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Culture, politics, and policy implementation: how practitioners interpret and implement the transfer policy in a technical college environment

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Culture, politics, and policy implementation: how practitioners interpret and implement the transfer policy in a technical college environment

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Content CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: HOW PRACTITIONERS INTERPRET AND IMPLEMENT THE TRANSFER POLICY IN A TECHNICAL COLLEGE ENVIRONMENT By Megan M. Chase Advisor, Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (EDUCATION) Copyright 2013 Megan M. Chase ii iii Acknowledgements Though only my name appears on the cover of this dissertation, a great many people have contributed to its production. I owe my gratitude to all those people who have made this dissertation possible and because of whom I am now completing my final graduate experience. I must start by thanking the practitioners at Urban Technical College for welcoming me onto their campus, giving generously of their time, and sharing their thoughts with great openness and honesty. I am also so grateful to state level educators of both the University of Wisconsin System and the Wisconsin Technical College System, who helped me understand the broader policy environment and transfer landscape of the state. I offer my sincerest thanks to my adviser and dissertation chair, Estela Bensimon, who encouraged and challenged me throughout my graduate education and the process of writing this dissertation. Estela gave me my first research opportunity; neither she nor I knew then how much that research project in Wisconsin would inform my interest in technical education, nor be the basis of a critical policy study of implementation. I am grateful for the patience she showed me when I was focusing my study, for being supportive and encouraging when I lost faith in the quality and importance of my work, and for always helping me see past the detail to the bigger picture. She provided constant support, especially when I found out that I was expecting a baby, commenting that “you can do it, many women have children and finish.” I want to also thank my committee members: Alicia Dowd, Gelya Frank, and Sara Goldrick-Rab. Alicia provided me an eye for detail and constructive feedback on everything from research questions to ensuring that I was, indeed, bringing the critical perspective to my work. Geyla Frank offered an outside perspective and expertise in culture that helped fine-tune my methodology. Sara Goldrick-Rab traveled all the way from Wisconsin to serve as part of my iv dissertation committee. Her insider knowledge of Wisconsin and expertise in transfer provided invaluable guidance as to gaining access to my research site and also formulating conclusions. My dissertation was inspired by my work with the Center for Urban Education (CUE) as a Research Assistant. I thank Estela Bensimon and Alicia Dowd for encouraging students at CUE to undertake a dissertation that is congruent with the work of the center. The center’s leadership, support, and feedback were invaluable as I developed my area of research. In addition, working at CUE afforded me the opportunity to collaborate with stellar researchers, from whom I learned so much, and who offered guidance and feedback throughout my doctoral program. I specifically want to thank Arlease Woods, who was always there to welcome me off the elevator with a smile on her face. Her dedication to getting me on Estela’s calendar ensured that I kept progressing to degree. My successful completion of graduate school is also very much owed to the Ph.D. program at USC, which has been my intellectual home for the past five years. The financial assistance enabled me to focus on my research endeavors. In particular, Dianne Morris was always available at a moment’s notice to offer assistance on all things, from mundane paperwork to the complicated process of fulfilling various milestones. The best thing about my time at USC had been the opportunity to work and play with a great group of fellow graduate students. Since 2008, I have been part of a cohort, without which I surely would have been lost. The cohort structure of the program allowed me to become friends with a group of students whose work and intellectual strengths continually spurred my own. Many of them have read my work and provided feedback or have encouraged me by asking about my progress. I learned from these women and men as we worked together on research projects, took classes together, and forged lasting friendships. In particular, I am v indebted to Jonathan Mathis and Caitlin Farrell for their friendship, support through the process, and continued motivation to “just keep swimming.” Jonathan provided ample support in the form of walks around campus and reading drafts of my work. My friendship with Cait will, no doubt, stand the test of time. I greatly valued our early morning runs, commiserating about various assignments, and Subway tradition throughout multiple regression and multivariate statistics. I also wish to thank my family. I have learned that it takes a village to finish a Ph.D. Support was always felt in their reoccurring understanding when I happened to be MIA, again and again. A special thanks goes to anyone in my family who were called upon to watch Ella. More specifically, I am so grateful to Grammies Hervey, Chase, and Great Grammie Annette for taking a week off from their busy lives to travel to Wisconsin and watch Ella so that I could collect data. Without their help, my dissertation would not have been possible. I also want to thank my sister, Shannon, who was never more than a phone call away. As an English Ph.D. student herself, she was often called in at the last moment for grammar or word choice questions. She edited drafts of my qualifying exam and dissertation proposal. I have fond memories of Shannon showing up on my front door step stocked with cupcakes and nachos, as I attempted to write my qualifying exam in the midst of pregnancy cravings and morning, or shall I say all day, sickness. Although extremely busy, Shannon offered weekly babysitting assistance as I transitioned back to the dissertation after Ella was born. For this and just being who she is, I thank her. I am also grateful to my “bright light,” Ella Elizabeth, who came into this world when I was supposed to be writing my dissertation. She is the best little “dissertation distraction” and I thank God that I get to wake up to her smiling face every morning. Although I can not credit her vi with aiding in the production of this dissertation, she can always take credit for helping me with my research as a fun loving companion on my data collection trip to Wisconsin. She has shown me the wonderful joys that life has to offer beyond the ivory towers of USC. My husband, Jim Chase, has only ever been married to a doctoral student who disappeared on weekdays and weekends to read and write. For the last seven years, Jim has been my best friend, my biggest support, and a source of much happiness and joy. He has labored with me through this dissertation, talking about ideas, reading my work, sharing my excitement, buoying my spirits, and, in the final stretch, staying up at all hours of the night to help with edits and formatting. Jim deserves special acknowledgement as a cheerful reader of not only many chapter drafts, but also numerous papers over the last five years. Though sometimes his careful readings and comments were harsh, for the most part his perceptive suggestions and tremendous analytic skills, urged me to clarify my thinking, hone my arguments, and ultimately, to stop writing and submit the dissertation. Without his help, I suspect I would still be revising. I continue to be inspired by his commitment and work ethic. I am thankful for his presence in my life during this time and in the years to come. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my mother, who modeled a commitment to education throughout my life and was pivotal in helping me finish. I can remember my mom making sure that my siblings and myself did our homework and engaged in educational activities. With her unwavering faith, she has always been my biggest cheerleader. When Ella was born she gave me one of her only two days off every week to babysit because she was determined to help me get the Ph.D. It was through her example that I first learned about hard work and the importance of education. It is my hope that I can instill in Ella what she has provided to me. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ iii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. x List of Figures................................................................................................................................ xi Abstract......................................................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER I: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Racial Context of Wisconsin Higher Education......................................................................... 5 Purpose of the Study................................................................................................................. 10 Genesis of the Research Topic.................................................................................................. 14 Significance of the Study.......................................................................................................... 15 Definition of the Key Terms..................................................................................................... 19 Organization of the Dissertation............................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER II: A Review of the Literature............................................................................... 22 A Review of Related Literature .................................................................................................... 22 History of Vocational Education in the Two-Year College ..................................................... 22 The longstanding vocational controversy. ............................................................................ 26 Literature of Technical Student Transfer.................................................................................. 32 Transfer intentions and academic success. ........................................................................... 32 Challenges to transfer. .......................................................................................................... 34 Summary................................................................................................................................... 39 Theoretical Frameworks to Study Policy Implementation ........................................................... 40 The Process of Social Construction and Sensemaking Theory ................................................ 42 Sensemaking and policy implementation research............................................................... 43 Critical Policy Analysis and Policy Implementation................................................................ 50 Summary................................................................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER III: Research Design and Methodology................................................................ 59 Qualitative Approach to Research ............................................................................................ 59 The Case Study Tradition ......................................................................................................... 60 Sampling and Gaining Access .................................................................................................. 62 Purposive sampling............................................................................................................... 62 Site selection. ........................................................................................................................ 63 Participant selection and access............................................................................................ 69 Data Collection Plan ................................................................................................................. 73 Phase 1: Developing a state and local context...................................................................... 74 Phase 2: Transfer at UTC...................................................................................................... 74 Data collection methods........................................................................................................ 75 Data Analysis Plan.................................................................................................................... 80 Trustworthiness and Credibility................................................................................................ 83 Ethical and Political Considerations ......................................................................................... 86 Summary................................................................................................................................... 87 CHAPTER IV: A Historical and Political Context ................................................................. 89 viii PART I: The History of Technical Education in Wisconsin ........................................................ 89 The Continuation Schools......................................................................................................... 89 German Model of Industrial Education .................................................................................... 91 Financial Assistance for Vocational Education ........................................................................ 92 General Education in Vocational Schools ................................................................................ 93 The Great Depression and the First Glimpse of a Transfer Curriculum................................... 94 The Influence of World War II on Vocational Training........................................................... 94 Truman Higher Education for Democracy ............................................................................... 95 Coordinating Committee for Higher Education........................................................................ 96 The 1960s and New State Higher Education Law.................................................................... 98 Summary................................................................................................................................. 100 PART II: The History of Transfer in Wisconsin - A State Perspective...................................... 101 The Question of the Junior College ........................................................................................ 102 Transfer Curriculum Offered at Three of the Technical Colleges.......................................... 105 The University of Wisconsin Merger ..................................................................................... 106 Statutes to Increase Collaboration .......................................................................................... 107 Additional Action by the Legislature and Changes to the Transfer Policy ............................ 108 The 1990s and a Shift Towards a Comprehensive College Model......................................... 113 Statewide Articulation and Program Assessment................................................................... 116 Increasing the Collegiate Transfer Course Offerings ............................................................. 120 Efforts to Increase Transfer Students of Color ....................................................................... 122 The Current and Future Status of Transfer at the Systems Level........................................... 126 Summary................................................................................................................................. 126 PART III: The Current State and Local Political Context.......................................................... 128 State Politics ........................................................................................................................... 129 Local Politics .......................................................................................................................... 130 Summary................................................................................................................................. 133 CHAPTER V: Factors that Influence Policy Interpretation ................................................ 135 Institutional Identity and History............................................................................................ 136 A city history of manufacturing.......................................................................................... 137 An embedded technical identity. ........................................................................................ 140 Policy interpretation through the lens of historical identity. .............................................. 149 Fear of a Loss of Power .......................................................................................................... 160 Transfer policy forces increases in faculty credentials....................................................... 161 Practitioner fears surrounding the transfer policy............................................................... 164 Leadership and Institutional Priorities.................................................................................... 167 The Board of Trustees......................................................................................................... 167 The President. ..................................................................................................................... 169 The Faculty Union .............................................................................................................. 175 Practitioner policy interpretation based on leadership priorities. ....................................... 179 Perception of the Target Population ....................................................................................... 181 Weak academic preparation................................................................................................ 182 Student personal issues. ...................................................................................................... 188 The Influence of New Narratives............................................................................................ 190 ix An external push for two-year skills................................................................................... 191 Local data as evidence for the value of technical education............................................... 197 Concern for Equity.................................................................................................................. 200 Summary................................................................................................................................. 206 CHAPTER VI: Transfer Policy Implementation at Urban Technical College .................. 208 Structural Implementation ...................................................................................................... 208 The physical level. .............................................................................................................. 209 Documentation level. .......................................................................................................... 213 Digital level......................................................................................................................... 216 The Shadow College............................................................................................................... 219 A lack of transfer visibility. ................................................................................................ 220 An enduring technical perception. ...................................................................................... 229 The outsourcing of transfer resources................................................................................. 233 Informal Implementation ........................................................................................................ 237 Preparing students socially. ................................................................................................ 237 Preparing students through the curriculum......................................................................... 241 Generating transfer interests. .............................................................................................. 243 Providing process information............................................................................................ 245 Summary................................................................................................................................. 246 CHAPTER VII: Concluding Thoughts and Lessons Learned ............................................. 258 Summary of Major Findings................................................................................................... 259 Connecting Findings to Research and Theory........................................................................ 260 Advancing sensemaking and policy interpretation theory.................................................. 260 Informing the critical policy analysis of implementation................................................... 270 Understanding transfer and the technical college environment.......................................... 276 Implications for Practice and Policy....................................................................................... 277 Transfer as an expectation and a mindset. .......................................................................... 277 Transfer as an administrative priority................................................................................. 279 Culturally relevant policy implementation. ........................................................................ 280 Limitations and Recommendations for Future Critical Researchers ...................................... 281 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 284 Appendices................................................................................................................................. 301 Appendix A: Urban Technical College Program Offerings ................................................... 301 Appendix B: Telephone Interview Topic List ........................................................................ 303 Appendix C: Sample Interview Protocol for Administrators and Board Members................ 304 Appendix D: Sample Interview Protocol for Faculty Members............................................. 308 Appendix E: Sample Interview Protocol for Support Staff Members.................................... 312 Appendix F: Student Services Observation Protocol ............................................................. 316 Appendix G: Transfer Day Observation Protocol .................................................................. 321 Appendix H: Meeting Observation Protocol .......................................................................... 326 x List of Tables Table 1: Topical Research Questions .......................................................................................... 12 Table 2: Previous Findings Regarding Factors that Influence Policy Interpretation................... 48 Table 3: Summary of Frameworks .............................................................................................. 58 Table 4: Demographic Profile of Urban Technical College ........................................................ 67 Table 5: Initial Interview Participant List.................................................................................... 70 Table 6: Urban Technical College Interview Participant List ..................................................... 71 Table 7: External Stakeholders Interview Participant List .......................................................... 72 Table 8: Summary of Data Sources ............................................................................................. 79 Table 9: Critical Analysis Guidelines.......................................................................................... 82 Table 10: Events and Decisions that Influenced the Mission of the Technical College System, 1900-1970 .................................................................................................................. 100 Table 11: Factors that Influence Policy Interpretation .............................................................. 135 Table 12: Initial Certification Courses....................................................................................... 146 Table 13: Physical Level Implementation of Transfer Resources............................................. 209 Table 14: Guaranteed Transfer Program Requirements ............................................................ 215 Table 15: Digital Transfer Resources ........................................................................................ 216 Table 16: Documents Collected from the Advising Center and Welome Center...................... 224 xi List of Figures Figure 1. Percent of UWC, WTCS, UW four-year institution enrollment, fall 2010, by race ...... 7 Figure 2. Percent of WTCS and UW College student transfer, fall 2010, by race........................ 9 Figure 3. Percent of jobs in Wisconsin requiring no college, less than an associate’s degree, an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, or a graduate degree, by 2018 ...................... 