FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Dr. Clennis F. High
Houston Community College
Counseling Department
3015 Brea Crest
Houston, TX 77093
email: High_C@hccs.cc.tx.us
phone: 713-718-8763

NATIONWIDE STUDY SHOWS THERE ARE MAJOR CONCERNS IN HOW REMEDIAL/DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS ARE EVALUATED IN COMMUNITY, JUNIOR, AND TECHNICAL COLLEGES

A five-month long study of methods used by two-year colleges to evaluate the effectiveness of their remedial programs indicates there are concerns and inconsistencies.

Houston, Texas - An extensive study, which included fifty colleges, 30 states, ten state agencies, and 65 interviews indicated (1) there are important differences in how these colleges evaluate their programs, (2) many colleges have no evaluation format, (3) many evaluators are not trained to conduct "scientific-based" evaluations, and (4) there is no standard "average" or "best-practice" programs when all types of colleges and population demographics are considered.

The study conducted by Dr. Clennis F. High, a counselor and researcher in the Houston Community College System was completed on December 2, 2000 after five months of interviewing, and grueling document reviews of institutional and state documents.

The data showed that problems could be categorized in to four specific areas. These involved things not done before the evaluation process; things done during the process; things done after the process, and outside support factors such as technology used for data collection.

One important finding was that college environment and student population characteristics are important factors when colleges design their evaluation strategies. These were more important than contemporary literary philosophy.

States with high-stakes test, such as Texas and Florida seemed to have colleges with more structured evaluation processes. However, in many cases these evaluation processes simply sought to satisfy the political climate of that particular state, and not necessarily to measure school or program effectiveness. In Texas, for example, many of the evaluation procedures seemed to be copies of state-mandated requirements, being certain to "cover all the bases" with little though or clarity as to how it would be done. In some cases processes were changed during the semester.

Members of the thirty or so "tribal colleges" found in the western section of the country seemed to focus heavily on student cultural patterns and motivation in their programs. This has not been widely acknowledged in current literature, but may have implications for other colleges with similar concerns. The study also revealed that about 20% of those doing summative evaluations requiring statistical analyses don't seem to completely understand what the numbers mean. Further investigation showed this may be a result of them having little or no training in research and statistics.

The procedure involved dividing the country into quadrants and selecting states and colleges within each section. The study focused not only on colleges within large cities and states with well-defined populations, but also those not normally included in research focused on education program evaluations. The study is a follow-up to previous research conducted by Dr. High and will be presented at several student service conferences early next year.

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