed Mr. S and that person posts the answer on the Facebook wall. For example when you e-mailed us about the parking today, we posted it in the Facebook group immediately. Not only did we get an email from you but everyone posted on the FB wall.

CONVENIENCE The convenience of it... A lot of us have had babies… I

came home from the hospital and I did something (online) that night but nobody knew that I’d just had a baby…so the convenience of turning in something when you needed to ….is a big deal!

There was no way I could have done it without being online, I had small children…lots of them (she has 4) and I can’t take time to go to a university to be part of a program. That’s just impossible. My husband works nights and weekends. I had to be able to be home and do it when I could do it. I wanted it to be very credible. I was told that it was going to be as good as if I were seated here (on campus) at the university.

It’s an amazing program for people that are non-traditional and who want to have families. I remember cooking dinner and submitting an assignment multiple times.

TRENDS Convenience is important. Social interaction to include support from advisors, peers and faculty impact persistence.

To support students best, advisors need to find a balance of providing motivation and information while being accessible.

RECOMMENDATIONS Replication with larger sample to include special education & middle grades majors

Revisions to the PE Status Survey

Retention policy development based on findings

CONTACT USLaura Bilbro-Berry

bilbroberryl@ecu.edu

Kathy Bradleybradleyk@ecu.edu

Karli Ruscoeruscoek@ecu.edu

www.ecu.edu/pe

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