Use of Contingent Faculty and the Effect on Student Success

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Use of Contingent Facultyand the Effect on
Student Success

• Vann Priest
• Rio Hondo College

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Daniel Jacoby

• Effects of Part-Time Faculty Employment on
  Community College Graduations Rates.
• The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 77, No. 6
  (Nov./Dec. 2006)
• The main result from this study is that
  increases in the ratio of part-time faculty at
  community colleges have a highly significant and
  negative impact upon graduation rates.

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Paul D. Umbach Matthew R. Wawrzynski

• FACULTY DO MATTER The Role of Faculty in Student
  Learning and Engagement
• Research in Higher Education, Vol. 46, No. 2
  (Mar. 2005)

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Paul D. Umbach

• How Effective Are They? Exploring the Impact of
  Contingent Faculty on Undergraduate Education
• The Review of Higher Education, Vol. 30, No. 2
  (Winter 2007)
• This study offers some compelling evidence to
  suggest that, compared with their tenured and
  tenure-track peers, contingent faculty,
  particularly part-time faculty, are
  underperforming in their delivery of
  undergraduate instruction.
• While this study identifies some deficiencies
  among contingent faculty, it is important not to
  lay the blame entirely on faculty in these
  appointments.

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Paul D. Umbach

• The effects of part-time faculty appointments on
  instructional techniques and commitment to
  teaching
• Paper Presented at the 33 Annual Conference of
  the Association for the Study of Higher
  Education, Jacksonville, FL, November 5-8, 2008
• PDF available
• Part-timers will exhibit lower levels of
  commitment to their institution and will exhibit
  lower levels of instructional performance.

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Kevin M. Eagan, Jr. Audrey J. Jaeger

• Closing the Gate Part-Time Faculty Instruction
  in Gatekeeper Courses and First Year Persistence
• New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 115
  (Fall 2008)
• Students appear to be significantly and
  negatively affected by having gatekeeper courses
  taught by other part-time faculty.

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Kevin M. Eagan, Jr. Audrey J. Jaeger

• Unintended Consequences Examining the Effect of
  Part-Time Faculty Members on Associates Degree
  Completion
• Community College Review, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Jan.
  2009)
• Findings indicate that students experienced a
  significant yet modest negative effect from
  exposure to part-time faculty members on the
  probability of completing an associates degree.

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Kevin M. Eagan, Jr. Audrey J. Jaeger

• Effects of Exposure to Part-time Faculty on
  Community College Transfer
• Research in Higher Education, Vol. 50, No. 2
  (2009)
• Findings suggest that students tend to be
  signi?cantly less likely to transfer as their
  exposure to part-time faculty increases.

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Andrea J. Jaeger

• Contingent Faculty and Student Outcomes
• Academe, Nov./Dec. 2008

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Thomas Bailey, et al.

• Community College Student Success What
  Institutional Characteristics Make a Difference?
• Achieving the Dream www.achievingthedream.org
• PDF available
• Students in colleges with more part-time faculty
  also have lower graduation rates.

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Curtis V. Smith

• The Impact of Part-Time Faculty on Student
  Retention A Case Study in Higher Education
• Dissertation, University of Missouri Kansas
  City (2010)
• This study supports findings in the literature
  review and two previous statistical analyses that
  increasing exposure to part-time faculty has a
  negative impact on retention.

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Roger G. Baldwin Matthew R. Wawrzynski

• Contingent Faculty as Teachers What We Know
  What We Need to Know
• American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 55, No 8
  (Aug. 2011)
• Findings indicate that the teaching practices of
  part-time contingent faculty differ in important
  ways from their other faculty colleagues.

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Davis Jenkins

• What Community College Management Practices Are
  Effective in Promoting Student Success? A Study
  of High- and Low-Impact Institutions
• Achieving the Dream www.achievingthedream.org
• PDF available
• Community colleges would be more effective if
  they do the following Provide support for
  faculty development focused on improving
  teaching.

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Davis Jenkins

• Redesigning Community Colleges for Completion
  Lessons from Research on High-Performance
  Organizations
• CCRC Working Paper No. 26, Assessment of Evidence
  Series). New York, NY Columbia University,
  Teachers College, Community College Research
  Center. (2011)
• Colleges should provide opportunities for
  adjunct faculty to collaborate with full-time
  faculty members on improving curricula and
  instructional quality in the fields they teach.