16 Figure 4. Total student enrollment, by type of institution, fall 2010........................................... 17 Figure 5. Historical timeline of major national events for career and technical education ......... 22 Figure 6. Associate degrees conferred by institutions of higher education by type of curriculum, 1970-71 to 2003-04....................................................................................................... 26 Figure 7. Number of Black, Hispanic, and Native American student enrollment at UTC and UWS, 2010.................................................................................................................... 64 Figure 8. Number and percent of 18-29 year old population within the UTC service area, by race, 2009...................................................................................................................... 67 Figure 9. Percentage of students by race enrolled in each program category, UTC, 2010.......... 69 Figure 10. Transformational transfer events in Wisconsin technical college history................ 102 Figure 11. UTC percentage growth in course enrollments by course level, 1999 and 2008..... 150 Figure 12. Number of UTC student enrollment by program, 2010.. ......................................... 151 Figure 13. Age distribution of faculty at UTC, 2012................................................................. 152 Figure 14. Primary UTC funding stream totals, 2005-2009.. .................................................... 174 Figure 15. WTCS fulltime faculty salaries, 2008, by WTCS district........................................ 176 Figure 16. UTC fulltime faculty salaries, 2008, compared to UW institutions......................... 177 Figure 17. Percent of students in at least one basic skills course at all technical colleges........ 185 Figure 18. Welding career pathway........................................................................................... 187 Figure 19. UTC counseling and advising structure ................................................................... 212 Figure 20. UTC faculty member responsibilities by contract.................................................... 227 xii Abstract This study contributes to the limited research on policy implementation through a lens of sensemaking in postsecondary education. Using case study research design and drawing on interviews, observations, and document review, I examined how practitioners in one public urban two-year technical college interpret and implement transfer policy. The study was guided by research and literature from sensemaking theory and critical policy analysis. This case study is unique in that previous studies fail to acknowledge race in policy research framed by sensemaking theory. Approaching the research from a critical perspective allowed for an examination of how a policy’s target or intended population may influence practitioner interpretation and subsequent implementation of a policy. The results of this dissertation contribute to the sensemaking and critical policy analysis literature. This study provides evidence of previous findings that institutional context, including the history, traditions, physical space, and values, play a considerable role in policy interpretation and implementation (Coburn, 2001, 2005; Datnow, 2006; Kezar & Eckel, 2002; Resnick, 1991; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002). I found that context does not simply provide a backdrop for how practitioners interpret a policy; rather context is a defining element of the interpretation itself. Six primary factors were identified to influence policy interpretation. Practitioners were most influenced by the identity and history of the institution, followed by a lesser degree, a fear of a loss of power, the actions and priorities of leadership, the perception of a policy’s target population, the influence of new narratives, and finally a concern for equity. In addition to developing an understanding of factors that influence policy interpretation, this dissertation examines from a critical perspective how the policy was implemented, noting xiii how the implementing or non-implementing actions of the institution and practitioners can contribute to the perpetuation of racial inequity. Investigation into the implementation of the transfer policy showed that the transfer function largely operates as a “shadow college,” invisible on campus and within the community, along with being primarily provided by external constituents. The primary implementation strategies supported an ideology of hyper- individualism and proactive student engagement, which are at odds with effective support strategies identified for students of color. The research also identified non-implementing efforts, such as the absence of a transfer advisor or central transfer space for students to receive information. These findings suggest that a policy can act as a tool of equity, but only if implemented in a manner that enhances the opportunities for the success of minority students. The results propose that how a policy is implemented (or not implemented) is influenced by how policy implementers perceive who benefits from the policy and how the policy could impact practitioners. Practitioners perceived their students to be low-income and unprepared, and therefore placed less effort into implementing a policy they deemed a wasted effort. Practitioners also resisted implementing the policy in fear that it would impact their livelihood, reinforcing that self-interest is an important element in whether a policy is implemented. This study lays the groundwork for continued critical policy implementation research and suggests that race and power be considered integral components of the social context in future sensemaking studies in postsecondary education. Considering race and power as part of the social context provides insight into understanding both how policy is successfully implemented or, as in this case, resisted and opportunistically disregarded. 1 “Education policy implementation must be understood as a site of struggle. On this battlefield, the interests of the powerful hold sway; here, the ways in which educational policies are implemented, or not implemented, continue to have deleterious consequences for children and families in urban communities” Michael J. Dumas and Jean Anyon—2006 CHAPTER I: Introduction Established as an open access institution, the two-year college originated with the promise of a democratic education, a stepping-stone to new careers and new possibilities for its entrants (McGrath & Spear, 1991). Through the two-year college, educators sought to provide access to higher education for people that would not otherwise attend (A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003). Currently enrolling over 10 million students, public two-year colleges are the critical entry points to higher education and economic opportunity for half of the nation’s college students (Community College Research Center, 2011). More specifically, minority students are more likely than their White peers to commence their education at a two-year college (Kurlaender, 2006). However, two-year colleges do not bear the brunt of college enrollments by chance. Over the last 50 years, state and federal higher education policymakers have designated the two-year college to be the “main artery” for broadening higher education opportunity for all Americans (Dougherty, 1994, p. 43). According to a recent study by the National Clearinghouse, two-year colleges are meeting this charge. In 2011, 45% of students that earned a bachelor’s degree had previously enrolled in a two-year college and half of these students completed the first two years of their degree before transferring (Lederman, 2012). The two-year college is assigned the task of harboring a multitude of high school graduates until they are prepared to transfer to a four-year institution or to enter the job market (Dougherty, 1994). The philosophy behind the segmented higher education structure is one of integration, where policymakers envisioned a system where students “can move with relative ease from level to 2 level and from one part of the system to another” (such as a two-year college to a four-year university) (Ben-David, 1974, p. 7). Within this higher education arrangement there are, in theory, “no blind alleys” and “one can always transfer from one level to another” (Ben-David, 1974). This assumption that students can transfer with ease from one level to another was meant to offer underrepresented students a “gateway” to higher degrees (Dowd, 2008). However, critics argue that rather than presenting opportunity for underrepresented students, two-year colleges lead students into a “dead end” (A. M. Cohen, 1994). Despite large minority enrollments, Arbona and Nora (2007) argue that two-year colleges “have not served as the gateway to a bachelor’s degree for large numbers of lower-income and ethnic minority populations” (p. 248). Supporters of the two-year college as “gatekeeper” argue that the institution funnels some students into workforce training and others into a collegiate transfer curriculum; what critics constitute as a “form of tracking within higher education” (Pincus, 1981). Research provides support for this claim, noting that although racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to enter a two-year college than their White peers, they are less likely to transfer to a four-year institution. According to the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, approximately 25% of minority students who attended a two-year college initially planned to transfer. Yet, after six years, only 6% had earned a bachelors degree (Hoachlander, Sikora, Horn & Carroll, 2003). According to Bailey et al. (2005), a higher percentage of White students (32%) transfer to four-year institutions than Blacks (16%) or Hispanics (24%). Wassmer, Moore, and Shulock (2004) came to a similar conclusion, finding that two-year colleges with higher percentages of Hispanic or African American students have lower six-year transfer rates than colleges with fewer racial and ethnic minorities. Furthermore, Wassmer et al. (2004) found that two-year colleges with higher transfer rates not only enroll higher numbers of Caucasian students, but also tend to enroll students with higher socioeconomic status, and 3 students with a focus on academic rather than an occupational curriculum. When students from the lowest socioeconomic group do transfer, they are more likely to be involved in “reverse” transfer from the four-year institution to the two-year college, which is linked to significantly lower odds of completion (Goldrick-Rab & Pfeffer, 2009). While two-year colleges were created with democratic ideals in mind, research suggests that the two-year college may hinder minority students’ chances of transfer and attaining a bachelor’s degree. The concept of tracking has provided educational researchers an important tool for understanding stratification in education and has been applied to higher education by distinguishing between the two- and four-year institutions as well as between the vocational and academic curricula in two-year colleges (Alba & Lavin, 1981; Brint & Karabael, 1989). The term, tracking, refers to directing students into programs or schools that are of lower status and either lead to lower paying jobs or fewer educational opportunities (Oakes, 1985). Jerome Karabel, who has written extensively on tracking in higher education, argues that tracking takes place within the two-year college in the form of vocational education (Karabel, 1986). Karabel is not alone in his criticism of the two-year college vocational function; numerous other scholars have also drawn attention to skepticism about the two-year college’s claims to have democratized higher education and expanded opportunities for upward mobility for racial minorities (Astin, 1982; Dougherty, 1987; Grubb, 1984; London, 1978; Pincus, 1974, 1981). Substantiating their claims, currently racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to enroll in two-year college vocational programs than their White peers (T. Bailey, et al., 2003; Bragg, 2002). In addition, students who enroll in two-year technical or vocational colleges tend to come from minority or lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Wilkinson, 1992). Researchers suggest that the majority of sub-baccalaureate vocational programs do not provide pathways to a four- year institution but rather prepare students for immediate entry into the labor market (Shulock, Moore, & Offenstein, 2011). Such positions, on average, pay less and have fewer opportunities 4 for advancement than jobs offered to those with a bachelor’s degree (Kane & Rouse, 1999; Shulock, et al., 2011) 1 . Rendon (1992) argues that, since two-year colleges are key access points to higher education for underrepresented groups, barriers to continuing higher education through transfer restrictions or other policies raise concerns about social equity and limits on economic opportunity for vocational students. In recent years, educational leaders and policymakers have created transfer policies in an attempt to ease the transition of vocational students from two-year colleges to four-year institutions (Bragg, 2001; Ignash & Kotun, 2005; Townsend, 2001a). While conducting research on transfer policies for vocational students is a relatively new undertaking, Ignash and Kotun (2005) conducted a descriptive analysis examining transfer policies for technical students by state. They found that while state leaders recognized occupational transfer as important, the mechanics of transfer policy are often difficult to implement and often confusing to students, faculty, and staff. While policymakers, higher education organizations, and academic researchers have all given considerable attention to transfer issues in recent years, none have explored how transfer policy is interpreted and implemented in a two-year technical college environment, nor how transfer policy implementation may enable or inhibit transfer equity for vocational students. In this chapter, I introduce a study that investigates the implementation of a transfer policy created to ease the transition of two-year college students from one public urban two-year technical college in Wisconsin to four-year institutions. Wisconsin represents a unique state to study the opportunities for vocational student transfer because it has the largest technical college system in the nation, which enrolls the majority of racial and ethnic students in the state. In 1 Although a majority of studies report that vocational two-year graduates do not secure jobs in their related area of study and tend to have weak economic returns, there are some studies that review evidence that vocational education is a pathway to upward mobility and economic security (Grubb, 2002). This is to say that two-year college occupational programs are themselves stratified; and some of them, specifically in the health field and certain technical areas, seem linked to segments of the labor market that have generally high-levels of pay (Grubb, 2002; Kane & Rouse, 1995). 5 addition, due to current demographics and enrollment patterns in the state, transferring from a two-year technical college is a student of colors’ primary chance at earning a bachelor’s degree. Also, to date, most transfer research is grounded in traditional community college settings wherein transfer is central to the college mission. And, since there are very few state technical college systems remaining in the U.S., Wisconsin represents a rare opportunity to examine and understand "how transfer works" in an institutional culture wherein the emphasis is shifting between and among technical learning, professional learning, and general/liberal learning. Also, in theory, the transfer policy in the technical colleges would offer more vocational students, and therefore more minority students, a pathway to transfer. I am interested in understanding how transfer policy is interpreted and implemented by practitioners. More specifically, I am interested in understanding whether the transfer from a technical college can be considered a viable pathway to further higher education, or if the metaphor depicting two-year colleges as a “blind alley” or “sorting machine” holds true within the context of Wisconsin two-year technical colleges. In the sections that follow, I discuss the racial context of Wisconsin higher education and the purpose of the study. Then, I delineate the significance of the study and key concepts used throughout the dissertation. Racial Context of Wisconsin Higher Education Wisconsin higher education is composed of two separate systems of public two-year colleges: one that provides students a liberal arts education and another that prepares students for immediate entry into the job market. The University of Wisconsin System (UWS) governs all public four-year institutions and two-year liberal arts colleges while the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) oversees all two-year public technical colleges. Wisconsin is unique, in that it does not have a comprehensive community college system; rather the state has two separate systems to meet the transfer and vocational needs of the state. The UW two-year colleges enroll approximately 14,000 students per year with a mission to provide the first two 6 years of a baccalaureate education (Office of Policy Analysis and Research University of Wisconsin, 2010). In contrast, the WTCS mission is to provide occupational training rather than facilitate transfer to four-year institutions. The WTCS is the largest technical system in the nation, originating in the early 1900s and enrolling over 375,000 students annually, 150,000 of which are enrolled in college-level coursework (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2010). The WTCS mission remains the same as it did a century ago—to provide “programs which enable students to acquire the occupational skills and training necessary for the work force” (Wisconsin Technical College System, n.d.-a). The difference between the two-year colleges in Wisconsin constitutes an anomalous and advantageous place by which to examine transfer policy implementation and educational opportunities for technical students. Wisconsin also provides a natural setting to study public two-year technical colleges, a research topic that remains largely unexplored in higher education. Similar to the rest of the nation, racialized groups in Wisconsin are more likely to enter a two- year college rather than a four-year institution (Arbona & Nora, 2007). However, Wisconsin’s higher education is distinct in that it is the only state to have a bifurcated statewide governance structure where the majority of students are enrolled in a two-year technical college, rather than a two-year liberal arts/transfer college (Richardson & de los Santos, 2001). The systems are also highly segregated as the technical colleges enroll the majority of students of color, at approximately 50:1, when compared to the two-year liberal arts colleges 2 (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). As illustrated in Figure 1, African Americans and Hispanic students are overrepresented in the technical colleges when compared to the two-year UW Colleges (UWC) and the public four-year institutions, whereas White students are overrepresented in the UWC and four-year institutions. For 2 The ratio was calculated comparing students pursuing an associate’s degree, diploma, or basic skills. Students enrolled in vocational adult coursework and community service courses were excluded from the calculation. Students of color were defined as African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. 7 example, African Americans represent 12.4% (26,045) of the student body at the WTCS, whereas they only represent 1.6% (216) of the total UWC population and 3.4% (5,294) of the total public four-year institution population (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b) . Figure 1. Percent of UWC, WTCS, and UW four-year institution student enrollment, fall 2010, by race. The data demonstrates that higher proportions of minority students enroll in WTCS (African American, Hispanic, and Native American) than the UWC and the UW four-year institutions (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). Note. The data includes students pursuing college level coursework or basic skills. Students enrolled in vocational adult or community service coursework were excluded. Unlike states with comprehensive community colleges, which have both vocational and transfer curricula, the transfer function in Wisconsin is predominately the responsibility of the UWC (University of Wisconson System, 2010). The UWC have a liberal arts curricular pathway that transfers to all 13 public four-year institutions. In addition to this pathway, students can also pursue transfer through an articulation agreement 3 ; the vast majority of which are program and institution specific (Administrator 25, personal communication, June 22, 2009). Unlike the UWC, the WTCS is held to a legislated policy that prevents them from offering a transfer 3 Articulation agreements are defined as a common policy instrument for facilitating student credit transfer between institutions (Daun-Barnett & Overton-Atkins, 2006). 8 curriculum. The state legal code restricts the number of transfer courses that can be offered at a technical college. The legal code states, “The technical college system board shall not, without the approval of the (UW) Board of Regents (BOR), broaden its system’s collegiate transfer program offerings beyond those in existence during the 1972-73 academic year” (Wisconsin Statutes and Annotations §36.31, n.d., p. 21). This directive legally targets the UWC as the state primary transfer institution. Without a curricular pathway to transfer, attending one of the technical college campuses can decrease minority students’ chances of transfer (Dowd, Bensimon, Bordoloi, & Watford, 2008) and thus inhibit their ability to attain a higher degree. Although the technical college system enrolls the majority of students and students of color, when compared to the UWC, the technical colleges transfer fewer students proportionately to public four-year institutions. As illustrated in Figure 2, a lower proportion of students from the WTCS in each race category transfer to public four-year institutions when compared to the UWC. While 9.3% of the Hispanics enrolled in a UW College transferred in 2010, only 0.8% of the Hispanic population at WTCS transferred to a public four-year institution. This data demonstrates that although the majority of students of color enroll in a technical college, far fewer actually transfer to a public four-year institution than those that enroll in a UWC. Critics may examine this data and argue that fewer students transfer from WTCS because students enroll in technical colleges for reasons other than transfer. While this may be true, I speculate that students attend technical colleges instead of UWC due to their location and proximity to student homes. 9 Figure 2. Percent of WTCS and UW College student transfer, fall 2010, by race. This data illustrates that WTCS transfers a lower percentage of students in each race category. While the UWC transferred 5.1% of their total African American population to a public four-year institution in 2010, WTCS only transferred 0.4% of their African American population (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). Note. The data includes students pursuing an associate’s degree, diploma, or basic skills. Students enrolled in vocational adult or community service coursework were excluded. Although vocational education has remained the technical college mission for over 100 years, a liberal arts transfer policy was designed and implemented at five of the 16 technical colleges to provide a transfer pathway for technical college students. The transfer curriculum is referred to as the collegiate transfer program and is a degree program designated and approved by the UW BOR, in which the credits earned are transferable to a four-year institution (WI Statute 38.01). In theory, this policy would offer more vocational students, and therefore more minority students in Wisconsin, an opportunity to transfer. Although the transfer policy represents a pathway to the baccalaureate for students enrolled in a technical college, how the policy is interpreted and implemented has not been explored. 0.0%$ 2.0%$ 4.0%$ 6.0%$ 8.0%$ 10.0%$ 12.0%$ 14.0%$ African$ American$ Hispanic$ Na7ve$ American$ Asian$ White$ WTCS$ UW$Colleges$ 10 Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to identify factors that influence policy interpretation and also to understand implementation from a critical perspective. To pursue this line of inquiry, I examine data collected from a case study of one two-year technical college using a combination of the social constructionist and critical research paradigms. The combination of these paradigms allow me to understand how administrators, faculty, and staff within a two-year technical college interpret and implement the transfer policy, within the context of the broader transfer landscape 4 of the state. Thus, from a critical-social constructionist perspective, this dissertation study examines how administrators, faculty, and staff interpret and implement the transfer policy at one large public urban two-year technical college. My overarching research questions are, a) what factors influence policy interpretation? And b) in what ways are the factors reflected in how the policy is implemented? Social constructionists argue that humans do not discover knowledge but construct it (Schwandt, 2000). In this cultural paradigm, humans create concepts and schemes to “make sense of experience” and then continually alter these constructions as they gain new experiences. Most importantly, humans construct interpretations “against a back drop of shared understandings, practices, language, and so forth” (Schwandt, 2000, p. 197). The assumption that all knowledge is interpreted and that reality is historically and culturally constructed helped guide me in understanding how the transfer policy is perceived within the institution. By examining the historical context of transfer in the state and at the technical college provided me an understanding as to how the policy is currently perceived on campus. In addition, investigating the culture of the institution including the “backdrop” of beliefs, practices, and 4 In this study “transfer landscape” refers to the external transfer environment in the state of Wisconsin. This environment includes the UWS, WTCS, and other external stakeholders. 