Examining the impact of community college career services on student success for those enrolled in developmental math

Increasing student success is a major concern for most higher education institutions. In Texas, the statewide initiative, TX60X30 was launched in 2015 and calls for having at least 60% of Texans aged 25-34 to earn a postsecondary credential or degree by 2030. For community colleges in Texas an added financial incentive was implemented back in 2013 which called for 10% of the colleges’ annual funding to be based on student success points earned from a three-year average of specific success metrics. One of those metrics was based on increasing student achievement in developmental education- reading, writing and mathematics. For community colleges, many students are enrolled in developmental education courses and research shows that these students tend to have lower success rates than students not enrolled in developmental education courses. The problem with low levels of student success at community colleges has been thoroughly documented by academic scholars as being attributed to an array of factors such as academic readiness, developmental education, socioeconomic status and issues of limited and disconnected student support services. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the statistically significant impacts of career services, a form of student support services, on student success rates of community college students who were enrolled in a developmental math course. Using a quantitative methodology, secondary institutional data from two community colleges located in the Dallas Metroplex region of North Texas were analyzed. Student success for developmental education students was measured by the number of college credits earned, cumulative grade point averages, and credentials awarded (certificate or degree). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to address two research questions. Statistical analyses included t-tests and chi-squares. The findings of the study indicate that there was a statistically significant relationship between career services, college credits earned and cumulative grade point averages. Results indicate that higher levels of statistical significance existed for developmental math students that participated in career services when compared to those developmental math students who had not participated in career services. Results also indicate that a statistically significant relationship existed between career services and credentials earned. The findings of this study showed that credential attainment rates were higher for developmental math students that participated in career services when compared to those developmental math students who had not participated in career services.