Do Student Perceptions of Cultural Climate and Social Support Predict Academic Success?

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• Do Student Perceptions of Cultural Climate and
  Social Support Predict Academic Success?
• A Cross-Cultural Investigation
• Jeanne Edman

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What we know about University Students

• Academic success is linked to a feeling of campus
  belonging.
• Campus climate is an important factor for
  academic success among ethnic minority students.
• Academic self esteem is associated with academic
  success.
• Are these relationships true among community
  college students?

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What we know about University Students

• White students report higher levels of campus
  belonging than African American, Latino and Asian
  students.
• Ethnic minority students often report lower
  academic efficacy than White students.

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Present study

• Little is known about the impact of student
  perceptions on academic success among community
  college students.
• However, African American and Hispanic students
  have less success obtaining educational goals
  than Asian and White students.
• The present study will compare perceptions among
  four ethnic groups at CRC.
• We will examine whether perceptions are
  associated with student success.

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Sample N1703

• 1703 students volunteered to complete the survey.
  
• Demographic comparisons for 1513 students who
  provided student ID.
• Courses represented all major divisions
• Questionnaire took approximately 10-15 minutes to
  complete.

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Perception Questionnaire Scales

• Cultural Congruity (Gloria)
• Social Support (Peer and Mentoring, Gloria)
• Academic Self Efficacy (Bandura)
• Campus Environment (Gloria)

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• Comparison of Social Items by the following
  ethnic groups
• Asian (N552)
• African American (N195)
• Caucasian (N366)
• Latino (N246)
• The following slides include only the two
  extreme scores on the likert scales related to
  cultural fit and social support

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How many clubs/activities do you participate in
at CRC ()
9
Have a mentor ()
10
Someone on campus that is role model ()
11
Someone on campus cares about your success ()
12
How many friends on campus ()
13
How important is your social life at CRC ()
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• Cultural Congruity by Ethnic Group

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Have to change to fit in ()
16
Feel I have to change depending on ethnicity of
who I am with ()
17
Feel my ethnicity incompatible with other
students ()
18
Leave my familys values behind going to this
school ()
19
Culture/Ethnicity in conflict with school
expectations ()
20
Talk to family about school friends ()
21
Language/Appearance make it hard to fit in with
students ()
22
Family/School values conflict ()
23
Feel accepted at this school ()
24
As member of my cultural group, feel I belong ()
25
Can talk to my family about struggles/concerns at
school ()
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Scale Score and GPA means by Ethnicity

• Statistical differences as follows
• Asians lower cultural congruity than other groups
• African Americans higher academic self efficacy
  than other groups
• African Americans lower GPA than other groups
• Latino lower GPA than Asians and Caucasians
• Asians higher social score than Caucasians

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Academic Self Efficacy (mean rating)
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Mentoring Scale (mean rating)
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Cumulative GPA (mean rating)
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Cultural Congruity Scale (mean rating)
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Social Scale(mean rating)
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Relationship between GPA and Perception scores

• African Americans No relationship between
  Cultural congruity, social support, mentoring,
  academic self efficacy and GPA.
• Asians Academic self efficacy correlated with
  GPA.
• Caucasians Cultural congruity positively
  correlated with GPA, social support negatively
  correlated with GPA.
• Latinos Mentoring and Academic efficacy
  correlated with GPA.

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Findings

• Fail to support previous findings among
  University students
• in lack of relationship between student
  perceptions and academic success among African
  Americans.
• African Americans have the highest levels of
  cultural fit and academic efficacy.
• Cultural congruity is associated with Academic
  success only among Caucasians.
• Mentoring was not associated with Academic
  success among Asians, Caucasians and African
  Americans.

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How is the data used?

• Assessing SLOs at the college level.
• Stimulating campus discussions on equity issues.
• Obtaining student feedback as to the findings of
  the survey.
• Development of student support programs and
  courses.
• Providing data to support the planning process.
• Providing student perception data to improve
  campus teaching and learning.

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Questions

• Why is social support and mentoring not
  associated with academic success?
• How can you explain the lack of relationship
  between academic efficacy and GPA among African
  American and Caucasian students? What
  implications does this have for the classroom?
• What are some possible explanations for the
  finding that cultural fit was only associated
  with GPA among Caucasian students?
• What are some possible explanations for the lower
  cultural congruity scores among Asian students?