11 language of individuals provided me a context to start understanding how the policy is implemented. The critical paradigm contributes to the social constructionist paradigm by taking into account the role of power and values. This approach to research holds that “all thought is fundamentally mediated by power relations that are social and historically constituted; that facts can never be isolated from the domain of values or removed from some form of ideological inscription” (Kincheloe & McLauren, 1994, p. 139). The critical paradigm is essential in framing this study, as it helped provide insight to underlying power or political dynamics embedded in the policy environment. From a critical-social constructionist perspective, this dissertation study examines how administrators, faculty, and staff interpret and implement the transfer policy at one large public urban two-year technical college. I specifically focused on (a) how the policy is interpreted, (b) how the policy is implemented and (b) how the interpretation and implementation of the policy may contribute to or inhibit equity. As mentioned, my overarching research questions are, a) what factors influence policy interpretation? And b) in what ways are the factors reflected in how the policy is implemented? Following this line of inquiry I developed topical-research questions, which are customary in case study research, and are organized by the following categories: culture (social constructionist perspective), politics (critical perspective), and structure (structural perspective) (see Table 1). 12 Table 1 Topical Research Questions Categories Topical-Research Questions Culture  In what ways is the transfer policy reflected in the identity of the technical college?  How do technical and liberal arts faculty view the transfer policy and/or the role of transfer in a technical college?  How do the values, traditions, and history of the institution/systems of higher education contribute to how the policy is perceived and implemented? Politics  How do the occupational and transfer missions coexist?  In what ways does this policy open up opportunities for baccalaureate attainment and for whom?  In what ways does this policy function as a tool of equity?  What are the supports and constraints to implementing the transfer policy?  What is policy actor rhetoric surrounding the policy and does this rhetoric align with practitioner/institutional action?  How do relationships with the UWC/UW four-year institutions enhance or hinder the implementation of the transfer policy?  How do internal and external organizations influence the implementation of transfer? Structure  In what ways is the transfer policy reflected in the curriculum?  In what ways in the transfer policy reflected in programmatic efforts?  How and from whom do students learn about transfer opportunities?  Is there a place students can go to receive transfer information?  How is the policy disseminated to students? Although not all of these questions were answered, the pursuit of them helped to develop my knowledge base of the case as well as address my overarching research questions. The study was informed by the literature on sensemaking theory and critical policy analysis. Sensemaking 13 theory provides the analytical tools with which to understand how practitioners interpret transfer policy within the context of a technical college. Building on policy implementation research, I use sensemaking theory to analyze how practitioners’ perceive and interpret the transfer policy and then subsequently implement the policy. As noted in the literature, sensemaking is inherently social as it is situated in multiple contexts. These contexts include the norms and routines of the organization, values, traditions, and the history of the college (Coburn, 2001; Spillane, 1998b). According to Weick (1995), this socially created world constrains actions and orientations. From a policy implementation standpoint, sensemaking institutionalizes social constructions into the ways things are done and provides a framework to study policy implementation that considers the influences of the social environment. However, sensemaking theory is not without criticism. Scholars argue that sensemaking by itself fails to consider how power or the political context in which individuals operate influence sensemaking (Helms Mills, Thurlow, & Mills, 2010). Greater attention needs to be given to how powerful groups or individuals influence sensemaking. Thus, critical policy analysis is utilized to analyze policy implementation from a critical perspective. It provides a lens to examine implementation with an equity perspective. This study contributes to the research literature in different ways: first, it adds to the research literature regarding the influence of culture and power in policy interpretation as a whole and, specifically, in higher education. Within higher education, scholars argue that policy and politics are an understudied domain and often, higher education researchers have to look to policy research in the K-12 sector to inform their work (McLendon, 2003; Richardson & Martinez, 2009). Goldrick-Rab and Shaw (2007) argue that it is rare to find the word “implementation” in the title of higher education research articles. Second, it adds to the policy literature framed by sensemaking, by acknowledging race as a central element of the social context and arguing that how policy implementers perceive the beneficiaries of policy influences 14 how it is implemented. Third, it contributes to the literature on critical policy analysis by examining how the act of implementing or not implementing policy may marginalize racialized students. Finally, it adds to the research on transfer from within a technical college and sheds light on additional transfer barriers students concentrated in vocational colleges encounter. Genesis of the Research Topic My research agenda to study transfer policy implementation within two-year technical colleges developed as a result of being part of the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study (WiTE) 5 . Funded by the Ford Foundation and in collaboration with the University of Southern California’s Center for Urban Education (CUE), the University of Wisconsin System, and the Wisconsin Technical College System, this action research project aimed to improve the transfer rates of students of color from two-year institutions to public four-year institutions. The impetus for the study arose from the findings that emerged from using the Equity Scorecard, an ongoing initiative designed by CUE to identify and close achievement gaps for historically underrepresented students. Researchers from CUE worked with a “system team” composed of representatives from the two public higher education systems. Within this environment, I had the opportunity to meet system-level administrators from the UWS and the WTCS. It was through this project that I learned that the majority of racialized students in the state are enrolled in the technical system and, aligning with the transfer literature, most technical credits do not transfer to a four-year university. During team meetings the group had discussions regarding transfer from the technical colleges to four-year institutions. Although administrators expressed interest in creating transfer opportunities for technical students, leaders from the WTCS relied on the rationale that “transfer is not [their] primary goal” for their low transfer rates. At one 5 The Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study was a collaboration between the UWS, WTCS, and the USC Center for Urban Education to increase transfer for minority students. The project was funded by the Ford Foundation and led by principal investigators, Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon and Dr. Alicia C. Dowd. For more information, please see http://cue.usc.edu/partners/university_of_wisconsin_system_uws.html. 15 particular meeting, an administrator from the technical college system noted that transfer was not part of their charter, a mission that was developed in the early 1900s. This discussion prompted my curiosity as to the role of history and the social construction of traditions and values on transfer in the technical colleges. I developed a desire to examine if the history and traditions of the institution impede transfer for students in general and students of color specifically. In the spring of 2011, I conducted a pilot study at Urban Technical College (UTC) to learn more about this topic. I drew on interviews and document review to investigate the interpretation and implementation of the transfer policy. During this brief study, four themes emerged from the data that provide insights for my dissertation. Over the last decade, UTC has experienced a shift in institutional mission, resulting in an evolving transfer identity. However, I learned that this emergent identity has since met resistance in three primary ways, including an enduring institutional and community perception of UTC as solely an occupational institution, an administrative agenda that does not recognize transfer as a top priority, and faculty subcultures that advocate for keeping the transfer curriculum at a minimum. Significance of the Study This study is significant for multiple reasons. First, the manner in which the policy is perceived and implemented by the college has several implications for the state. Similar to other states striving to improve the educational attainment of their residents, Wisconsin is struggling to meet this challenge. States in the non-coastal regions have experienced a tremendous loss of manufacturing jobs, meaning declining wages and a shift in employment opportunities. Between 2008-2018, Wisconsin will create 925,000 job vacancies both from new jobs and from job openings due to retirement (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010). More than half of these vacancies (558,000) will require postsecondary credentials. According to Carnevale, Smith, and Strohl (2010), Wisconsin will need an additional 214,000 workers with a bachelor’s degree to meet the needs of the state. Depicted in Figure 3, the majority of college-educated workers 16 needed in 2018 are those with a bachelor’s degree. Due to their size, the technical colleges represent a viable pool of potential bachelor’s degree holders for the state (see Figure 4). Figure 3. Percent of jobs in Wisconsin requiring no college, less than an associate’s degree, an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, or a graduate degree, by 2018. By 2018, 64% of Wisconsin’s new/replacement jobs will require a college education, with jobs requiring a bachelor’s degree as the largest category (23%) (Carnevale, et al., 2010). Note. These data represent national-level employment forecasts translated to state figures based on current education-level and employment distributions by occupation in the state. 17 Figure 4. Total student enrollment, by type of institution, fall 2010. This data demonstrates that the WTCS enrolls nearly 25,000 more students than the four-year institutions and approximately 185,000 more students than the UWC. Due to the size of enrollments, the WTCS represents a potential pool of future bachelor’s degree holders (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). Note. The data includes students pursuing an associate’s/bachelor’s degree, diploma, or basic skills. Students enrolled in vocational adult or community service coursework were excluded. While employment forecasts in Wisconsin predict a rising demand for baccalaureate- educated workers, demographic trends are progressing in the opposite direction (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000, 2009c). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics will make up almost 14% of the working age population 6 in 2018, yet they are less likely than Whites to have a bachelor’s degree. Among those in the working–age population, 30% of White non-Hispanics have a bachelor’s degree, yet only 12% of Hispanics have bachelor’s degrees (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000, 2009c). Further, the educational gap is getting larger and not remaining consistent with population growth. Between 2000-2009 the White working age population grew approximately 3%, whereas the Hispanic population more than doubled at 54% growth. However, over that same period, the White working age population that achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher grew by 4%, whereas the Hispanic working age population that earned a bachelor’s degree or higher experienced no growth at all (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000, 2009c). 6 Working age population is defined as individuals between the ages of 25-64 years of age (Myers, 2007). 0" 50,000" 100,000" 150,000" 200,000" 250,000" Wisconsin" Technical"College" UW"College" University" 18 With a diminishing White working-age population and a growing racial and ethnic population, Wisconsin cannot afford to ignore the educational gap. Thus, Wisconsin needs to focus efforts on how institutions can better meet minority student needs and increase racial and ethnic baccalaureate attainment. In addition, in Wisconsin, only 22% of the population, age 25 and over, has a bachelor’s degree, which is below the national average of 24.4% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009c). This deficiency influences the state’s lag in per-capita income, which directly impacts the state’s ability to support public higher education. Transferring students from the technical colleges could serve as a possible solution to meeting employment needs. In addition, this study is significant as it examines the importance of campus priorities. Campus priorities and institutional mission are important contributors in achieving outcomes due to their impact on the structure and culture of the institution (Fugazzotto, 2009). Structure is found in the hierarchies of positions, rules, procedures, and explicit goals of the institution. In contrast, shared beliefs and values define an organization’s culture or identity (Schein, 1985; Tierney, 1988). According to Smart and Hamm (1993) achieving desired outcomes, such as transfer, depends on campus culture and the cohesiveness of people in that culture around common goals. The organizational culture and mission of an institution recapitulates structure by outlining expected outcomes and methods of evaluation, but it also influences “normative bonds” by contributing to organizational identity (Fugazzotto, 2009, p. 290). For example, institutional priorities can elicit emotional ties that embed administrators and faculty in organizational goals and purposes (Arkoff, 1987). If the campus priorities do not include transfer, it presents challenges in implementing and encouraging the transfer policy. The results of the study also have implications for policymakers as to factors that influence policy implementation. Historically, research on policy has demonstrated that policy implementation is a result of clear goals, supervision, and willingness to participate (Cuban, 19 1988; Mazmanian & Sabatier, 1981; Mclaughlin, 1987). Accounting for culture and power are typically not discussed in higher education policy implementation research. Understanding how culture and power influence policy implementation adds to the policy implementation literature and helps to identify factors that policymakers need to address in the policy process. Examining the influence of culture, context, and power in policy implementation provides insight into the role actors’ play in policy implementation. Also, approaching this study from a critical perspective allows for an examination of policy interpretation and implementation with a close attentiveness to race as part of the social context. Finally, the results of this study speak to the state of access and equity in higher education for minorities. Although the policy is not explicitly intended to increase the number of minority students that transfer, but rather offer a transfer pathway for all students, understanding how practitioners perceive and implement the policy has implications for assisting minorities to transfer. Because racial and ethnic groups are concentrated in the technical college system, the perception and implementation of the policy at the institutional level is of upmost importance in indirectly closing the racial and ethnic education gap in the state. Definition of the Key Terms There are several key terms used throughout this dissertation that need clarification: (a) vocational, (b) liberal education, (c) policy actor, and (d) sensemaking. To clarify their definitions and to ensure their consistent usage, I review them here. Vocational education: Historically, the terminology of vocational education has never been exact. Terms such as terminal, vocational, technical, semiprofessional, occupational, and career have been used interchangeably or in combination, such as vocational-technical (A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003). In the early 1900s, vocational was used to connote curricula in agriculture, the trades, and sales. Semiprofessional programs typically referred to schooling focused on engineering technicians, manufacturing, business, and other service jobs. The term occupational 20 tended to refer to the largest number of programs and referred to any type of schooling for a specific job. Finally, career education was developed in the mid-1900s to refer to high school efforts at orienting students towards a specific occupation. Although terminal is no longer in use, all the other terms are. In this study, I use the terms vocational, technical, and occupational education interchangeably and define them as sub-baccalaureate education corresponding with a specific occupation that for the most part has not been transferable to a four-year institution (i.e., radiology, information or engineering technologies, cosmetology, law enforcement, or fire science). I also acknowledge that there are gray areas in terms of this definition, as the transferability of vocational programs tends to vary by institution and by state (Ignash & Kotun, 2005). For example, an accounting associate’s degree at one institution may be transferable to a four-year institution, whereas a similar accounting associate’s degree at another two-year college may not be transferable. The manner in which I use vocational, technical, and occupational in this study refers to the non-transferable programs aimed at immediate job entry, unless noted. Liberal Education: As defined by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (n.d.), a liberal education is “an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change.” It provides students with a liberal arts education (e.g., humanities, social sciences, and science), with the goal of developing social responsibility and transferable skills such as communication, writing, and problem solving. Policy actor or agent: In this study, I take a broad definition of policy agent to include individuals that shape the “definition, direction, and evolution of a policy” (Dorner, 2012, p. 464). Policy agents include those that create the policy, implement it, and those that receive it. Policy agents include state and federal legislators, higher education system level administrators, “street-level bureacrats” (Weatherly & Lipsky, 1977) like campus level administrators, faculty, and staff, and other individuals such as students, campus trustees, and other community members. In this study, a policy agent represents any individual that takes action in the 21 policymaking or policy implementation processes. Sensemaking: Sensemaking is discussed at length in Chapter II and is utilized as a theory to frame this study. Sensemaking can be defined as the process by which individuals and groups make meaning of experiences and ideas (Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfield, 2006). Sensemaking theorists focus on how meaning is shaped and how interpretations are drivers of action. They assume that individuals and groups of individuals use their pre-existing beliefs, experiences, and embedded contexts to interpret policy. The process occurs during social interactions and thus institutional and historical contexts are important. Organization of the Dissertation In the subsequent chapters, I detail the literature and methodology that guided this dissertation study. In Chapter II, I present a review of research and theory utilized in this study. I outline the history of vocational education in this country and highlight the national controversy surrounding vocational education. This chapter also delineates the current transfer research on vocational and technical students to identify gaps in the literature. The second part of the chapter examines the sensemaking literature pertaining to policy implementation, to understand the processes and factors that may influence how practitioners interpret and implement policy. I then explore the critical policy analysis literature as it pertains to policy implementation. In Chapter III, I outline the research design and methodology, including the rationale for study design, the data collection, and data analysis procedures. Then, I conclude by offering a discussion regarding trustworthiness and ethical considerations. In Chapter IV, I present a historical outline of technical education in Wisconsin and an analysis of transformational transfer events in the WTCS history. This chapter also provides context to the state and local transfer policy landscape in which the research site is situated. The findings are presented in Chapters V and VI and I conclude in Chapter VII with a summative discussion of the major findings and implications for theory, practice, and policy. 22 CHAPTER II: A Review of Related Literature History of Vocational Education in the Two-Year College As outlined in Figure 5, vocational education in the United States dates back to the Civil War when businessmen started challenging “the religious and classical orientation in higher education” (Pincus, 1981, p. 334). Before the mid-1800s, higher education consisted of training students for ministry, which was irrelevant for the industrialists who needed skilled workers. In 1859, the Morrill Act was proposed to allow colleges to specialize in agriculture and the industrial arts, however President Buchanan vetoed it. The act was eventually passed by President Lincoln in 1862 with an amendment that proposed land grant institutions would teach military tactics, illustrating the important role war played in assisting in the development of vocational education in postsecondary institutions (Hyman, 2008). It was another quarter of a century before vocational education was introduced to secondary schools (Grubb & Lazerson, 2005). Figure 5. Historical timeline of major national events for career and technical education (Bragg, 2001; A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Grubb & Lazerson, 2005; Pincus, 1981; The White House Office of the Press Secretary, 2009). At the turn of the century, the first junior college appeared in Joliet, Illinois, as a result of negotiations between J. Stanley Brown and William Rainy Harper. Harper, the President of the 2 nd $Morrill$Act,$$ 1890,$legalized$ segrega7on,$ promo7ng$voca7onal$ studies$for$African$ Americans$$ Major$founda7ons$lend$financial$ support$to$$postsecondary$voca7onal$ educa7on,$1950sA60s$ Only$3$states$have$ passed$legisla7on$ for$postsecondary$ voca7onal$ educa7on,$1929$ 1840$ 1860$ 1880$ 1900$ 1920$ 1940$ 1960$ 1980$ 2000$ Before$midA1800s,$ higher$educa7on$ focused$on$training$ for$ministry,$not$skills$ for$industry$ $Morrill$Act,$1862,$ expands$college$role$ into$agriculture$&$ industrial$arts$$ Smith$Hughes$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Voca7onal$ Educa7on$Act,$ 1917$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Truman$ Commission’s$ Report,$1947$ Voca7onal$ Educa7on$$ Act,$1963$ Voca7onal$$ Educa7on$$ Act,$1968$ “New$ Voca7onalism”$ emerges,$$ 1990s$ Reauthoriza7on$of$ Carl$D.