Introduction & Theoretical Framework Design & Methodology

people to remember you.

The U.S. has moved from a higher education access agenda to a completion agenda. In Montana, less than 25% of students complete their degree in four years and less than 50% in six years (Montana University System, 2016). Only five states have a lower six-year graduation rate than Montana’s 47% rate among its four-year public colleges (Chronicle of Higher Education, n.d.; Montana University System, 2016). Although most students begin college with the goal of completing their degree, college completion relies, to some extent, on students learning the structure, culture, language, and values of higher education (i.e., the hidden curriculum) - what David Conley (2005) has referred to as possessing "college knowledge"

College knowledge programs, like Upward Bound and Talent Search, that help students in the college-choice, application, and financial aid process are invaluable but may not introduce the programs, people and processes that exist on college and university campuses to support success. It is rare that high school students are involved in any sort of “college knowledge” education prior to their arrival on a college campus.

The Blueprints for Student Success project examined specifically what questions and concerns high school students have about transitioning to and being successful in college.

Success, Persistence, Graduation

Conclusions

High School students in Montana have many questions and worries regarding college. Through the qualitative analysis, we found that there were more sub-categories under the themes than we began using prior to high school visits. Questions clustered around very basic “who, what, where” questions, but also deeper questions around how to figure out interests and talents, how majors work, and how to navigate relationships in college. Since high school students are coming in with these questions, Admissions offices and First-Year Programs might do well to collaborate more around preparing students for success in college by educating students around the “hidden curriculum” of college.

Dr. Tricia Seifert, Christy Oliveri,

Karen Funke, and Jennifer Clark

Drafting a Blueprint for College Success: Not Assuming but Asking

• Qualitative research study using a social constructivist lens (Creswell, 2013)

• Conceptual framework of the importance of college knowledge and culture to the success of students in college (Conley, 2005; 2010)

• Inductive approach: moving from the particulars and specifics of personal experience and extrapolating to broad theories (Creswell, 2013), marks our approach in this study.

• Utilized the constant comparative method (Boeije, 2002; Fram, 2013) to determine themes in conjunction with a consensual qualitative approach (Hill, Knox, Thompson, Nutt Williams & Hess, 2005) in which the team collaboratively created themes and categories .

The “Three-legged stool” of

College Readiness

The Blueprints team, consisting of Dr. Seifert, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers, visited five high schools and one after- school program in Northwest Montana in 2015-2016. We asked students to generate questions around themes from the literature and from initial high school visits. We used a version of “Jeopardy” to generate the questions with students. The original themes we began with included: Being Well and Staying Healthy, Finding Support and Resources/Help, Living Away from Home, Succeeding in College Classes, Making Friends and Getting Involved, and Exploring Majors and Careers, and Applying and Paying for College.

Themes and Categories

Adult & Higher Education Program,

Montana State University

The Game:

“Being Well and Staying Healthy for 400, Alex!”

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College Knowledge: The “Hidden Curriculum”

Blueprints for Student Success-MT @_blueprints blueprints4