Research Methods Mobile Working Student Collaborative Participating Institutions Advisory Committee Project on Academic Success

The Project on Academic Success (PAS) engages in practice- and policy-oriented research on student academic success, with particular emphasis on factors that influence persistence in and access to higher education. PAS is a part of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and receives technical assistance in survey administration from the Indiana University Center for Survey Research.

New Release!

Working Students' Perceptions of Paying for College: Understanding the Connections Between Financial Aid and Work
Mary Ziskin, Mary Ann Fischer, Vasti Torres, Jacquelyn Player-Sanders, & Beth Pellicciotti

Drawing on data from student focus groups with 116 participants from three urban commuter institutions, this paper explores students’ views of and experiences with financial aid. The paper centers on the research question: How do students describe and conceptualize financial aid policy?

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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.

1. What are the characteristics, perceptions, and college experiences of mobile working students who enter postsecondary education in the region?
2. How do students move through the postsecondary education system in northwest Indiana?
3. What is the role of work in the academic success of mobile working students?
4. 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?
5. 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

Vasti Torres, is director of the Project on Academic Success and associate professor of higher education and student affairs administration at Indiana University, where she teaches courses in student development theory, research in higher education, and student affairs administration. Her research focuses on the effects of ethnic identity on the college experiences of Latino students. In 2007–2008 she became the first Latina president of the American College Personnel Association. Prior to coming to IU she was a faculty member at The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development. During her 15 years of administrative experience she was associate vice provost and dean for enrollment and student services at Portland State University.

Don Hossler, project director of PAS’s College Board Study on Student Retention and former director of PAS, is professor of educational leadership and policy studies and executive associate dean at the Indiana University School of Education. He has served as vice chancellor for enrollment services for IU Bloomington, associate vice president for enrollment services for IU’s seven-campus system, and chair of educational leadership and policy studies. His areas of specialization include college choice, student financial aid policy, enrollment management, and higher education finance. Hossler is recipient of the Association for Institutional Research 2009 Sydney Suslow Award for his significant contributions to the development of institutional research, planning, and decision making.

Robert K. Toutkoushian, project director of PAS’s Spencer Study on Educational Equity Programs, is professor of higher education at the University of Georgia. He was previously associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Indiana University School of Education. Toutkoushian specializes in the application of economic theories and methods to problems in higher education. He has a Ph.D. in economics from IU and has worked as a research analyst at the University of Minnesota and as executive director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the University System of New Hampshire. His numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals are on topics including faculty compensation, student demand for higher education, finance, and policy analysis. Toutkoushian also is editor-in-chief of New Directions for Institutional Research and president of the Association for Institutional Research.

Mary Ziskin, Ph.D., senior associate director of the Project on Academic Success, conducts research on college student persistence and academic success. 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.

Afet Dadashova, visiting assistant director for research at the Project on Academic Success, 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.

Jacob Gross collaborates with the Project on Academic Success on several projects, leading the project on student flow, funded by the Association for Institutional Research. He received his doctorate in history, philosophy, and policy studies in education, with a concentration in higher education, from Indiana University in 2008. 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 is publications coordinator at the Project on Academic Success and has master's degrees from Indiana University in applied linguistics and instructional systems technology.

Jin Chen, research associate at the Project on Academic Success, is a Ph.D. student in educational leadership and policy studies at Indiana University, with a minor in applied statistics. She holds a master’s degree in the economics of education. Her general research interests include the economics of education, education finance, and quantitative research methods. Jin has been working closely with the Indiana School Finance Project team at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy and is now involved in research on the effects of financial aid programs on college students’ academic attainment.

Desiree Zerquera, research associate at the Project on Academic Success, is a Ph.D. student in higher education and student affairs at Indiana University’s School of Education. Her research interests include educational attainment, community colleges, and critical race theory.

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 for University Planning, Institutional Research, and Accountability, Indiana University Bloomington; Associate Professor of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Barbara Cope, Former Executive Director, Gary Educational Development Foundation

R. Keith Howard, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Ivy Tech Community College Northwest

Cynthia O’Dell, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Associate Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies, Indiana University Northwest

Mara Candelaria Reardon, State Representative, District 12, Indiana House of Representatives

Dave Ryan, Executive Director, Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce for communities in northwest Indiana

Gary Wilk, Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Indiana University Northwest