$Perkins$to$ include$ver7cal$ transfer,$2006$ $Obama$ administra7on$adds$ job$training$to$ na7onal$agenda,$2009$ Civil$War,$$ 1861A1865$ $$$$WWI,$$ 1914A1918$ $$$WWII,$$ 1939A1945$ 23 University of Chicago, advocated for a 2+2 approach in higher education and envisioned the junior college as the bridge from the high school to the university (Kintzer, 1996). Similar to high school and four-year institutions, the junior college, what is later called the community college, originated with an academic purpose as opposed to a vocational purpose (Grubb & Lazerson, 2005). By 1925, there were more than 32 community colleges and more than 80% of their students planned to continue their education at a university once they completed a two-year degree (Brint & Karabel, 1991; Kintzer, 1996). Although the curricula of the early community college mirrored that of the first two years of a university education, many schools also incorporated courses in agriculture, industry, homemaking, and other applied disciplines (Witt, Wattenbarger, Gollattscheck, & Suppiger, 1994). Although not a primary part of the community college curricula, vocational education increased in the high schools as savvy business leaders viewed vocational education as a means to bypass union apprenticeship programs (Pincus, 1981). Vocational education received national attention in 1917 when the Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act was passed, allocating $7 million to subsidize vocational education in high schools. However, any vocational program that gave baccalaureate credit was ineligible for funds, demonstrating how policy can influence outcomes (Hyman, 2008; Pincus, 1981). Although the provisions of the Smith-Hughes Act have shifted over time, the notion that vocational education should remain separate from academic studies has been largely resistant to change. The community college continued to concentrate on academic curricula, even as arguments from proponents such as Leonard Koos contributed to the expansion of vocational education during the Great Depression, where scarce employment opportunities demanded increased education (Grubb & Lazerson, 2005). According to Witt et al. (1994), approximately 70% of two-year colleges offered at least one terminal program in 1940. Although statistics are unavailable, it is estimated that vocational enrollment did not exceed 25% of community college 24 enrollments prior to the Second World War (Pincus, 1981). It was not until after the Second World War that the United States recognized that “the educational system is out of step with the demands of the twentieth century American economy” and called for two-year colleges to increase vocational education (Grubb, 1989). Vocational education increased in community colleges through the 1950s and 60s, as the federal government provided funds to increase occupational education through the Smith-Hughes Act (A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Jacobs & Dougherty, 2006). At this time, state legislators and two-year college leaders pushed for the “vocationalization of two-year colleges in order to provide colleges with a distinct training niche and to stimulate the growth of state economies by offering publically subsidized employee training in order to attract business firms” (Jacobs & Dougherty, 2006, p. 54). As a result, some states, including Minnesota, Indiana, South Carolina, and Louisiana, developed separate two- year technical colleges to focus on occupational preparation, a strategy that Wisconsin had established 50 years prior (Grubb & Lazerson, 2005). Although the majority of scholarship has focused on the community college, researchers have noted the emergence of public two-year technical colleges in the mid-1900s (Grubb & Lazerson, 2005; Wilkinson, 1992). According to Wilkinson (1992), the distinction is not often made between community colleges and technical colleges because it is difficult to segment them into mutually exclusive groups. First, the diffusion is difficult as technical education is provided in a variety of venues, including technical colleges, community colleges, and for-profit institutions. And second, many community colleges are erroneously identified as technical colleges because they have the word “technical” in their name (Wilkinson, 1992). At the time of their inception, technical colleges could and still can be grouped into two categories: (a) technical college campuses that are part of multi-campus community college systems and (b) technical college campuses that are state administered two-year technical colleges, either as branch campuses of four-year institutions or as separate two-year technical 25 college systems (Wilkinson, 1992). As might be expected, the technical college places less emphasis on transferring to four-year institutions and a higher emphasis on sub-baccalaureate occupational programs (Godfrey & Holmstrom, 1970). Technical colleges tend to offer a less comprehensive curriculum than community colleges, although this varies by state (Wilkinson, 1992). The technical institutions that were developed in the mid-1900s have since experienced “mission drift” and resemble more comprehensive colleges today, but their initial development was to increase labor skills (Grubb & Lazerson, 2005, p. 91). Vocational student enrollments started to grow at a faster rate than liberal arts enrollments in the 1960s. This rise is attributable to the addition of two-year technical colleges, but also other causes such as: the Vocational Education Act of 1963 and later amendments, the increase in enrollment of part-time women, minorities, and other students; the two-year colleges absorption of adult education programs; as well as the changing economy (A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003). Enrollments in vocational education steadily increased from 13% in 1965 to over 60% in 1976 (Pincus, 1981). As depicted in Figure 6, the number of vocationally-focused associate degrees surpassed those conferred in the arts and sciences in the 1970s, a trend that has continued into the twenty-first century with more than half (54%) of all associate degrees conferred in technical programs (A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003). As enrollments in two-year colleges swelled and transfer rates dwindled to approximately 20%, critics of vocational education began to question the collegiate transfer function (Townsend, 2001a). 26 Figure 6. Associate degrees conferred by institutions of higher education by type of curriculum, 1970-71 to 2003-04. Figure demonstrates the number of occupationally focused associate degrees have increased over time, surpassing the arts and science associate degrees in the early 1970s (Data from NCES Digest, 2005, as cited in A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003). The longstanding vocational controversy. Today, most two-year colleges represent what is labeled a comprehensive community college, where academic programs are offered alongside vocational programs. However, significant controversy remains as to the purpose and function of vocational education (Dougherty, 1994). Although not specific to the two-year technical college, the controversy is important to this study, as it provides a historical and national context to an enduring debate that originated in the educational philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. Plato believed in a philosophical dualism between liberal and vocational education, where liberal education was intended for the governing class, and vocational education or training was for trades people or slaves (Barker, 1952; Guthrie, 1956). Plato argued that vocational education or training should not be considered “education at all” (England, 1921, p. 644). Similarly, in Politics, Aristotle argues that rulers were to be educated in math, astronomy, and philosophy, whereas the working class was judged incapable of the intellect necessary to pursue such subjects (Barker, 1952). 0" 100,000" 200,000" 300,000" 400,000" 500,000" 600,000" 700,000" 1970,71" 1973,74" 1976,77" 1979,80" 1982,83" 1984,85" 1987,88" 1991,92" 1995,96" 1999,00" 2003,04" All"Curricula" Arts"and"Sciences"(general" programs)" OccupaConal"Curricula" 27 Greek thought thus emphasized an antithesis between culture and utility, which implied contempt for manual work and for the education of those who performed it. Such attitudes have long influenced Western ideologies of education, circumscribing vocational training for subordinate classes (Keane, 1989). For example, historically African Americans and other racialized groups have been directed into vocational education (Harper, Patton, & Wooden, 2009). With the exception of Oberlin College, African Americans were largely denied access to liberal forms of higher education prior to the Civil War. Vocational education for manual skills was typically not found in most forms of higher education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, except for in Black colleges. Philanthropists and industrialists who provided funds for Black colleges felt that being a skilled worker was the best a black person could do. Although not explicitly part of the policy, this idea was supported by the second Morrill Act, which in 1890 allowed for the segregation of African American and White public institutions and emphasized a curricular focus on vocational education for African Americans. A curriculum focused on manual skills suggests that Blacks were intellectually less capable than Whites and should be offered a lower-caliber education (DuBois, 1973). Booker T. Washington echoed this dualistic mentality in his debates with W.E.B. Dubois on a vocational versus liberal arts education. Instead of challenging the system, Washington advocated a purely vocational education for Blacks as a means to elevate the Black community through some form of education. However, unlike Washington, Dubois viewed the vocational training of Blacks as a means for the continued subordination of the Black community. Dubois, in collaboration with the Niagara Movement, stated that they would “fight for all time against any proposal to educate black boys and girls as servants and underlings” (DuBois, 1968, p. 251). Instead, Dubois (1973) advocated for a college education with high academic standards: The college curriculum or the curriculum of the industrial school depends not so much on its contents—on its actual studies, as on its aim. The aim of the higher training of the college is the development of power, the training of a self whose balanced assertion will 28 mean as much as possible for the great ends of civilization. The aim of technical training on the other hand is to enable the student to master the present methods of earning a living in some particular way… Just as far as the race can afford it we must give to our youth a training designed above all to make them men of power, of thought, of training and cultivated taste; men who know whither civilization is tending and what it means (pp. 13-14). The Washington and Dubois debates provide an example of the differences in beliefs regarding the opportunities provided by a liberal or a vocational education. The debate also points to the notion that varying levels of power are embedded within different types of educational credentials. Unlike Washington and Dubois, John Dewey argued that the enduring dualism between a liberal and vocational education was “dangerous” and urged educators to recognize the value of combining the two. For Dewey, the goal of an education is to expand one’s personal and cultural understanding in ways that invite and enrich further and fuller experience. This process is multifaceted and allows individuals to develop many callings or vocations during their lifetime. He posited that schooling that focused exclusively on training for employment to the exclusion of other vocations was narrow and restrictive. Dewey argued that there was more need for a technological education in the 20 th century than in the past, but he warned that American industrialism was creating a feudal society marked by “fossilized” economic classes (Dewey, 1916a). By focusing solely on technical education, lower classes of students were not benefiting from the cultural education provided within a liberal arts education. As a result, “social democracy” was at stake and Dewey called for the educational system to plant and nurture opportunity, to provide the “free exchange of ideas and experience, and the realization of the purposes which hold men together” (1916b, pp. 410-411). He argued that students must be encouraged to see the similarities of experience that bind them in and to a democratic society. Dewey stated “in a complex society, ability to understand and sympathize with the operations and lot of others is a condition of common purpose which only education can 29 procure” (Dewey, 1916b, p. 410). He cautioned that only providing practical training would devalue human ambition and social responsibility while putting democracy at risk. In contrast to Plato and Aristotle, Dewey warned that continuing to adhere to “philosophic dualisms” between liberal arts and vocational education was harmful to society (Dewey, 1916a, p. 358). He considered vocational education dangerous specifically because it can be interpreted as purely trade education, a notion that Dewey argues would make education an instrument of stratification (Dewey, 1916a). He urged educators not to “split the system, and give to others, less fortunately situated, an education conceived mainly as specific trade preparation,” but to instead equitably prepare all students with an education that teaches history, science, and the arts, courses not typically required in many technical programs (Dewey, 1916a, p. 372). Although Dewey advocated the importance of fusing a vocational and academic curriculum in the early developments of vocational education, this concept is only recently being realized in the two- year college sector. For over 100 years the two-year college has struggled with the goals and role vocational education should play within the college. Similar to Dewey’s fears regarding vocational education, the contemporary debate surrounding the two-year college is a question of whether an institution with multiple missions promotes social mobility or perpetuates inequality (Shaw, 2001). The two-year college is often criticized for being a “contradictory” college, failing to meet the needs of students due to conflicting missions or goals (Dougherty, 1994; Labaree, 1997). Critics of the two-year college argue that two-year colleges “stunt the educational attainment of their students, known as the diversion effect” by filtering students into vocational programs (Dougherty, 1994; Leigh & Gill, 2003, p. 23). Opponents of vocational education argue that for students whose ultimate goal is to obtain a bachelor’s degree, two-year colleges have the unintended effect of actually lowering the student’s chances of earning a four-year degree, a term referred to as cooling out (Clark, 1960; Dougherty, 1994; Dougherty & Bakia, 2000). The “cooling out” concept has since been debated, 30 but nonetheless is a highly referenced concept in the community college literature (Alexander, Bozick, & Entwisle, 2008) . In addition to the concept of “cooling out,” the growth of vocational education is assumed to “undercut the transfer function of the community college” (Jacobs & Dougherty, 2006, p. 55). This viewpoint posits that the two-year college “siphons off” minority students who would have otherwise attended a four-year institution (Astin, 1982). This issue is particularly relevant to the two-year technical college as students attending these institutions are directed into technical and occupational programs (A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003). Since the two-year college is the primary point of entry to higher education for minority students, opponents argue that vocational education channels minority students away from the baccalaureate, leading to further racial inequities in higher education (Brint & Karabael, 1989). Defenders, on the other hand, maintain that any harm resulting in students being diverted is outweighed by the opportunities the two-year college provides to society (Dougherty, 1994). Supporters of vocationalism argue that the college offers a positive effect, known as democratization, that increases access to higher education (Leigh & Gill, 2003). Advocates of vocational education argue that there are multiple benefits to the vocational mission of the two- year college, including opening access to higher education to students that would not normally attend a four-year university and providing training to individuals needed in nearby regions (Grubb, Badway, Bell, Bragg, & Russman, 1997). However, recent research conducted by Deli-Amen and DeLuca (2010) suggests that the debate need not go on any longer, as occupational two-year degrees are no longer equated to the lower status pathway. They argue that vocational programs in the two-year college have undergone reforms since the early 1990s that make them vastly more appealing than the vocational programs of the past. Deli-Amen and DeLuca (2010) found that students enter two- year applied science degree programs that are in high demand and high paying. For example, 31 programs in the health fields and information technology only enroll students that successfully complete prerequisite math and science coursework and students who earn associate degrees in these fields fare well in the labor market relative to students who earn general associate degrees (Grubb, 2002). According to Deli-Amen and DeLuca (2010), Clark’s 1960 study depicting the two-year college as “cooling out” student aspirations no longer applies to today’s vocational education, as these programs are competitive and lead to higher earning potential. However, Deli-Amen and DeLuca (2010) also note that these programs do not necessarily lead to a bachelor’s degree, which as mentioned, typically earn higher salaries (Kane & Rouse, 1999). Although hundreds of years have passed since Plato and Aristotle expressed their philosophies of education, the assumption that technical education is designated for the lower classes continues to permeate our education system. For example, today, there is a national focus on vocational education as a means to meet the economic needs of the nation and also to increase the earning power of lower-income communities. The Obama Administration and current initiatives produced by the Gates Foundation 7 , the Joyce Foundation 8 , Complete College America 9 , and the Lumina Foundation 10 promote technical education for low-income students, a term often used in public discourse to connote “colored faces” (Hall, 1996 as cited in Dumas & 7 In 2010, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launched “Completion by Design.” This five-year initiative focuses on increasing the proportion of low-income adults that complete an occupation certification (one-year or more of college) (http://www.completionbydesign.org/). 8 In 2006, the Joyce Foundation began the “Shifting Gears” initiative, aimed at linking education, workforce development, and economic development. Shifting Gears focuses on developing innovative approaches to increasing the number of low-income adults with “a two-year associate’s degree or shorter term postsecondary certificate” (http://www.shifting-gears.org/). 9 In 2010, Complete College America produced a report titled, “Certificates Count: An Analysis of Sub- Baccalaureate Certificates” advocating for higher education leaders to focus on increasing the number of long-term certificates, as such credentials are linked to higher economic returns. The report urges post-secondary education to reinvent higher education by focusing on certificate programs “to meet the needs of the new American majority” (http://www.completecollege.org/path_forward/certificates_count_release/). 10 Between 2009-2012, the Lumina Foundation is committed to their “overarching big goal – to increase the percentage of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025,” where high quality degrees and credentials are defined as degrees and certificates that further education beyond high school (http://www.luminafoundation.org/goal_2025/). 32 Anyon, 2006, p. 167). These initiatives target low income and racial minority students to pursue a technical education. Despite the persisting dualistic perception of liberal and vocational education, a new emphasis, referred to as the new vocationalism, has emerged that focuses on baccalaureate opportunities for technical students and those in technical colleges. An emphasis on the transfer of technical students has encouraged researchers to study multiple facets of the technical student transfer process, including technical student transfer intentions and challenges. This literature is explored in the next section. Literature of Technical Student Transfer While the majority of transfer literature concentrates on students in traditional transfer programs, a select number of researchers have acknowledged the transfer of technical students (Townsend, 2001a). As early as 1943, Eells found that some terminal degree students transferred to four-year institutions. Kintzer (1983) referred to the “vocational transfer student” as “one who moves to a senior institution as a career/occupational degree candidate” (pp. 1-2). More recent transfer for technical student research can be classified into two categories: (a) transfer intentions and academic success and (b) challenges to transfer. Transfer intentions and academic success. Several studies in the last 25 years have noted an increase in the intent to transfer of vocational students. In 1987, Palmer conducted a national study of students enrolled in vocational programs at two-year colleges. The study surveyed approximately 7,500 students in 95 two-year colleges. Palmer (1987) found that 26% of students enrolled in vocational programs reported transferring and earning a bachelor’s degree as their primary educational goal. Shearon, Brownless, and Johnson (1990) found similar results in their study of North Carolina’s vocational two-year college students. They found that approximately 30% of vocational students 33 wished to transfer, but were not enrolled in a transfer program. Echoing this research, Widlak (1997) found that 20% of occupational two-year graduates in 1994-1995 at a large Midwestern community college had planned to transfer when they initially enrolled. Similarly, the State University of New York conducted a study where occupational two- year graduates were asked to indicate when they decided to transfer. The study found that 40% decided they would transfer during their first semester at the two-year college, indicating evidence of early transfer aspirations of vocational students (State University of New York - Two-Year College Development Center, 1991). A similar study in North Carolina focused on two-year vocational students who transferred to a public four-year institution and found that 30% of the transfer students were from a technical program (Fredrickson, 1998). And finally, a decade after Palmer conducted his transfer study, Berkner, Horn, and Clune (Berkner, Horn, & Clune, 2000) analyzed data from the 1995-1996 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study to find that 32% of students in vocational associate degree programs intended to transfer. This research suggests that there are a substantial number of technical students that pursue transfer to a four-year institution. Studies have also been conducted on the academic success (that is, graduation rate and GPA) of technical students before and after they transfer. Researchers found that students enrolled in technical programs are less likely to finish an associate degree than students pursuing traditional transfer degrees (T. Bailey, et al., 2003; Jochems, Hammons, & Stegman, 2006). After students transfer, researchers found that traditional transfer students (63%) are more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree than technical students (54%) (Cox & Harden, 1989; Townsend, 2001b). While significant results were reported for graduation rates, researchers found that traditional transfer students do not out perform technical students in terms of GPA (Holliman, 1988; Sayles, 1987; Townsend, 2001b). This research suggests that there is a large population of technical students who are capable and academically prepared to earn a four-year degree. 34 Challenges to transfer. Among the extant literature on technical student transfer, only a few studies highlight the “success stories” or smooth transitions to four-year universities for technical students. For example, some studies found that technical students transfer in equal numbers to traditional transfer students and that earning a technical associate’s degree does not negatively effect transfer or bachelor’s degree attainment (Roksa, 2006; Townsend, 2001a). However, the majority of studies conclude that technical students who desire a bachelor’s degree are often deterred from transferring due to transfer barriers (Adelman, 2003; American Association of Community Colleges, 2004; Brint & Karabael, 1989; Dougherty, 1987; Grubb, 1989; Ruud, Bragg, & Townsend, 2010). Scholars note that the primary barrier for technical student transfer is a lack of articulation agreements, causing technical students to experience substantial credit loss after transferring (Cuseo, 2001; Lynch, 1994). For example, transfer policies tend to protect general education credits rather than technical coursework (A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003). Striplin (2000) found that nearly all universities award credit for transferred science, social science, and humanities courses, whereas trade and technical credits do not readily transfer. Although states have begun creating policies to ease the transfer of credit for technical students, liberal arts coursework still transfers at higher rates than technical coursework, leaving transfer students from technical programs with a substantial loss of credit (Findlen, 1998; Lynch, 1994). According to Cohen and Ignash (1994), without articulation agreements, students with industry specific coursework receive few credits towards a bachelor’s degree. Articulation agreements are typically designed inter-institutionally, leaving their development at the discretion of individual institutions. Despite increased involvement by state government, considerable variation remains on the acceptability and applicability of credits, specifically technical credits (Bender, 1990; Roksa, 2006). 