| Community Colleges in California have long been asked to fulfill a number of the state's different needs in higher education including the first two years of preparation for students who plan to transfer to universities and receive their baccalaureate. Transfer rates published since the 60's suggest that community colleges in the state have largely been failures at transferring students. Current data, however, show that biology majors programs at area colleges surrounding UCLA, the primary goal of biology majors, varied widely in their transfer success. This study compared two biology majors programs with high transfer success (HTS) with two programs with low transfer success (LTS). Qualitative methods were used in the analysis to establish common themes which existed at both the HTS and LTS programs. Methodology involved: site descriptions, participant-observation, document analysis, questionnaires, and interviews of faculty, staff, and students involved with the majors program.;It was concluded that the HTS institutions shared many characteristics in common. Since California abolished district boundaries, eliminated guaranteed enrollment for colleges and created a free-flow situation, colleges have competed for students. In this study, students free-flowed from colleges in higher SES communities from inner city colleges in lower SES communities. Both HTS programs were at colleges in higher SES communities. They were responsive to the articulation demands of UCLA, had firm chemistry prerequisites, and were taught as two sequential courses. Programs had one faculty member who was clearly the head of the program and had been instrumental in the evolution of the program. HTS programs had high academic rigor and included a lab portion which was instrumental in bringing the students together with each other and with the faculty. Student collaboration involved academics, transfer information, and career information and lead to transfer momentum for the class. Faculty mentoring activities with students contributed to transfer success. The sum total of all the components in the program which enhanced transfer success was called the program effect.;LTS programs could be located in high or low SES neighborhoods. They had a program head but were less responsive to UCLA's articulation demands. Courses were not taught sequentially and chemistry was not a prerequisite. Academic rigor was judged to be significantly lower than in the HTS programs and labs involved far less student personal discovery. Students did not collaborate in lab and there was no visible transfer momentum. Faculty did not act as mentors for students. In their other characteristics, LTS programs tended to be dissimilar. |
