Studying Transfer in Higher Education: New Approaches to Enduring and Emerging Topics New Directions for Institutional Research, Number 170

by Wang, Xueli

• ISBN13: 9781119376477
• ISBN10: 1119376475
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-02-13
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• More Book Details

Summary

Gain fresh perspectives and approaches to the topic of students transferring among institutions of higher education. Despite the copious research on transfer patterns and students who transfer, this line of research is thronged with conceptual, methodological, and data challenges that warrant continued and more nuanced attention. This volume answers this call and provides updated scholarship and examines emerging issues pertaining to transfer.

Organized around two broad, interconnected ways to conceptualize transfer, it first examines students who transfer and then discusses transfer as a complex postsecondary pathway. Engaging empirical research, perspectives, and case analysis from higher education scholars and institutional researchers, this volume offers renewed conceptual and methodological insights that inform future research on transfer, along with concrete recommendations for institutional researchers.

This is the 170th volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.

Author Biography

Xueli Wang is associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her areas of expertise include pathways and success of students beginning at 2-year colleges, undergraduate STEM education, and assessment in higher education.

Table of Contents

EDITORS’ NOTES 7
Xueli Wang

1. Advancing a New Critical Framework for Transfer Student Research: Implications for Institutional Research 9
Frankie Santos Laanan, Dimpal Jain

This chapter uses critical lenses to (re)conceptualize transfer research to answer complex questions about diverse transfer students.

2. Narratives of Success: A Retrospective Trajectory Analysis of Men of Color Who Successfully Transferred from the Community College 23
Marissa Vasquez Urias, Vannessa Falcon, Frank Harris III, J. Luke Wood

A narrative approach to inquiry tells the experiences of men of color who successfully transferred and challenges deficit-oriented perspectives on men of color.

3. International Students in Transition: International Community College Transfer Students in a Texas Research University 35
Yi Leaf Zhang

This chapter provides a portrait of international transfer students and poses future research questions for better understanding this rising transfer subpopulation.

4. Upward Transfer in STEM Fields of Study: A New Conceptual Framework and Survey Instrument for Institutional Research 49
Xueli Wang

A new conceptual framework and its associated survey instrument set the stage for future research on transfer from 2-year to 4-year institutions in STEM fields of study.

5. Shining Light on Higher Education’s Newest Baccalaureate Degrees and the Research Needed to Understand Their Impact 61
Debra D. Bragg, Maria Claudia Soler

Drawing upon their national studies on Applied Baccalaureate degrees, the authors identify methods and measures to improve future research on these newly developing baccalaureate degrees.

6. Reverse Credit Transfer: Recognizing and Measuring Transfer Student Success 73
Jason L. Taylor

Research findings from Credit When It’s Due illuminate the potential benefits and risks of reverse credit transfer, and point to new metrics to recognize reverse transfer credits.

7. Multiple Paths to Success: Degree Completion of 4-Year Starters Taking Various Pathways 87
Dai Li

An institutional research director uses an in-depth analysis of student enrollment data to reveal the potential contribution of “transfer-return” to degree completion.

8. Student Flow and Success at 2- and 4-Year Broadly Accessible Institutions 103
Gloria Crisp

This chapter charts the movement across institutions of varying selectivity among a national postsecondary cohort, shedding particular light on transfer in and out of broadly accessible institutions.

9. The Evolving Landscape of Transfer Research: Reconciling What We Know in Preparation for a New Era of Heightened Promise and Complexity 115
Xueli Wang, Kelly Wickersham, Ning Sun

This volume-culminating chapter critically analyzes the overall body of transfer research, including highlights from this volume and recommendations for institutional researchers and higher education scholars.

INDEX 123