35 Adding to this challenge are fundamental issues of coordination between two- and four- year institutions. As noted by Hughes and Karp (2006), many states bifurcate higher education into four-year university and two-year college systems, resulting in minimal communication and increased confusion between the systems. These divisions lead to two-year colleges that are unclear on university expectations and four-year universities knowing little about what technical students learn prior to transfer (Hughes & Karp, 2006). Furthermore, four-year universities may be reluctant to give credit for technical courses they judge to be less rigorous than similar ones on their campus (Daun-Barnett & Overton- Atkins, 2006), what Lynch (1994) refers to as “attitudinal barriers” (p. 2). This is particularly relevant to this study as four-year faculty perception of technical courses or colleges may impact how practitioners at the two-year level facilitate transfer opportunities on their campus. Although this topic has not been studied at length, related research suggests that the reputation of technical education and technical colleges may serve as an additional transfer barrier for technical students (Lynch, 1994). Traced to the beginnings of vocational education, some policymakers and educators still believe that technical education is a “refuge for the not-so-smart students” (Kidwai, 2011, p. 17). Impacting both high school and college-level technical programs, many policymakers, parents, and employers continue to view technical education as a “second-tier program for those students” who are not realizing success in college-bound or baccalaureate level coursework (Moikowski & Washor, 2007, p. 34). According to Mitchell and Ryan (2008), “the stigma appears to be thoroughly embedded in the consciousness of local educators as well as the mind of families interested in securing economic and civic success” (p. 31). In a study conducted by Rand at the K-12 level, Strasz and Bodilly (2004) report that educators face challenges in achieving a new vision for vocational education, with the largest barrier including a negative perception of vocational education as the alternative for students who will not succeed in more rigorous programs. Negative perceptions may impact the number 36 of credits that are accepted at four-year institutions and the articulation agreements developed (Daun-Barnett & Overton-Atkins, 2006). In addition, negative perceptions of the two-year college from four-year institutions may impact the development or implementation of transfer policies at the two-year level. In addition to the enduring negative perception of vocational education, many faculty continue to believe that technical students do not want to transfer and even if they did a negative perception exists regarding course rigor (Findlen, 1998). This perception of quality difference emanates from faculty views about courses offered at two-year institutions. Daun-Barnett and Overton-Atkins (2006) provide the following example, The majority of two-year college instructors have completed a master’s degree where nearly all faculty members at the four-year have earned a doctorate. Equally, the two- year college is not likely to have the same quality or access to laboratory space for students to apply what they learn (p. 9). While this may or may not be true, the perception exists and may make it more difficult for students to transfer. Although research has yet to be conducted on the topic, the issue may be exaggerated for technical college students, as many faculty at the technical college are only required to have a bachelor’s degree and work experience in the trade they teach (Lynch, 1994). However, it is not only four-year administrators and faculty that contribute to “attitudinal barriers,” but some two-year college staff as well. Dougherty (1994) suggests that students in two-year vocational programs are not encouraged to transfer. Technical faculty are often recruited from trades for which they train students and have relatively little interest and knowledge about transfer, which could impact how they implement transfer on their campus (Dougherty, 1994). On an institutional level, technical colleges are generally not encouraged to pursue transfer options as it is predicted to “destroy their unique character” (Findlen, 1998, p. 3). Despite negative perceptions from four-year institutions and a lack of encouragement from two- year colleges, transfer policy for technical students has been developed in many states. 37 Ignash and Kotun (2005) conducted a descriptive analysis examining transfer policies for technical students by state, where they found that while state leaders recognized occupational transfer as important, the mechanics of transfer policy are difficult to implement and often confusing. The researchers found that great variability existed in creating and implementing policy across states. When the study was published, 23 of the studied 40 states had developed statewide articulation agreements for occupational students. However, most of these policies were specific to only one field, such as nursing. Furthermore, Ignash and Kotun (2005) found that the nature of specific technical programs make it difficult to create articulation agreements. Requirements vary considerably by field and are influenced by licensing agencies and accrediting bodies, complicating curricular alignment. Finally, there are critics of transfer policies for technical students who argue that creating such policies reflect a trend of vocationalism that could degrade the value of the baccalaureate degree (Forrest, 2011). In response to such critics, Debra Bragg, who has written widely on transfer policies for technical students, has stated, “to me, the issue isn’t so much about vocationalism as elitism – it’s about who gets access to a bachelor’s degree and who does not.” She suggests that technical student transfer policies provide access for learners that many higher education institutions have “overlooked or forgotten” (Forrest, 2011). Despite these challenges to transfer, in recent years, the transfer of technical or vocational credits to four-year institutions has become easier. Yet, researchers continue to report that students enrolled in vocational programs still transfer to the four-year university at lower rates when compared to their academic peers and are less likely to finish an associate’s degree (Alfonso, Bailey, & Scott, 2005; T. Bailey, et al., 2003). The assessment of available literature suggests that although technical students desire to transfer, they encounter various challenges including a lack of articulation agreements, issues of coordination between systems of higher education, enduring negative perceptions of technical education and policy that is often difficult 38 to implement (Bragg, 2002; A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Dougherty, 1994; Dougherty & Kienzl, 2006; Hughes & Karp, 2006; Ignash & Kotun, 2005). In response to these challenges, a “new vocationalism” has emerged that has since changed the course of technical education and potential opportunities for technical students. Since the 1990s, the two-year college has strengthened its commitment in creating linkages between educational sectors by creating transfer pathways for technical students. In addition to traditional vocational programs that prepare students for immediate employment, a “new vocationalism” has emerged that emphasizes “further educational opportunities” and transfer to four-year institutions (Bragg, 2002, p. 23). Practitioners, policymakers, and researchers have historically linked career technical education at the community college to terminal programming, making a clear demarcation between vocational and transfer students (Townsend, 2001a). However, according to Townsend (2001a), there is currently a “blurring” of the lines between vocational education and the transfer function, a phenomena distinctly counter to their original purpose (p. 63). According to Bragg, the United States experienced a “shift in public policy, theory, and practice associated with vocational education,” an ideological change that attempted to address many vocational critic’s concerns (Bragg, 2001, p. 7). This shift was in response to changes that transpired over prior decades, including that vocational enrollments increased as the student population diversified, high schools struggled to meet the needs of learners, and the knowledge economy unfolded (Carnevale, 2000; A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003). However, Bragg (2001b) argues that much of the change in vocational education has gone unnoticed, as many scholars minimize the importance of the two-year college and specifically technical education. Nonetheless, educators devoted to vocational education have created new approaches to prepare students for the changing workforce, one that requires an ability to manage technology and solve complex problems; a philosophy Dewey advocated for decades ago. Running in stark 39 contrast with the original goals of vocational education, employers need students to have “a more thorough knowledge of the holistic nature of the business environment rather than just specific skills or narrow job tasks” (Lynch, 2000, p.162). The new vocationalism set out to address some of the criticisms of traditional vocational education, including the truncated pathways to baccalaureate opportunities and coursework that emphasized specific vocational skills. New vocational policy seeks to create pathways, or career ladders, for vocational students to pursue higher levels of education and integrate academic and vocational coursework (Grubb, 1997). The federal government also recognized the changing dynamic in technical education at the two- year college and for the first time the 2006 reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act 11 (CTEA) allocated funds to facilitate vocational student transfer to four-year institutions (U.S. Department of Education, 2006). Following these shifts in national, state, system, and institutional policy, the Applied Baccalaureate (AB) and the Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) have emerged as pathways for technical students to earn a bachelor’s degree. Although a thorough discussion is beyond the scope of this dissertation, both the AB and the CCB are aimed at creating opportunities for two-year technical students to use their credits towards a four-year degree (Floyd, 2006; Ruud, et al., 2010). Summary The vocational transfer student literature to date tends to focus on student intentions to transfer, outcomes of student transfer, and a multitude of transfer challenges students encounter. Although transfer policy research has been conducted on policy for traditional transfer students, transfer policy for vocational students has only recently been addressed. These studies are descriptive in nature, aiming to characterize, catalog, and identify state trends in transfer policies for technical students (Chase, 2011; Ignash & Kotun, 2005; Marczak, 1985; Ruud, et al., 2010). 11 Prior to 2006, the CTEA did not provide transition funds for vertical transfer (U.S. Department of Education, 2006). 40 In addition, most of the literature on technical student transfer or transfer policy is focused on the community college as the unit of analysis, with little research aimed at transfer policy implementation situated within the context of a two-year technical college. Among research implications arising from this literature review, perhaps the most pertinent relates to racial equity in the transfer process. The literature to date has addressed the transferability of occupational and liberal arts coursework, but there has been little discussion on transfer for technical students with respect to race and ethnicity, aside from minority overrepresentation in technical programs. Finally, in terms of policy, the extant research in higher education policy tends to be rational in nature, failing to account for culture or power in the policy process, until recently. Most policy studies conducted in higher education focus in areas of governance and finance and aim at understanding policy development, not implementation. Taken together, transfer policy implementation has not been explored while considering practitioner sensemaking within the context of a two-year technical college. With these limitations in mind, I turn to recent policy implementation and critical policy analysis literature to inform my study. Theoretical Frameworks to Study Policy Implementation Policy implementation can be understood as “what happens between policy expectations and policy results” (deLeon & deLeon, 2002). The traditional views of policy implementation positioned policy to be “more or less, self implementing,” given the proper resources and regulation were in place (McLaughlin, 2006, p. 209). Researchers working from a traditional perspective focused on the “technical properties” of policy or the extent to which a policy is delivered to the intended population in the manner planned by policy designers (O'Donnell, 2008; Prunty, 1985). However, researchers found that policies are often implemented in manners that diverge from policymakers’ intent (Tyrack & Cuban, 1995). These traditional approaches attributed implementation failures to conflicts between implementers’ and policymakers’ interests and also to implementers’ general lack of will and capacity to carry out 41 policy guidelines (D.K. Cohen & Spillane, 1992; Cuban, 1988; Honig, 2006; Mazmanian & Sabatier, 1981; Mclaughlin, 1987, 1990; Pressman & Wildavsky, 1984). However, in recent years implementation studies, specifically at the K-12 level, have attempted to include cultural theories and critical perspectives to understand the implementation process (Coburn, 2001; Marshall, 1997b; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002; S. J. Stein, 2004). For this study, I utilized literature pertaining to sensemaking and critical policy analysis to examine how practitioners interpret and implement the transfer policy. Sensemaking offers a micro-level framework to understand how people make meaning of a given phenomenon (Weick, 1995). Sensemaking in implementation research focuses on how practitioners make meaning of policy and how this meaning making process impacts how the policy is implemented. Sensemaking theorists argue that meaning making is socially constructed and embedded in organizational values, traditions, and histories (Weick, 1995). A critical policy perspective to implementation holds that policies are implemented through a conglomeration of institutions and educators that can alter, ignore, translate, “opportunistically adopt” or “remake policy” (Marshall, 1997b, p. 7). Critical policy analysis provides a perspective to assess how power, policy perception, implementation or non-implementation practices may lead to the continued marginalization of vulnerable populations (Marshall, 1997b). The combination of sensemaking theory and critical policy analysis provides the appropriate framework for studying how practitioners make sense of the transfer policy within the given social context, while taking into account how their implementing or non-implementing actions impact transfer, specifically for students of color. In this section, I elaborate on the key concepts and assumptions of each framework. I also delineate the relevant literature to date and note how the combination of perspectives aids in understanding how transfer policy is interpreted and implemented. It is important to note that most of the sensemaking research discussed in this section focuses on how 42 practitioners interpret and implement new policy or programs, whereas this study focuses on the interpretation and implementation of a transfer policy that has existed for decades. The Process of Social Construction and Sensemaking Theory Theories of sensemaking are derived from microsociological traditions, which emphasize the role of social interactions in the interpretation of events and the creation of social environments (Weick, 1995). Sensemaking theorists strive to understand how cognitive understandings (“the way things are”), norms (“the way things should be”), and routines (“the way things are done”) are socially constructed over time through interpersonal interaction (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). A cornerstone of sensemaking theory is in explaining how organizational structures, norms, and routines are a result of individual and collective action. According to Porac, Thomas, and Baden-Fuller (1989), action is based on how individuals select information from the environment, make meaning of that information, and act on their interpretations. This individual and collective process is argued to create campus culture, structure, norms, and routines over time (Porac, et al., 1989). Thus, interpreting policy messages is not a transparent process, but is inherently ambiguous, as individuals and groups actively construct meanings and interpretations over time. Weick (1995) argues that interpretation is a large part of sensemaking. This notion is not new to the tradition of sociology, where scholars such as Blumer (1969) posit, “human beings act towards things on the basis of the meaning that things have for them” (p. 2). Sensemaking theorists also argue that meaning construction and interpretation is not a “solo affair, but is rooted in context, then interpreted, and acted on” (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Weick, 1995). Although not an intentional process, meanings are constructed by placing “stimuli into frameworks,” also referred to as funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005; Levinthal:, 2000; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992), background knowledge (Polkinghorne, 2004), cognitive frameworks (Bensimon, 2005) or worldviews (Vaughan, 1996). 43 Cognitive frameworks or worldviews have been used by social scientists to “describe historically developed and accumulated strategies or bodies of knowledge that practitioners draw on, mostly unconsciously, in their everyday actions as they decide what to pay attention to, what decisions to make, or how to respond to particular situations (Bensimon & Malcom, 2012). Vaughan (1996) argues that our responses to stimuli in the environment are very much dependent on our “worldview,” defined in the following manner: Each person—the butcher, the parent, the child—occupies a different position in the world, which leads to a unique set of experiences, assumptions, and expectations about the situations and objects she or he encounters. From integrated sets of assumptions, expectations, and experience, individuals construct a worldview, or frame of reference, that shapes their interpretations of objects and experiences. Everything is perceived, chosen, or rejected on the basis of this framework (pp. 62-63). As the literature suggests, administrators, faculty, and staff construct understandings of transfer through the lens of their pre-existing cognitive frames. Sensemaking and policy implementation research. Policy actors must integrate existing institutional policies and practices with new initiatives. How to effectively implement a policy begins with the implementer assigning meaning to the policy. According to Coburn (2001) and Spillane (2000), sensemaking—or the process by which practitioners are influenced by factors in the policy environment as they construct the meaning of policies—have a significant impact on how policies are implemented. Central to this research is the notion that policy interpretations influence what practitioners do and do not do in implementing the policy (Yanow, 1996). In this light, implementation involves interpretation because implementers must decipher what a policy means, how it applies to their work, and then decide how or if they will respond to it (Spillane, 2000). In the policy implementation literature sensemaking is most often examined on an individual basis. This body of research focuses on how practitioners, specifically within a K-12 setting, respond to new policy developed from formal policy systems. Literature focused on 44 social psychological aspects of sensemaking provides evidence that practitioners draw upon prior knowledge, beliefs, and experiences to interpret and implement policy ideas (Coburn, 2001, 2004; D K. Cohen & Ball, 1990; Spillane, 1998a; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane & Zeuli, 1999). These scholars point to the difficulty of changing existing worldviews because of the tendency of practitioners to focus on superficial aspects of policies and to overlook the differences between the core principles of the policy and their own theories and knowledge (Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002). For example, when individuals are introduced to policy, they tend to gravitate to familiar practices and ways of thinking, and often unintentionally adapt policy ideas to fit within their existing worldview (Coburn, 2005; D K. Cohen & Ball, 1990; Spillane, 1999). Thus, even extensive knowledge of a policy can result in divergent interpretations and implementation. As mentioned, sensemaking is also a social. Sensemaking is “collective in the sense that it is rooted in social interaction and negotiation” (Coburn, 2001, p. 147). Individuals make sense of their environment by interacting and conversing with their peers, constructing what Coburn (2001) refers to as “shared understandings” (p. 147), institutional culture, routines, and beliefs over time (Hill, 2001; Spillane, 1999; Weick, 1995). Shared understandings about how to respond to policy messages are socially constructed and reconstructed as new information becomes part of their conversations (Coburn & Talbert, 2006). This explains how groups of individuals within the same institution can develop different interpretations or perceptions of policies based on practitioner roles or locations in the institution (Coburn, 2001; Spillane, Reiser, & Gomez, 2006). For example, practitioners within the same college might develop a shared understanding about a policy message that differs significantly by department or discipline. In this situation, inconsistent policy implementation is likely to occur. In this research, professional communities have emerged as important sites for policy meaning making (Coburn, 2001). Through interactions with colleagues, teachers collectively 45 negotiate meaning about policy, which influences their collective beliefs about their practice (Louis & Marks, 1997). Through this process, professional communities create representations of policies based on their shared knowledge, prior experiences, and cultural norms. However, it is important to note that different professional communities can result in different interpretations of policy based on professional or disciplinary distinctions (Spillane, et al., 2006). How a person makes sense of a particular topic or context is also situated in “thought communities” or institutional context (Resnick, 1991; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002). The environment in which an individual is embedded includes norms, routines, values, and traditions, which provide a lens through which individuals make sense of their environment (Coburn, 2001; Weick, 1995). From an institutional perspective an individual’s thinking and action is situated in “institutional sectors,” or a population of similar organizations, that provide rules and norms that constrain and enable action (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Scott, 2008). Within the institutional context, the policy environment is also affected by the interpretations and actions of administrators and campus leaders (Coburn, 2005; Datnow, 2006; Kezar & Eckel, 2002; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002). Administrators influence sensemaking in two ways. First, administrators and campus leaders influence sensemaking as they decide what policy messages come into the institutional environment and which ones are ignored (Coburn, 2001, 2005). Second, administrators influence sensemaking with their own interpretations of the policy. According to Eddy (2003), how an administrator interprets policy affects how they disseminate information to their campus as well as how they frame the issue to their campus community. In addition to institutional context, an institution’s historical context influences how individuals make sense of a particular topic or policy (Lin, 2000). Researchers suggests that once practitioners interpret policy and then act on those interpretations, they create new ways of thinking and practices that become institutionalized over time and resistant to change (Vaughan, 46 1996). As a result, aspects of policies become embedded in the routines and culture of the institution and carried by actors as part of their cognitive lenses. This means that an actor’s interpretations of a policy in the past influence how they and their colleagues will act on that policy in the future. Vaughan (1996) best captures the social construction of policy interpretation and action in a study that focuses on the construction of the notion of “acceptable risk” in space shuttle research and development. She found that “small precedents established early have disproportionately larger consequences later as culture, once created, shapes subsequent choices” (p. 195). This line of research demonstrates that as practitioners interpret policy it becomes institutionalized and embedded in the institutional culture, making it increasingly difficult to alter over time. More recently, a study was conducted that analyzed the sensemaking of parents and how they make decisions in regards to new bilingual policies for their children (Dorner, 2012). Results from this three-year ethnographic study found that history (their school’s traditional language practices, changing neighborhood demographics) and family composition and developmental needs interacted with parents’ understanding of the policy. Here the author emphasizes that the understanding of policy is heavily influenced by history and other contexts. The author recommends that future policy implementation research “go beyond the examination of outcomes, which hides how the process is uneven and significantly