Veronica Wilkerson Johnson

IDSL 845 Quantitative Analysis

June 21, 2013

Article Critique

Introduction

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Article Critique

This is an article critique of the work: Baccalaureate

Attainment and College Persistence of Community College
Transfer Students at Four-Year Institutions, by Xueli Wang.
The research problem presented by the author, restated, is that
community college transfer students, to the extent that they are
academically prepared, influence the missions and functions of
community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities
that must retain and educate the transfer students. The
research problem is derived more from a thorough reading of
the document than from its introduction. In fact, the problem is
not clearly identified or stated in the Abstract where one would
expect it. Wang describes instead the logical regression models
he utilized to research the educational outcomes of community
college transfer students based on their educational
backgrounds, and their probability for four-year degree

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Article Critique

attainment. However, one becomes aware of Wangs focus on

the role transfer students play in community college and fouryear college and university environments by his review of the
descriptions of these college environments as they provide
services to aid students academic growth and attainment. He
mentions the challenges the students face and the services
colleges provide that aid their growth.
Wang notes, in his exploration of the research problem, that
postsecondary education has long been considered one of the
surest ways to overcome underprivileged social conditions, a
philosophy that many educators share. He further notes the
importance of remediation in aiding the quest of students to
excel, and noted, by example (p. 574), the research of Tinto
(1993), Swail, et.al (2003), Bean (1990), and Astin (1993) that
highlights the importance of inclusivity, student involvement

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Article Critique

and integration on the campuses. This research spans historical

approaches of the last two decades, while providing current
relevance as well. Each of these are leaders in educational
thought who have provided guidelines that have been
invaluable to the growth and evolution of community colleges
and four-year institutions. One might note, however, that the
authors literature review was brief in this work, though he
provided an extensive list of references.
Wangs approach in hypothesis is not clearly stated. However,
one might conclude from this work that the authors directional
hypothesis focuses on college persistence and baccalaureate
attainment of community college transfers, directly correlated
with the types and levels of assistance being provided by
community colleges and four-year colleges and universities.

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Article Critique

The author had two, dichotomous, dependent variables (a)

whether a student attained a bachelors degree by the year 2000
(a dummy variable that equals to one if the student attained a
B.A., and zero otherwise); and, (b) student persistence, either
from one term to the next, or resumed after a period of time.
The author had 17 independent variables within the categories
of demographic background, pre-college characteristics, college
experience, and environmental factors. His dependent and
independent variables were adequate and exhaustive for this
study. He used descriptive statistics for the outcome variables
which were based on weighted data (Table 3, p. 579), and
logistic regression analyses using a set of grounded predictor
variables to predict membership in each of two dichotomous
outcomes: (1) earned a bachelors degree versus did not earn a

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bachelors degree; and, (2) persisted in post-secondary

education versus did not persist.
Wang intends to generalize his findings to leaders and
educators in community colleges, four-year colleges and
universities, and governmental leaders who support
institutions of higher learning.
For Gender characteristics, Wang sampled 365 male students
and 421 female students, and for Race-ethnicity characteristics
he sampled 623 White, 55 Hispanic, 53 Black, 24 Asian/Pacific
Islander, 7 American Indian, 24 Mixed for a total of 786
students. Wang noted that, because the dataset of the study
contained only 7 American Indian students, the researcher
combined American Indian and Mixed students to form an
Other category (p. 577).

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Article Critique

Furthermore, the author mentioned that limitations to his study

occurred, and were due to the extant data that he used from
NELS: 88 and PETS, and his broad, non-specific, research
approach. He states (p. 585), Therefore, while the study has
been able to identify the aggregated effects of remediation in
predicting community college transfers outcomes, it is difficult
to arrive at a more nuanced conclusion with reference to
whether the timing and context of remediation remediation in
community colleges as opposed to four-year institutions or both
places matter in defining student educational outcomes.
Conclusion
Wang believes that his results have important policy
implications for four-year institutions with regard to student
retention and success as they receive community college
transfers, and that they will be of interest to state and national

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Article Critique

policymakers who are seeking to aid the cooperation and

collaboration among all institutions of higher education. The
author hopes that his findings, and statistical conclusions, will
also aid researchers in the future as they seek to further the
quest of community colleges and four-year college and
universities to promote successful outcomes for transfer
students across the nation.

References
Wang, X. (2009). Baccalaureate attainment and college persistence of
community college transfer students at four-year institutions. Xueli
Wang, Springer Science and Business Media, The Ohio State
University, Columbus, Ohio. March 31, 2009, pgs. 570-588.

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