Date of Award

12-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership

Department

Education

First Reader/Committee Chair

Acevedo-Gil, Nancy

Abstract

The passage of California’s AB 705 in 2017 mandated that community colleges drastically reimagine their English course offerings in an effort to increase student throughput and eliminate equity gaps. This typically meant replacing traditional remedial coursework and placement with corequisite models of remediation, wherein students took transfer-level courses with built-in concurrent remedial support.

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the relationship between these structural changes and non-traditional relational success markers, namely faculty validation, especially for male Black and Latino students in English at a large urban California community college. The quantitative phase was a survey of over 1,000 students to measure the amount of faculty validation they received from their English instructors; the qualitative phase consisted of nine interviews with Black and Latino men to discover and understand the most salient validating faculty practices.

The quantitative portion of the study found that on average, male Black and Latino students reported significantly higher levels of faculty validation in corequisite courses than in traditional courses, and that higher levels of faculty validation significantly predicted higher course grades in both course models. The qualitative portion of the study showed that high faculty validation typically resulted in course success, was often more prevalent in corequisite courses, and manifested itself most saliently in faculty individualizing instruction, providing clear feedback and support on student work and assignments, and maintaining high expectations.

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