affected by context” (Dorner, 2012, p. 464). Finally, in addition to the historical context of the institution, Datnow (2006) has expanded on the notions of collective sensemaking by suggesting that policies are not interpreted only within professional communities and institutional contexts, but also by individuals and groups throughout the educational system. In the K-12 context, Datnow (2006) found that districts and states are not merely contextual backdrops to practitioner sensemaking and policy 47 implementation, but rather are actors themselves as they interact with professional communities and institutions to “co-construct” policy through the same types of sensemaking processes that practitioners undertake. Rather than simply “top down,” the relationship between institutional levels was found to be multidirectional, with actions and policy interpretations from one level influencing those at another at different points in time. This systemic view of implementation suggests that understanding how policies are understood and acted on requires investigating how individuals and groups at multiple levels in the system make sense of them. The extant literature on sensemaking in policy implementation provides insight into the factors that influence policy interpretation and implementation. For example, sensemaking provides a useful framework for understanding the influence of organizational cultures and group dynamics on policy interpretation and adaptation (Weick, Sutchliffe, & Obstfel, 2005). Table 2 summarizes the factors that have been found by recent policy implementation research to influence interpretation. However, sensemaking theory is not without criticism. Notably, Spillane et al. (2006) cautioned educational researchers against focusing solely on the implementing actor and their context, but rather to focus on a “distributed perspective” in which policy implementation is reframed as a system of practice, where sensemaking occurs among administrators, faculty, and staff over time. 48 Table 2 Previous Findings Regarding Factors that Influence Policy Interpretation Factors that Influence Policy Interpretation Studies Prior knowledge, beliefs, and experiences Coburn, 2001, 2004, 2005; D K. Cohen & Ball, 1990; Spillane, 1990; Spillane, 1998a; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002; Spillane & Zeuli, 1999 Institutional culture Coburn, 2001; Coburn & Talbert, 2006; DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Hill, 2001; Spillane, 1999; Weick, 1995 Professional communities Coburn, 2001; Louis & Marks, 1997; Spillane, et al., 2006 Institutional leadership Coburn, 2005; Datnow, 2006; Kezar & Eckel, 2002; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002 Institutional history Lin, 2000; Dorner, 2012; Vaughan, 1996 Note. The factors included in Table 2 are from studies that focus specifically on interpretation in the context of policy. More recently, scholars argue that sensemaking by itself fails to consider how power and the macro-level context in which individuals operate influences sensemaking (Helms Mills, Thurlow, & Mills, 2010). Helms Mills et al., (2010) argue that sensemaking occurs in a broader context of organizational power and social experience. Weick’s sensemaking model only went so far in “addressing how processes are interpreted and enacted and there was an assumption that sensemaking was a democratic process, whereby all voices were more or less equally important” (Helms Mills, et al., 2010, p. 187). Greater attention needs to be given to how powerful groups or individuals influence sensemaking. For example, individuals with more power in organizations influence the meaning making of others. Thus, these authors advocate for “critical sensemaking,” which considers combining the ideas of sensemaking and power to explore power 49 structures and relationships “in a way that sensemaking alone would not do” (Thurlow & Helms Mills, 2009, p. 463). When considering power in interpretation, Thurlow and Helms Mills (2009) argue that two factors need to be considered: a) formative contexts and b) organizational rules. For these authors, sensemaking can not be separated from external forces and a context of power. Here, formative contexts provide a connection between dominant social values and action. Formative contexts are structures that “limit what can be imagined and done within that society” (Thurlow & Helms Mills, 2009, p. 463). Considering formative contexts allows for a discussion of how the macro-level context in which the individuals operates influences interpretation. In addition, organizational rules are also important to consider. According to Mills and Murgatroyd (1991), the basic characteristic of a rule is to control, constrain, and define social action. When employees enact organizational rules they maintain organizational culture. Organizational rules can be formal (i.e., policies) or informal (the manner in which things get done) within an organization. From this view, rules provide “a pre-existing sensemaking tool” that aids in interpretation (Thurlow & Helms Mills, 2009, p. 464). Important to this study is the idea that in as much as rules inform our understanding of how organizations retain unity and cohesiveness, they also constrain the ways in which individuals interpret policy and act. Also, Helms Mills and Thurlow (2010) conceptualization of critical sensemaking is useful when considering policy implementation because it connects the actions of individuals to broader societal issues of power and privilege. To date, studies that have included an analysis of power and formative contexts in sensemaking have been focused on studies of organizational change, crisis management, and business school rankings (Helms Mills & Weatherbee, 2006; Helms Mills, Weatherbee, & Colwell, 2006; O'Connell & Mills, 2003; Thurlow, 2007). The influence of power on sensemaking has yet to be examined in the context of policy interpretation and implementation. 50 The results of this study add to the literature on sensemaking by taking into account the context of the policy (i.e., the history of higher education systems in the state, transfer at the state level, local politics, and campus implementation) as well as issues of power. Although the inclusion of sensemaking has lent significant complexity to policy implementation literature, I suggest that the influences of constraints and power are not adequately addressed in the sensemaking policy implementation literature. The results of this study illustrate the role that power and politics play in policy implementation. To fully grapple with these influences, I turn to critical policy analysis to further frame this study. Critical Policy Analysis and Policy Implementation Traditional methods of policy analysis, referred to as rational scientific approaches, treat policy creation and implementation as a logical step-by-step process in which facts are analyzed in order to arrive at the best policy solution (Bacchi, 1999). Proponents of this approach claim that policy creation and analysis are value-neutral processes (Allan, Iverson, & Roper-Huilman, 2010; Martinez-Aleman, 2010). Until the mid-1980s, the most influential approach for understanding the policy process was the “stages heuristic” or “textbook approach” (Anderson, 1975; Nakamura, 1987). This approach divided the policy process into a series of stages— typically “agenda setting, policy formulation and legitimation, implementation, and evaluation” (Sabatier, 2007, p. 6) . Researchers working from a this perspective focused on the “technical properties” of policy or the extent to which a policy is delivered to the intended population in the manner planned by policy designers (O'Donnell, 2008; Prunty, 1985). This approach allowed for the examination of distinct decision-making moments (Mulholland & Shakespeare, 2005), however, often neglected the policy’s social, cultural, and historical context (Sabatier & Jenkins- Smith, 1988). More specifically, traditional policy approaches tended to view the actor from the political economy perspective, which assumed the actor’s behavior was guided by weighing 51 costs and benefits and using information in a rational way to maximize material self interest (Ostrom, 1999). Such an actor used information as a tool to ensure beneficial economic outcomes for the self. Rarely had weight been given to the actor’s values, beliefs, resources, information, information processing capabilities, or their external environment (Ostrom, 1999). In the last thirty years, a number of new theoretical frameworks of the policy process have either been developed or modified to address the criticisms of the textbook approach to policy research (Baumgartner & Jones, 1993; Kingdon, 1984; Ostrom, 1999; Sabatier & Jenkins- Smith, 1988). These frameworks have since moved away from the more functionalist views, adding more complexity to how actors create and implement policy. For example, in the mid- 1980s Kingdon (1984) created the multiple steams theory, where he argued policy streams come together during windows of opportunity, where policy is viewed as being unpredictable and complicated to manage. The punctuated equilibrium theory attempted to explain how policy domains are characterized by long periods of stability and incremental change but still experience short periods of great change. Finally, the advocacy coalition framework focuses on the interaction of advocacy coalitions—each consisting of actors from a variety of institutions who share a set of policy beliefs—within a policy subsystem (Sabatier & Jenkins-Smith, 1988). These, along with other contemporary policy frameworks, still rely on several rationalist undertones, fail to capture the full complexity of policy environments and do not account for all the components that influence policy creation and implementation over time. More specifically, these frameworks have been critiqued for failing to account for how policy itself and the act of implementing it may marginalize racialized populations (Marshall, 1997b; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002; S. J. Stein, 2004). The more traditional approaches assume that race and ethnicity are not relevant in policy implementation, and thus camouflage the differential impact of policy on 52 minoritized and white students (Iverson, 2007; Parker, 2003; Rivas, Pérez, Alvarez, & Solorzano, 2007; Young, 1999). Alternative models, such as critical policy analysis (CPA), “have been advanced to acknowledge policy as a political and value-laden process” (Allan, et al., 2010, p. 22). The critical approach to educational policy emerged in the 1980s as a critique of social reproduction and discourse and defines policy as the practice of power (Levinson, Sutton, & Winstead, 2012). Critical researchers tend to view the process of knowledge generation as subjective, where truth is believed to be socially constructed, usually in a manner that supports certain races, classes, and gender (Crotty, 2003; Dumas & Anyon, 2006). This policy approach has been used to study multiple educational issues, such as social reproduction (Bowles & Gintis, 1976), welfare reform on education (Shaw, 2004), educational reform (Ball, 1994; Scheurich & Imber, 1991), university diversity policy (Iverson, 2007), school finance (Aleman, 2007), boys education policy (Weaver-Hightower, 2008), community college mission statements (Ayers, 2005), cultural assumptions within the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (S. J. Stein, 2004) as well as tracking (Oakes, 1985). Critical policy analysts tend to be concerned with five primary issues. First, attention should be given to the difference between policy rhetoric and practiced reality. The second concern focuses on the potentially unequal distribution of power, resources, and knowledge. Third, critical researchers focus on how policies or programs reproduce social stratification. Fourth, they concentrate on the internalization of the dominant culture, and, fifth, critical researchers are concerned with the “lived experiences” of those affected (Marshall, 1997b; Young, 1999). Critical approaches entail a critique of inequities in the existing political and social order, where researchers focus on structural, cultural, and ideological features to understand why certain populations are favored in the distribution of resources and power (Heck, 53 2004). The goal is to understand the implicit political, social, and educational ramifications of policy and practices on students at the margins of the educational system (Angus, 1996; Heck, 2004). Central to this approach is the notion that “policy is the legitimation of values” (Prunty, 1985, p. 136). In defining critical policy analysis, Prunty (1985) argued that policy is not value- free, but value-laden. In this view, policies serve the interests of specific people, typically those in power (Allan, et al., 2010; Ball, 1990; Bowe, Ball, & Gold, 1992). Stephen Ball, a critical researcher, views policy as both text and discourse (1994). A policy is text in that it is a physical document that can be read, but policy is also discourse, where policies “exercise power through a production of truth and knowledge” (Ball, 1994, p. 21). More specifically, policy conveys what is truth and who is the authority. Bacchi (1999) defined discourse as “larger than language, more than words” (p. 40). Discourse “refers to both spoken and written language use, and the study of it includes the examination of both talk and text and its relationship to the social context in which it is constructed” (Allan, 2003, p. 47). Critical discourse analysis stems from the premise that policy creating, implementing, and analysis are discursive practices that produce culture (Allan, et al., 2010; Martinez-Aleman, 2010). It examines how “well-intentioned attempts to advance equity policy may unwittingly perpetuate discourses and practices that reinforce inequity” (Allan, et al., 2010, p. 30). Critical policy researchers suggest that discourse is powerful and seek to analyze policy and implementation to uncover how discourse and practice can lead to the marginalization of vulnerable populations. Inherent to this approach is the notion of power, where understanding power relations are important to fully understanding policy implementation. Pusser and Marginson (2012) argue that, to date, scholars have generally failed to understand postsecondary higher education due to a lack of attention to theories that address power. Critical analysts work to “illuminate the ways 54 in which power operates through policy by drawing attention to hidden assumptions or policy silences and unintended consequences of policy practices” (Allan, et al., 2010, p. 24). A primary goal of critical policy researchers is to understand how power takes form through discourse and other means. Applying a critical frame requires policy analysts to assess policy implementation by asking questions such as “Who benefits?”, “Who loses?”, “How do low-income and racial minorities fare as a result of the policy’s implementation?”, and “How is power manifested through policy and its implementation or non-implementation?” (Bacchi, 1999; Marshall, 1997a). Catherine Marshall, who has written extensively on the critical approach, states that critical analyses of implementation look for “policy slippage and symbolic policy compliance,” while recognizing that policies “create arenas of struggle—sometimes just over resources and turf, but more often ideology, over what is and is not valuable” (Marshall, 1997a, p. 7). From a critical perspective, the problem arises when marginalized populations are not considered nor the repercussions of policy adequately addressed. The work of Marshall (1997) and others demonstrates how using CPA is especially important in a highly stratified society like the United States because otherwise the impact of status differentials such as race, class, and gender remain hidden. For scholars concerned with exposing and ameliorating the ways in which educational policy and practice subordinate racial and ethnic minority groups, CPA provides a lens to formulate research questions, interpret data, and propose changes to policies, practices, and institutions (Heck, 2004). A critical analysis is useful because it provides a lens that helps us see the ways in which everyday policies and practices, such as those having to do with transfer, perpetuate racial and gender inequity (Harper, et al., 2009). For example, Iverson (2007) conducted a study that examined how university diversity policies shape the reality of students of color on campus. She found that the dominant 55 discourses in diversity plans construct students of color as outsiders, concluding that such policies serve to reproduce the subordination of students of color. In addition, Shaw (2004) analyzed welfare reform legislation from a critical policy perspective, where she found that welfare policy perpetuates social stratification by creating onerous barriers to education for women on welfare. Another discussion on the same topic finds that social policies, such as Welfare Reform and the 1998 Workforce Investment Act, not only create barriers for individuals to pursue an education, but make it difficult for two-year colleges to serve economically disadvantaged students (Goldrick-Rab & Shaw, 2005; Shaw & Goldrick-Rab, 2006). These examples highlight how utilizing a critical approach can aid researchers in understanding how well intentioned policy can potentially harm marginalized populations. A critical approach to policy analysis emphasizes the need to counter institutionalized racial discrimination by reforming the policies, structures, practices, and allocation of resources that result in or reinforce racial inequity (Chesler & Crowfoot, 1989). As Chesler and Crowfoot (1989) argue “our history of racial injustice is maintained through contemporary policies and practices, and is reflected in the dramatic differentials…in opportunity and other outcomes that still exist between people of color and white persons” (p. 436). From this view, transfer policies, practices, and their implementation can be discriminatory and function as a form of institutionalized racism, where institutionalized racism is defined as racism that occurs in structures and operations at the organizational level (Jones, 2000). This notion emphasizes how large scale institutional structures and policies “operate to pass on and reinforce historic patterns of privilege and disadvantage,” such as deciding which groups gain access to the baccalaureate and which do not (Chesler & Crowfoot, 1989, p. 441). However, it is important to note that institutionalized racism in the form of policy is most often unintentional. Referred to as indirect 56 institutionalized discrimination, this form of racism occurs with no prejudice or intent to harm, despite its negative and differential impacts on minoritized populations (Chesler & Crowfoot, 1989). As suggested by Chesler and Crowfoot (1989), organizational procedures can have discriminatory impact even if individual actors are unaware of such impacts or are non-discriminatory in their personal beliefs, and even if their behavior appears to be a fair-minded application of ‘race-neutral’ or ‘color-blind’ rules (p.442). Racism in policy can also include acts of omission, such as failing to recruit minority students or hiring policies that exclude scholars of color. As an example, transfer policies can be enacted without conscious discriminatory intent, yet can produce results with inequitable, negative effects on students of color. While most critical studies of policy analyze policy texts for hidden assumptions or the policy formation process, this study aims to understand policy implementation with a critical lens. I draw upon critical policy analysis to provide a framework for this study as it considers power and organizational constraints in the policy implementation process. It allowed me to evaluate the implementing actions or non-actions of policy actors from a critical perspective. For example, is the policy visible on campus? Does the institution teach students what transfer is and then guide them through the process? Does the institution encourage relationship development between students and practitioners to facilitate the transfer process? From this perspective the transfer policy can be argued to be an instrument of equity, a possible tool in reducing educational disparities in the state. However, the manner in which policy actors interpret and implement the policy will impact whether the transfer policy can create equity for technical students. The critical lens will help uncover whether the implementation of the transfer policy “empowers and democratizes, and whether it dispenses goods to the ‘have-nots’” (Marshall, 1999, p. 69). 57 Summary Sensemaking theory and critical policy analysis are complementary frameworks that can illuminate how practitioners interpret and implement a transfer policy. These frameworks draw on similar premises: that knowledge is constructed; learning occurs in multiple contexts; and how practitioners interpret policy and programs are important in the implementation process. Sensemaking theory focuses on how individuals and groups of individuals within organizations interpret and act based on their experiences and embedded contexts. A critical approach takes into account power in the policy interpretation and implementation process. Table 3 presents the frameworks to be used in this study. In the first half of this chapter, I presented a literature review of vocational education, highlighting the research conducted to date on technical student transfer. I found that there is a dearth of research in higher education on policy implementation, but more specifically on how transfer policy is implemented. To begin to fill this research gap and to develop a greater understanding of transfer from technical colleges, I turned to sensemaking theory and critical policy analysis to frame my study. Taken together, sensemaking theory and critical policy analysis provide a guideline for data collection and analysis. In the next chapter, I provide a rationale for the methodology and review the data collection and analysis procedures. 58 Table 3 Summary of Frameworks Framework/Theory Level of Analysis Assumptions Limitations Sensemaking Theory Individual and group level of the meaning making process. • Investigates how perceptions, interpretations, and actions are interrelated. • Takes into account the process that occurs when individuals and groups encounter a policy. • Allows for an analysis of values, meanings, behavior, and historical contexts. • Acknowledges that policy actors create shared meanings situated in multiple contexts that affect the implementation process. • Highlights that actors of policy reside at multiple levels, not simply in positions of authority. • Attends to the cognitive and social processes of meaning making. • Limited studies exist on policy implementation in higher education through a lens of sensemaking. • The theory downplays organizational constraints, power, and politics in the policy sensemaking process. Critical Policy Analysis Individual policy and/or individual and group level of policy implementation. • Assumes that features in the policy or policy implementation process structure, disguise, suppress, and silence marginalized groups. • Views relationships among power, culture, and language to underlie policies, which marginalize people primarily based on race, gender, and class. • Places importance on the difference between rhetoric and practiced reality. • Emphasizes how policies and their implementation process can reproduce social stratification. • Once an understanding behind the existing social arrangement is found, changing modes of practice are difficult to achieve. • Critical policy analysis as a conceptual framework or analytical method does not have the same acceptance by the academic community as more traditional approaches. The approach itself is marginalized, which may diminish the influence of the research. • Critical policy analysis is typically used in analyzing policy formation, not implementation. 59 CHAPTER III: Research Design and Methodology Qualitative Approach to Research To understand how transfer policy is implemented within a two-year technical college, I took a critical-social constructionist approach as the foundation to my research methodology. This approach suggests that individuals interpret the world in a variety of ways based on their prior experiences and culture. Traditionally, research on policy has been dependent on quantitative analysis, but critics argue that an “overreliance on one particular research approach can lead to blind spots in the field” (Heck, 2004, p. 181). In addition, while investigating the implementation of transfer policy can be done from a quantitative perspective, “quantitative studies emphasize the measurement and analysis of causal relationships between variables, not processes” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000, p. 8). Alternatively, qualitative research focuses on developing an understanding of processes, which is crucial to implementation research. To reiterate, my research questions seek to understand how administrators, faculty, and staff interpret and implement the transfer policy. I chose a qualitative methodology as my primary method because qualitative analyses of policy implementation tend to capture the “day- to-day realities” of a policy and offer a “ground level” view of implementation (Rist, 1994). Using qualitative research to investigate implementation aids in understanding the process by which a policy is implemented. Qualitative policy implementation studies can examine how policy is operationalized and delivered (Rist, 1994). Qualitative research is particularly important to implementation studies, as it considers the interpretation of multiple realities and seeks to explain patterns and relationships between policy actors and their environments (Rist, 1994). The emphasis that qualitative research places on holistic interpretation allows for a rich and nuanced investigation of how administrators, faculty, and staff within a technical college make sense of and implement transfer policy. 