Mobile Working Student Collaborative
Participating Institutions
Advisory Committee
Project on Academic Success
Contact Us
Don Hossler
Director
hossler@indiana.edu
(812) 856-2076
Mary Ziskin
Senior Associate Director
mziskin@indiana.edu
(812) 856-1506
Project on Academic Success
1900 E. Tenth Street
Eigenmann Hall
Suite 630
Bloomington, IN 47406-7512
The Mobile Working Student in Northwest Indiana is a two-year policy-oriented study that the Project on Academic Success (PAS) is pursuing in collaboration with Indiana University Northwest, Ivy Tech Community College Northwest, and Purdue University Calumet. Funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education, the project focuses on the new majority student experience in higher education--that of the mobile working student.
Traditionally, much of the research on college students has focused on students who graduate from high school and then move on to attend a four-year college on a full-time basis, graduating in four to six years. However, as research and experience have shown, even among traditional-age college students this pattern of linear enrollment is decreasingly common. Thus, metaphors such as the education pipeline no longer fit. Instead, students are more accurately represented as moving along pathways or even swirling toward postsecondary success.
At the center of this work is the belief that finding more effective ways to serve these students and to increase the number of college graduates in the region is linked to the economic revitalization of northwest Indiana. Thus, this action research project is rooted in efforts to better understand how working students, commuting students, and independent students manage the pressures they face from work, home, and educational commitments. In addition, we are also exploring how campus policies and practices enhance or constrain the ability of working students to complete their college degrees.
This new project expands the traditional focus of education research in ways that will lay the foundation for promising education policy and practices, leading ultimately to improved opportunity for access and success for students in this region. This study will provide colleges, universities, and state policy makers with actionable insights into how learning environments and institutional policies and practices can be structured to speak to the enrollment patterns, work lives, and daily realities of the students.
Research Methods
We have structured this project in such a way as to expand the focus beyond what one institution can do for "its" students. Rather, the study represents an effort to bring clear-sighted description to the study of how patterns of college-going, working, family demands, and institutional policies influence student success and degree attainment for students located in this key region of Indiana. Our research questions and methods focus on students, student experiences, and the region as a whole.
- What are the characteristics, perceptions, and college experiences of mobile working students who enter postsecondary education in the region?
- How do students move through the postsecondary education system in northwest Indiana?
- What is the role of work in the academic success of mobile working students?
- Many students in the region enroll in more than one institution during their postsecondary education. How do these students see their role at these institutions and the roles of the different institutions they attend?
- Are state policies related to preparation or financial aid associated with patterns of student success to graduation or certificate completion?
The primary research design for the study combines an applied ethnographic approach with a range of descriptive and inferential analyses and simulations based on a statewide longitudinal student unit record database. In the course of the two-year study we will conduct focus groups with students, faculty and administrators at the collaborating institutions. In addition throughout the study we will place our qualitative research findings within the broader scope and perspective provided by our analyses using the statewide database.
Mobile Working Student Collaborative
Mary Ann Fischer, Associate Professor of Psychology, Indiana University Northwest
Beth Pellicciotti, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Quality Programs, Purdue University Calumet
Jacquelyn A. Player-Sanders, Adjunct Faculty, Computer Information Systems, Ivy Tech Community College Northwest
Project on Academic Success Staff
Mary Ziskin, Ph.D., Senior Associate Director of PAS, conducts research on college student persistence and academic success. A 2004 graduate of the University of Michigan, her research interests also include the racial stratification of educational opportunity, discourses surrounding academic merit, and critical research methodologies. She teaches qualitative methods and survey research at the Indiana University School of Education.
Jacob P.K. Gross, Associate Director of Research at the Project on Academic Success (PAS), is a doctoral candidate in educational leadership and policy studies. His general research interests relate to the ways education policies reproduce and challenge social inequality. He focuses on academic success for underrepresented students in U.S. postsecondary education. Specific areas of interest include financial aid, racial and gender equity policies, postsecondary financing, and the effects of institutional contexts on student success.
Sarah Martin, Publications Coordinator at the Project on Academic Success (PAS), holds master's degrees from IU in instructional systems technology and applied linguistics. In addition to her work at Indiana University School of Education, she has taught English at universities in Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, and the West Bank.
Osman Cekic, Research Analyst at the Project on Academic Success (PAS), is a Ph.D. candidate in higher education and student affairs at Indiana University. He holds a master’s degree in secondary school administration from the University of Arkansas. He previously worked as a research associate at the Indiana Education Policy Center and was the graduate assistant to the Vice President for Enrollment Services for Indiana University. Osman’s research interests include higher education finance and the linkages between budget and organizational culture. In his previous appointments, Osman has worked with IPEDS and finance and financial aid data, and he continues to explore these subjects. He brings expertise in qualitative and quantitative data management and analysis techniques to PAS.
Afet Dadashova, Research Associate at the Project on Academic Success (PAS), is a Ph.D. student in Indiana University’s education policy studies program, with a minor in sociology. She holds a master’s degree in the social and philosophical foundations of education. Afet is currently involved in projects on transfer among college students and mobile working students. She is also interested in research methods in education.
Oluwatope Fashola, Research Associate at the Project on Academic Success (PAS), is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology and research methods at IU. She received a double degree with distinction in American ethnic studies and sociology from the University of Washington, where she was a research assistant for the qualitative University of Washington Study of Undergraduate Learning project and a recipient of a Mary Gates Research Grant, a Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program Grant, and a McNair Presidential Grant. Her master’s thesis was on the effects of symbolic and traditional racism on White and African Americans’ racial policy attitudes. Currently, she is co-authoring with Donna Eder a book, Rabbit Tales (Tails): Kenyan Stories with Many Meanings, and an article with John Drew on state recreational park use by population characteristics.
Ebelia Hernandez, Research Associate at the Project on Academic Success (PAS), is a Ph.D. candidate in higher education and student affairs. She holds an M.S. in counseling, with a specialization in college counseling and student affairs. Her research interests focus on the Latino college student experience.
John Moore, Research Associate at the Project on Academic Success (PAS), is a doctoral student in higher education and inquiry methodology at IU. His research interests include college student identity development, the effects of working on college student outcomes, and the transition to college. Prior to PAS, John worked for the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and as an administrator of academic support services.
Phoebe K. Wakhungu, Research Associate at the Project on Academic Success (PAS), is a Ph.D. student in the education policy studies program at Indiana University. She holds a master’s degree in public affairs, with a concentration in finance and policy analysis. Her primary research interests include HIV/AIDS education and schooling, gender and education in Kenya, and postsecondary institutions and persistence.
Participating Institutions
ITCCI Northwest, East Chicago Campus
ITCCI Northwest, Gary Campus
IU Northwest
Purdue University Calumet
Project on Academic Success
Advisory Committee
Regina Biddings-Muro, Executive Assistant to the Chancellor for Engagement, Purdue University Calumet
Victor M.H. Borden, Associate Vice President of University Planning, Institutional Research, and Accountability, Indiana University; Associate Professor of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Barbara Cope, Executive Director, Gary Educational Development Foundation
Robin R. Hass Birky, Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Associate Professor of English, Indiana University Northwest
Mara Candelaria Reardon, Indiana State Representative, District 12
Dave Ryan, Executive Director, Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce for communities in northwest Indiana
Gary Wilk, Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Indiana University Northwest