60 In addition, qualitative inquiry was selected for this study because of its focus on the social construction of reality by participants (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998). The setting that surrounds actors is the direct source of data. According to Heck (2004), policy is very much impacted by social construction or “sensemaking”; how actors make sense of or construct their social world. Therefore policy actions both shape and are shaped by the assumptions, values, beliefs, and goals of those who develop, implement, and are affected by them. This focus on sensemaking puts the concept of culture at the center of qualitative inquiry, in that culture concerns the process through which actors develop, transform, and reproduce aspects of the past through the everyday (Heck, 2004). Qualitative inquiry offers several methodologies that facilitate the collection of in-depth data sources (Creswell, 2007). In this study, the implementation of transfer policy within a two- year technical college is investigated by adopting a case study design that relies on in-depth interviews with a broad cross-section of technical college practitioners, higher education system level administrators, community members, and other relevant stakeholders, document review of relevant materials, and observations of key transfer focused meetings, services, and other pertinent events. The Case Study Tradition Case study research involves the study of a particular issue, policy, or problem explored through one or more cases within a “bounded system” (Creswell, 2007, p. 28). According to Stake (1995), a bounded system is a case that has a finite quality in terms of time or space. In addition to certain boundaries, another important factor is the context of the case, such as case history, physical space, politics, structure, and culture (Yin, 2009). In this study, I employ a case study design to understand how transfer policy at one urban technical college is interpreted and implemented. A case study is appropriate, as the goal of this study is to understand and describe the context, features, and process of policy implementation (Yin, 2009). 61 A case study lends itself particularly well to the study of transfer policy implementation for two primary reasons. First, this study has clearly identifiable boundaries and can be “fenced- in” (Merriam, 1998, p. 27). The two-year technical colleges in Wisconsin are unique for several reasons but most notably size (enrolling nearly 27:1 students, when compared to other public two-year colleges in the state) and original purpose (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). While most two-year colleges originated with an academic purpose in the early 1900s, the two-year technical colleges in Wisconsin originated with a technical focus (see Chapter IV, Part I for more details). Unless authorized by the UWS, the technical colleges are restricted by law from offering a transfer curriculum. This dynamic between the technical colleges and the UWS along with sheer size make the technical colleges unique cases to study in regards to transfer. The case is also bounded because the number of people that can be interviewed is finite, a requirement noted by Merriam (1998). The case is bounded by location (Wisconsin), unit of study (a two-year technical college), and context (legislative environment that limits transfer offerings at all technical colleges). Second, case studies focus on a single phenomenon, such as a policy, program, or institution and study that phenomenon in-depth (Stake, 1995). To understand the unique situation required an extensive description of transfer implementation. Merriam (1998) referred to this type of case study as “descriptive,” which can (a) illuminate the complexities of a situation—the fact that not one but many elements have contributed to it, (b) show the influence of actors on the issue, and (c) reveal how differences in opinion on an issue influence the result. Beyond the benefits to studying policy in a technical college, a case study design also has several strengths with respect to policy and program implementation research, including that they (a) are “anchored in real life situations,” offering a rich and holistic account of the policy process; (b) capture multiple contexts, which is important to a critical-social constructionist approach to policy analysis; (c) reveal the dynamic attributes of humans as they interact within 62 the policy environment; and (d) are better able to assess policy-derived social change than more positivist designs (Merriam, 1998, pp. 41-42). However, case study design is not without criticism, and critiques of case study methodology suggest a lack of rigor and procedure, along with offering little basis for generalizability (Yin, 2009). Stake (1995) argues that if the case study is designed thoughtfully, with carefully defined boundaries, strong research questions, rich data collection, and triangulation across a plethora of data sources, rigorous research will ensue. In response to the second critique, Stake (1995) acknowledges that case study research is unlikely to produce “grand generalizations,” but rather offers researchers an opportunity to study one or more cases in-depth and at great length. When conducting this case study, reoccurring issues, problems, or events surfaced, that helped me create what Stake (1995) refers to as “petite generalizations” as to how policy is interpreted (Stake, 1995, p. 7). Identifying petite generalizations within the context of this case provided insight into how transfer is perceived, interpreted, and implemented. In addition, the value of case study research is not in its generalization but in its “study of particularization” (Stake, 1995, p. 8). Investigating the particulars of transfer policy implementation in an urban technical college aided in understanding whether the transfer policy is merely a “symbolic” act within the system versus a viable transfer pathway for technical students generally and racial and ethnic minorities specifically. Sampling and Gaining Access Purposive sampling. Purposive sampling was used to identify the college under study and participants. According to Merriam (1998), purposive sampling “is based on the assumption that the investigator wants to discover, understand, and gain insight and therefore must select a sample from which the most can be learned” (p. 61). In other words, the site was selected intentionally to answer the research questions and to understand the role of a specific environment. I selected the case based on three characteristics. The college selected for this study: 63 (a) is a two-year technical college (b) has implemented the transfer policy (c) and has a high concentration of racial and ethnic minority students Site selection. There are 16 public two-year technical colleges in Wisconsin, five of which have been granted the authority by the UWS to offer a transfer curriculum. For the purposes of this study, I focused on Urban Technical College (UTC). I narrowed down the list of five technical colleges to one after reviewing institutional and higher education system websites in Wisconsin, institutional data provided by the WTCS and UWS, and by examining relevant U.S. Census Bureau data. UTC was selected for the study for several reasons. First, UTC is located in an area with high population density (Zip Atlas, n.d.). Second, UTC has the highest concentration of minority students enrolled, enrolling approximately 70% of all students of color in the technical college system (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). In addition, UTC has a higher concentration of underrepresented minority students than any other institution of higher education in the state (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). This statistic underscores the idea that earning a bachelor’s degree for students of color in the state is contingent upon transferring. Figure 7 shows that when compared to the entire UWS, UTC enrolls more students of color. 64 Figure 7. Number of Black, Hispanic, and Native American student enrollment at UTC and UWS, 2010. Figure illustrates that UTC has more students of color enrolled than all of the UWS added together (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). Note. The data includes students pursuing an associate’s/bachelor’s degree, diploma, or basic skills. Students enrolled in vocational adult or community service coursework were excluded. Third, UTC residents stand to gain by earning a bachelor’s degree. UTC is located in the city of Lanchester, which is in one of the poorest regions in the country (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009b). Finally, UTC was selected for this study based on the city of Lanchester’s longstanding history of segregation and racism. Racism in Lanchester is a phenomenon with complex historical roots, including discriminatory housing policies, redlining, employment discrimination, tax inequity, racist covenants, and a wide variety of other detrimental practices (Zubrensky, 1999). According to the city’s Mayor (2006), “one does not have to live long in Lanchester to get a sense that African Americans here are in economic and political trouble, and that racial strife is a decades-old context for present woes” (p. 221). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Lanchester is one of the most segregated cities in the country, where Blacks have the lowest rate of suburbanization (Iceland, Weinberg, & Steinmetz, 2002; Lowe, 2011). What separates Lanchester from other highly segregated cities is the racial disparity in median household income, preventing many minorities from being able to - 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 Black Hispanic Native American UWS UTC 65 purchase housing in the suburbs (Holten, 2010). Lanchester has one of the largest household income ratio disparities in the country, at $79,145 for Whites and $33,273 for Blacks, amounting to Black households earning 42 cents on the White dollar (Holten, 2010). The income disparity in Lanchester presents unique racial issues. First, income disparity can be partly explained by educational disparity. In the city, Blacks are two times as likely as Whites to not have finished high school and three times less likely to have earned a college degree (Holten, 2010). Second, employment disparity contributes to racial segregation in the city. Lanchester has one of the largest disparities between Black and White unemployment in the country (Holten, 2010). More than half of the Black males between the ages of 16-64 are unemployed (Urban Courier, 2011). High proportions of segregation continue due partly to suburban Whites that oppose the creation of affordable housing outside of the city and any transportation that would connect the city to the suburbs. A survey conducted in 2004 by the Public Policy Forum found racial tensions surround housing and other related issues. The survey found that in a White’s ideal neighborhood, Blacks would only be a few in number or nonexistent. A majority of Blacks reported the same thing about living near White neighborhoods (Public Policy Forum, 2004). The Mayor of the city told the Chicago Tribune, “I think there are still some people who don’t want to live with people who have different skin colors than theirs” (Lowe, 2011). The continued racial segregation in Lanchester is indicative of the poor racial climate. In 2006, the Public Policy Forum conducted a study focused on race relations in Lanchester. They found that the majority of respondents report discrimination as a large problem and perceived race relations as “not so good and not changing for the better” (Public Policy Forum, 2006). These findings illustrate the current racial relations in Lanchester, but also the important role education could play in elevating the minority community. 66 Urban Technical College. Established in the early 1900s as a continuation school, UTC is governed by a district board appointed by local elected officials (Merrifield, 2011). Once board members are elected, they serve staggered three-year terms. During the appointment process, UTC must give consideration to population distribution, including the percentage of women and minorities in the city of Lanchester. District boards are empowered to levy taxes on property, provide facilities and equipment, contract for instructional services, and appoint a college president who serves as chief executive officer for the district (Merrifield, 2011). UTC receives funding from five major sources: (a) property taxes; (b) state aid, excluding funds, transferred from other state agencies; (c) tuition, and fees; (d) federal aid; and (e) self-financing operations and miscellaneous revenues. Property taxes represent the largest source of revenue for UTC at approximately 45% of their annual funding (Merrifield, 2011). UTC is also the most diverse technical college in the system (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). Illustrated in Table 4, almost half (45%) of the student body is a student of color and the average age is 27, representing an older student population (Urban Technical College, 2010). This is in part due to the college’s mission focused on educational training and job placement (Urban Technical College, n.d.-b). As mentioned in the previous section, UTC’s diverse population is most likely a result of the high numbers of minorities in their service area. Almost a quarter of the 18-29 year olds within the UTC service area are Black and 14% are Hispanic (see Figure 8) (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009a). The service area is also home to 87 public high schools (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, n.d.). 67 Table 4 Demographic Profile of Urban Technical College Profile Urban Technical College Total Student Population 36,973 Student Demographics Native American 1.1% Asian/Pacific Islander 4.6% Black 29.5% Hispanic 15.3% White 46.1% Unknown 3.4% Note: Data are from 2008-2009 academic year. Data includes all students pursuing an associate’s degree, technical diploma, or who are enrolled in basic skills. Data excludes students enrolled in pre-collegiate vocational-adult and community service programs (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008b). Figure 8. Number and percent of 18-29 year old population within the UTC service area, by race, 2009. The figure demonstrates that almost a quarter of the 18-29 year old population in the UTC service area are Black and 14% Hispanic (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009a). UTC offers two types of programs: postsecondary and continuing education programs. Within the postsecondary programs, UTC offers the applied associate degree, the technical 68 diploma, the collegiate transfer program, and the registered apprenticeship (Merrifield, 2011). Within the continuing education programs, UTC offers vocational-adult programs, basic skills, and community service programs (see Appendix A for program details) (Merrifield, 2011). Adhering to the mission of the technical college system, the majority of UTC’s programs provide: (a) occupational education and training; and (b) customized training and technical assistance to business and industry (Merrifield, 2011). However, similar to the literature discussed in the previous chapter, the credits earned in the technical postsecondary program options typically do not transfer to four-year institutions (Bragg, 2001; A. Cohen & Ignash, 1994; Dougherty, 1994; Ignash & Kotun, 2005; Lynch, 1994; Townsend, 2001a). Students that pursue a technical program can transfer their credits to a four-year institution if there is an articulation agreement established or on a course-by-course basis. Currently, UTC has established over 400 articulation agreements with public, private, and out of state four-year institutions. The majority of these agreements are program and institution specific; meaning a specific program at UTC is articulated with a specific program at a particular four-year institution (Urban Technical College, n.d.-a). There are three exceptions that are statewide agreements in Nursing and Early Childhood Development (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2004). Approximately 80 of the agreements allow technical students to transfer to a specific public institution in the state (Urban Technical College, n.d.-a). Other than the institution specific articulation agreements, the collegiate transfer program, or transfer policy, represents the only viable pathway for students to transfer to any public four-year institution. The transfer policy allows UTC to offer the collegiate transfer program in the form of the Associate in Arts (A.A.) and Associate in Science (A.S.) degrees (Merrifield, 2011). These degrees are equivalent to the general education/liberal arts and sciences requirements for freshmen and sophomores enrolled in bachelor's degree programs at four-year universities and the UW two-year colleges. Students can transfer these credits earned 69 to any Wisconsin four-year university, and potentially to others across the nation. These degrees would theoretically allow students to enter many four-year degree programs with junior standing (Merrifield, 2011). Similar to the other four technical colleges that offer a transfer curriculum, UTC is held to a law that limits the collegiate transfer program’s size to no more than 25% of the total credit hours offered by the college (Wisconsin Statutes and Annotations §38.01, n.d.). This law ensures that the technical college continues to operate as a technical training institute and not a transfer institution. Finally, the UTC program enrollment data show that there are higher proportions of students of color enrolled in sub-baccalaurete programs than transfer programs (see Figure 9.) For example, approximately 23% of African Americans are enrolled in a college transfer program, compared to 61% of the White students enrolled at UTC. Figure 9. Percentage of students by race enrolled in each program category, UTC, 2010. Data show that African Americans are enrolled at higher proportions in sub-baccalaureate programs than the transfer program (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). A short-term vocational diploma is defined as a minimum of two and a maximum of 25 credits, where a one-year vocational diploma is defined as a minimum of 26 credits and a maximum of 54 credits. Participant selection and access. According to Merriam (1998), two levels of sampling are necessary when conducting a case study, selection of the case and then the participants within the case. To select participants within the case, I utilized snowball purposive sampling. In snowball sampling, also called chain, 0.0%$ 10.0%$ 20.0%$ 30.0%$ 40.0%$ 50.0%$ 60.0%$ 70.0%$ 80.0%$ TRANSFER$ ASSOCIATE$DEGREE$ APPRENTICE$ ONE:YEAR$VOC$ DIPLOMA$ SHORT:TERM$VOC$ DIPLOMA$ Black$ Hispanic$ White$ 70 network, or nominated sampling, researchers rely on participants to direct them toward others who meet the study criteria (Merriam, 1998). I gained access to the participants in this study through select WTCS and UWS administrators, UW Board of Regents (BOR), and UTC administrators. During each interview I asked the interviewee to identify other individuals they felt were important to my study. The first level of interviewees are identified in Table 5. Table 5 Initial Interview Participant List 12 Interviewee Affiliation Role # Of Interviews Type of Interview (s) Administrator 1 UWS Former high-level administrator 2 Telephone Administrator 2 WTCS High-level administrator 2 Telephone Administrator 3 UWS Former UW Regent 2 Telephone Administrator 4 UTC High-level administrator 2 Telephone (1) In-person (1) Administrator 5 UTC High-level administrator 4 Telephone (2) In-person (2) Administrator 6 UTC Former administrator 2 Telephone Each of the individuals listed in Table 5 are people that via their formal role helped me gain access to a particular set of people. It was through initial phone conversations with these individuals that I began creating a longer list of interviewees. The final interview list at the campus level is illustrated in Table 6. The final interview list of external stakeholders is listed in Table 7. Participants ranged in their ethnic background and subgroup (i.e., campus board members, administrators, faculty, staff, WTCS and UWS level administrators, UW Regents, 12 The interviewees include white/non-white participants. Their race/ethnicity is not disclosed to ensure their anonymity. 71 community activists, and other pertinent stakeholders). At the conclusion of the study I interviewed a total of 51 participants. I conducted 37 in-person and 36 over the telephone 13 . Table 6 UTC Interview Participant List 14 Interviewee Role # Of Interviews Type of Interview (s) Admin Staff 1 Administrative staff 1 In-person Administrator 7 Administrator 2 In-person Administrator 8 Former administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 9 High-level administrator 3 In-person (2) Telephone (1) Administrator 10 Administrator 1 In-person Administrator 11 High-level administrator 1 In-person Administrator 12 High-level administrator 2 In-person Administrator 13 High-level administrator 1 In-person Administrator 14 High-level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 15 High-level administrator 1 In-person Administrator 16 High-level administrator 2 In-person Administrator 17 High-level administrator 1 In-person Administrator 18 Administrator 1 In-person Board Member 1 Board member 1 Telephone Faculty 1 Faculty 2 In-person Faculty 2 Faculty 2 In-person (1) Telephone (1) Faculty 3 Faculty 2 In-person 13 The number of in-person and telephone interviews adds to more than the number of participants (51) because select practitioners were interviewed more than once. 14 The interviewees include white/non-white participants. Their race/ethnicity is not disclosed to ensure their anonymity. 72 Faculty 4 Faculty 2 In-person Faculty 5 Faculty 1 In-person Faculty 6 Faculty 1 In-person Faculty 7 Faculty 1 In-person Faculty 8 Faculty 1 In-person Faculty 9 Faculty 1 In-person Staff 1 Student service staff 3 In-person (2) Telephone (1) Staff 2 Student service staff 1 In-person Staff 3 Student service staff 1 In-person Staff 4 Student service staff 1 In-person Staff 5 Student service staff 1 In-person Staff 6 Student service staff 2 In-person Table 7 External Stakeholder Interview Participant List 15 Interviewee Affiliation Role # Of Interviews Type of Interview (s) Administrator 18 K-12 Education Non-Profit Administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 19 UW Four-Year Institution High-level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 20 UWC High-level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 21 UWC High-level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 22 UWC High-level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 23 UWS Former High- level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 24 UWS High-level administrator 1 Telephone 15 The interviewees include white/non-white participants. Their race/ethnicity is not disclosed to ensure their anonymity. 73 Administrator 25 UWS Former high- level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 26 UWS Administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 27 UWS UW Regent 1 Telephone Administrator 28 UWS UW Regent 1 Telephone Administrator 29 WTCS High-level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 30 WTCS High-level administrator 1 Telephone Administrator 31 WTCS Lobbyist 2 Telephone Faculty 10 UW Four-Year Institution Faculty 1 Telephone Faculty 11 UW Four-Year Institution Faculty 1 Telephone Data Collection Plan Multiple methods were used to collect data, including interviews, relevant documents, and observation, which are customary in case study research (Stake, 1995). According to Patton (2002), “multiple sources of information are sought and used because no single source of information can be trusted to provide a comprehensive perspective” (p. 244). In other words, multiple sources provide an abounding description of the context and contribute to “triangulating” the data—an action that is important to the trustworthiness of the research (Stake, 1995). Through a critical-social constructionist paradigm, the aim of my methods were to understand how practitioners interpret the transfer program and implement it. As is customary in case study research, I am researching a particular issue, however in order to understand the larger context my data collection also involved collecting data that searched for “topical information” (Stake, 1995, p. 25). Topical data is information that is needed to describe the case. According to Stake (1995), it is “almost impossible to get thoroughly acquainted with the case before designing the study” (p.29). Thus, my data collection focused on answering my overarching research questions, but during the process I progressively redefined the issues of my case and I 74 looked for opportunities to learn the unexpected. In this section, I outline my data collection plan and describe in detail each data collection method. To answer my research questions, I conducted data collection in two phases: Phase 1: Developing a state and local context. First, prior to the campus visit, initial telephone interviews were conducted with the key informants listed in Table 5 and 7. These initial telephone conversations assisted me in familiarizing myself with the case, creating a longer list of subsequent telephone interview participants, and identifying individuals to interview during the second phase. I interviewed a total of 29 interviewees during this phase and structured the interviews using a topic list created beforehand (see Appendix B.) During the first phase of data collection I focused my efforts on collecting documents recommended by the participants, documenting the history of transfer in the state of Wisconsin, and learning about the social context in Lanchester. At this phase I also took note of specific observations that I could conduct during my visit to Lanchester, including the Transfer Days event held each semester and the UWS and WTCS system level transfer meeting held once a year. I spoke on the telephone and exchanged several emails with Administrator 5 at UTC. Serving as my liaison, she helped me identify individuals to interview during the second phase of data collection. Phase 2: Transfer at UTC. The second phase of data collection included the campus visit. The visit took place in the fall semester, over the span of a month. During this visit, I interviewed administrators, faculty, staff, and the local public four-year institution transfer staff. I also conducted observations of the campus culture, the Joint UWS and WTCS transfer meeting, and two Transfer Days at UTC. During this phase, I also collected documents that were not available via the web, but were available in person. While visiting the campus, I had the opportunity to speak with several individuals (see Table 6). 75 Data collection methods. Document review. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985), “documents can be a rich source of information, contextually relevant and grounded in the contexts they represent” (p. 277). Hodder (2000) argues that documents are useful when “exploring multiple and conflicting voices, and differing and interacting interpretations” (p. 705). Documents were used to understand and learn about the case, as well as confirm or disconfirm findings from other data sources. I collected documents at each phase of data collection. For example, documents were collected when they were identified by initial telephone interviewees. Documents were also collected during the site visit that related to transfer policy implementation. The collection of documents helped me understand the context as well as how transfer was implemented. Two categories of documents were collected: historical documents and cultural documents. First, historical documents were collected to provide a general history of transfer in the state and the college. Historical documents aid in understanding how the campus originated, how the transfer policy was developed, who was included in this decision, as well as the racial and social context in Lanchester. According to Prior (2003), historical documents are important to social science research, as they are “situated products,” produced in social settings and capable of providing a context valuable to researchers. Historical context also has explanatory power, as it provided a rationale as to why practitioners hold specific views of transfer and the transfer policy at UTC. Historical documents included system-level transfer reports, system-level transfer policy resolutions, system-level Board of Regents meeting minutes, transfer legislation, news articles and blogs reflecting Lanchester local politics, and documents collected that were produced for the UTC centennial celebration. Second, cultural documents were collected to provide insight into the culture and current status of transfer for students in general and students of color specifically. Such documents provided insight into how transfer is implemented as well as its saliency on campus. The 76 documents collected included the AA and AS articulation policies, transfer brochures from the Transfer Days event, other transfer related advertisements and informational handouts provided to students, as well as the campus newspaper. In-depth interviews. Conducting in-depth interviews was the primary source of data. In case study research, interviewing is often a primary source of data collection (Merriam, 1998). The purpose of interviews is to gather information that can not be obtained through observations; “we cannot observe feelings, thoughts, and intentions” nor can we observe the meanings individuals attach to actions in the world (Patton, 2002, p. 341). To investigate the process of transfer interpretation and implementation, I utilized a semi-structured interview protocol, as this type of interview format allowed me to have a mixture of more and less structured questions, allowing the interviewee to describe the case under examination in their own words (Merriam, 1998). This approach to interviewing allowed me to initiate the interview with a similar list of questions and topics, but also provided the flexibility to steer away from the interview topic list when the interview went in another direction. I created interview topic lists that were specific to each interviewee (see Appendices C-E.) All interview protocols used in this study were informed by the literature on sensemaking, critical policy analysis, as well as information that was gathered in previous interviews. As mentioned previously, during phase one, I conducted an initial set of telephone interviews that resulted in a larger list of stakeholders. The purpose of these interviews was to gain access to the campus, learn about the case, and develop an understanding of the external contexts in which the case is embedded. These initial interviews helped me learn about the local politics in Lanchester, the purpose of the institution as well as specific board members, administrators, faculty, and staff that would be important to speak with regarding my study. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. 77 Once UTC board members, administrators, faculty, and staff were identified, a site visit was scheduled to conduct in-person interviews. Interviewing multiple people that occupy various roles at the UTC campus allowed me to develop a holistic understanding of the transfer policy as well as how actors make sense of, enact, and perceive the policy. Each in-person interview was recorded and transcribed. Observations. Select observations were also conducted. As noted by qualitative researchers, formal and informal observations are important when examining policy implementation (Adler & Adler, 1994, p. 389). In case study research, “observations are conducted to triangulate emerging findings; that is, they are used in conjunction with interviewing and document analysis to substantiate the findings” (Merriam, 1998, p. 96). Observations are an important data collection method as they offer the researcher opportunities to collect data that may be inaccessible by interviews or document review. Observations can also provide behaviors and specific incidents that can be used as reference points for interviews. Consistent with a social constructionist approach, I approached the observations in this study as an act of creating where observing is not simply an act of recording activities but an act of producing them as well. According to Sanger (2006), what the researcher deems as significant “becomes significant” and is consistent with the notion from a critical perspective that the researcher’s background and previous experiences shape what observations are recorded (Kincheloe & McLauren, 1994). From this perspective, findings from observations are viewed as social constructions created and made meaningful by the researcher. The observations I conducted were decided on after data collection had started. Initial documents and the initial telephone interviews provided insight into what meetings, groups, or activities would be beneficial to observe to help answer my research questions. The goal of the observations was to better understand the case’s culture, how the transfer policy is interpreted 78 and enacted as well as the saliency of race in transfer at UTC. More specifically, the observations provided insight into how the policy is reflected in the structure and identity of the institution and the supports or constraints of implementing the policy. According to Schein (1991), observing meetings and other activities in organizations can aid researchers in understanding what the campus deems to be important. During observations, I acted as an “observer-as-participant,” where the researcher’s activities are known to the group, but participation is secondary to collecting data (Adler & Adler, 1998; Merriam, 1998). To aid in taking detailed field notes, I also took several pictures of the campus, campus resources, as well as the college environment. These pictures helped when describing the physical aspects of the college and also aided in providing evidence of culture (Bogdan & Biklen, 1998). During observations, I paid specific attention to artifacts in the environment, espoused values, how the topic of transfer and transfer equity is treated and discussed by participants (see Appendix F-H.) I also attended to the power dynamics between individuals and departments when transfer or transfer policy was discussed. This allowed for the examination of how the transfer policy is perceived and the political dynamics surrounding transfer within a technical college. Once I arrived in Wisconsin to initiate my second phase of research, I went to the UTC campus to familiarize myself with the environment and get a sense of the campus. During this phase of research I conducted several observations of student service offices or other places students were likely to receive information. For example, I observed the Advising Center, the Welcome Center, and the Student Union. During the observations in the Welcome Center and Student Union I acted as a student. I wore my hair in a ponytail, a sweater jacket with a hoodie, jeans, and a pair of Nike tennis shoes. The goal of these observations was to understand how students’ receive information about transfer. In the observation at the Welcome Center, I approached a student worker and asked where I could go for transfer information. During the observation in the Student Union, I sat quietly taking notes until students approached me. 79 Although unplanned, this observation allowed me to meet several students and learn what they know about transfer, how UTC delivers transfer information, and recommendations for how UTC can improve transfer services. In addition, I attended two transfer events, one transfer information workshop, and the Transfer Day, where four-year partners came to UTC to talk to prospective transfer students. Finally, I also attended a daylong meeting for the Joint UWS and WTCS transfer meeting. In addition to these formal observations, I also had several opportunities to learn more about the campus by walking around the inside and periphery of the institution. Listed in Table 8 is a summary of the types and sources of data collected. Table 8 Summary of Data Sources Data Type Data Sources (s) Number of Participants Interviews Internal UTC Semi-structured Interviews Board members, administrators, faculty, staff 31 External UTC Semi-structured Interviews UWS administrators, administrators, faculty and staff from four-year UW partners, WTCS administrators and lobbyist, educational community members 20 Observations Systems Level Transfer Meeting UWS administrators, UW campus staff, WTCS administrators and technical college staff 35 (UWS), 29 (WTCS) Transfer Days Events (2) UW campus staff, UTC students - Transfer Workshop UTC staff, students, and parents 8 Advising Center UTC staff and students 12 Welcome Center UTC frontline student staff 2 Student Union UTC students - Documents - - 80 Data Analysis Plan According to Patton (2002), data analysis is an iterative process, requiring qualitative researchers to go “back and forth” from their raw data and interpretations. Similarly, Luker (2008) argues that data reduction and analysis “is really an ongoing one that begins the first night you come home from gathering data or even the very first day you start your project” (p.199). In this study, data analysis began as soon as data collection was initiated. Stake (1995), notes that data analysis can begin at any particular moment and is just as much “a matter of giving meaning to first impressions as well as to final compilations” (p.71). As a first step in data analysis, after each interview and document review, I took reflective notes in the margins of the text, noting possible major themes as well as topics for further research and questioning. During the initial telephone interviews, I transcribed the interviews immediately after the conversation was over. I took note of possible themes and created an on-going list that I could add to after each interview. During this initial phase, I also started writing as a method of analysis. I captured the history of transfer in the state in Chapter IV, which created a historical context by which to understand how the transfer policy is interpreted and implemented. I followed this same line of initial analysis during my site visit. After each interview, informal conversation, observation, or document review, I took notes in a research journal that I kept daily during my UTC visit. After data collection was complete, the data was organized and its safety ensured (Patton, 2002). All interviews were transcribed and the interview transcripts and observation field notes were uploaded into ATLAS.ti, a qualitative software package helpful in organizing large amounts of data. One of the primary benefits of using a qualitative software package is that it allowed me to sort quickly and efficiently through the codes I created (Luker, 2008). I followed the data analysis techniques for thematic analysis outlined by Luker (2008). Luker (2008) describes thematic analysis as the process of classifying qualitative information, where researchers examine data for patterns in seemingly random information. According to 81 Boyatzis (1998), transforming raw qualitative data into themes requires underlying competencies and abilities. First, is the ability to recognize patterns. This required that I have an openness and flexibility in perceiving patterns. Second, is planning and systems thinking. This required that I organize my observations or emergent themes into a usable system. Finally, I had to have knowledge in my area of research. This came largely from the comprehensive literature review I completed, but it was also embedded in what I see as important, give meaning to, and how I conceptualized observations and conversations. Data analysis was primarily inductive, however I did note patterns or codes from prior research or theory, which is characteristic of deductive analysis. In inductive analysis, themes and codes were created from the raw data (Boyatzis, 1998). This hybrid method also allowed me to critically analyze the data. One of the primary objectives of this study is to understand how the transfer policy is interpreted, implemented as well as whether the policy is implemented in a manner that improves opportunity for minorities to transfer. The second part of this objective can only be fully understood by analyzing the data critically. Critical approaches entail a critique of inequities in the existing political and social order, where researchers focus on structural, cultural, and ideological features to understand why certain populations are favored in the distribution of resources and power (Heck, 2004). However, because critical policy analysis was derived from an array of social science techniques it can not be easily delineated in a “step- by-step” manner (Martinez-Aleman, 2010, p. 44). For the purposes of this study, I arranged a list of suggested analysis guidelines created by various critical researchers (see Table 9). Although all of these techniques were not applied to each piece of data, it provides an example as to how I approached the analysis from a critical framework and created a holistic picture of transfer opportunity at UTC. 82 Table 9 Critical Analysis Guidelines Critical Analysis Guideline Type of Data Guideline was Applied to Example Attention to the difference between policy rhetoric and practiced reality (Marshall, 1999; Young, 1999). Interview transcripts, observation notes, documents What do the college and practitioners claim to be doing to implement the policy and what actually appears to be happening? For example, if the institution declares a commitment to transfer equity, do they mean it? Do they monitor their effectiveness in this commitment? Attention to the distribution of power, resources, and knowledge (Young, 1999). Interview transcripts, observation notes, documents What does the distribution look like and how does it appear to impact transfer? How are structures in the institution creating opportunities for students to transfer? Are there “arenas of struggle” over resources and turf? Attention to how the implementing practices of practitioners enable or hinder opportunity for students to transfer (Marshall, 1997a). Interview transcripts, observation notes, documents Policy can create equity, but does it? Do practitioners interpret the policy as a potential tool of equity? Is the policy implemented in a culturally responsive manner? Attention to the policy’s place on the list of institutional priorities (Marshall, 1997a). Interview transcripts, observation notes, documents How important is the policy compared to the other programs in the college? Where does the policy fit in on the agenda of the institution and that of individual practitioners? Attention to “silences” or what could have been written or said or done that wasn’t (Allan, et al., 2010; Martinez-Aleman, 2010). Interview transcripts, observation notes, documents What is left out of documents that the average reader would not notice its absence? What is missing from the website to inform students and students of color specifically about transfer opportunities? 83 After all the transcripts were transcribed and the data was uploaded into ATLAS.ti, I read through the data initially, paying attention to how well my theory driven codes fit the data as well as developing new codes (Boyatzis, 1998). The second step involved examining the notes I wrote in the margins and all the memos and reflective essays I wrote after conducting interviews. Then, I did another read through coding for large themes. Next, I organized the data according to these larger themes and read the data once again. Organizing the data in this fashion and doing another read through allowed me to start to see variation in the themes, something referred to by Luker (2008) as sub codes. At the end of this process, I had an outline of major codes and sub codes. Then, I went back to the data to verify that the codes created and theory driven codes were actually showing up in the data. Luker (2008) argues that a “good code” draws boundaries between elements of the code and elements of other codes. Trustworthiness and Credibility According to Merriam (1998), “all research is concerned with producing valid and reliable knowledge in an ethical manner” (p.198). However, the criteria by which you judge the quality of your research is highly dependent on your approach to research and methodology. Qualitative research calls researchers to provide readers with “depiction in enough detail to show that the author’s conclusion makes sense” (p.199). In order to adhere to a standard of trustworthiness, I employed safeguards, such as methodological triangulation, peer review, and member checking. To increase confidence in my interpretations I triangulated my findings by using multiple sources of data (interviews, document review, observations) to confirm emergent findings (Stake, 1995). Traditional purposes of triangulation include the use of multiple sources of data to ensure validity, however, I prefer Mathison’s (1988) depiction of the purpose of triangulation, which is to create a “holistic understanding” of the case and then provide “plausible” interpretations or explanations of the phenomenon under study. Creating a holistic picture of the 84 case through multiple data sources enabled me to tell a story of policy implementation that provides more of an “understanding” of the case, not necessarily “validation” of it (Wolcott, 1990 as cited in Creswell, 2007). Peer review was also used to ensure trustworthiness. According to Creswell (2007), a peer reviewer is a colleague who “keeps the researcher honest; asks hard questions about methods, meaning, and interpretations” (p. 208). Lincoln and Guba (1985) refer to this person as the “devil’s advocate.” I recruited a former colleague of mine and experienced researcher to ensure that I justify my interpretations and decisions about the methods selected. My colleague provided a second check on my biases, ensuring that I did not specifically focus on data that supported my assumptions and leave out data that confirms the contrary. In my study, she served as a check to the codes and themes I created during data analysis and then as a check on the interpretations I created based on those emergent patterns (Patton, 2002). I also utilized “member checking” to examine drafts of writing. Member checking involves asking participants to review material for accuracy and palatability (Stake, 1995). This method of trustworthiness was not used for all parts of my data analysis, but specifically utilized while writing up the analysis of Chapter IV, the history of transfer. The history of transfer was constructed using books, newspaper articles, legislation, system-level reports, board meeting minutes, and select interviews. I sent the historical timeline created (see Chapter IV) and chapter summary to high-level administrators at both systems. These practitioners reviewed the historical timeline I created and suggested events that were not yet part of the timeline. They served as a check to the accuracy of the timeline. Finally, while conducting interviews and informal conversations I made it a point to be aware of my positionality. Practitioners at the state and campus level knew that I was an outsider, a researcher from the University of Southern California, and previously part of the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study (WiTE). To answer my research questions and understand the 85 culture of UTC, I had to create an environment where practitioners felt comfortable talking to me. To do this, I deemphasized my role as a researcher by initiating informal conversation with practitioners. I discussed my previous role as a two-year college practitioner and conveyed the idea that there is a lot to learn from studying transfer at UTC. In addition, I knew my interview protocols very well and was able to conduct interviews less as a laundry list of questions and more as an informal conversation between two colleagues. This allowed me to obtain “unique access” to an otherwise “closed world” (Layder, 1993). By gaining the interviewees trust I was able to access valuable information regarding perspectives on transfer and the student population in the interviewees own words. Using this strategy was key to obtaining the data I collected. I noticed during interviews that after the first five-to-ten minutes of informal discussion practitioners were much more relaxed than when they initially walked into the conference room. Included with trustworthiness is the extent to which my findings can be applied to other situations (Merriam, 1998). As mentioned previously, Fitch (1994) referred to the “translatability” of the findings or to what Stake (1995) calls “naturalistic generalizations.” Case studies are not strong as a base for making generalizations, but “people can learn much from what is general from cases” (Stake, 1995, p. 85). Naturalistic generalizations are conclusions that are arrived at as people experience life. Naturalistic generalizations can also be created through vicarious experiences, constructed in a manner where the individual feels as if the story or case happened to them. Researchers can create naturalistic generalizations by providing a thick description. This involves providing “enough description so that readers will be able to determine how closely their situations match the research situation, and hence, whether findings can be transferred” (Merriam, 1998, p. 211). In order to provide naturalistic generalizations, I took detailed field notes throughout the process and provided telling examples through illustrative quotes in the findings. 86 Ethical and Political Considerations An important responsibility of the researcher involves taking steps to safeguard the experiences of individual participants. In the researcher-participant relationship, there is a danger of abuse and thus a great need for guidelines and regulations (Cassell, 1982). Stake (1994) argues that, “qualitative researchers are guests in the private spaces of the world. Their manners should be good and their code of ethics strict” (p.244). To ensure my treatment of participants adhered to a code of ethics, I took considerable steps to protect my participants in each of phase of research. Before data collection began, I submitted my research proposal to the University of Southern California’s Institutional Review Board and secured permission for my study. I also had my study reviewed by UTC’s Institutional Review Board and received approval from their office to conduct the research. Second, when recruiting participants via email, I made my intentions clear and mentioned that their participation in the study was completely voluntary and they could withdraw at any time. Then, each participant was asked to review an informed consent form that explicitly detailed the purpose of my study, their rights as participants, terms of confidentiality, and any foreseeable risks that may be associated with the study. Participants were also reminded during in-person interviews that at any point during the study they were free to change their minds about being recorded. During interviews, I asked participants to discuss their personal beliefs, values as well as what they believe the priorities and values are of the institution. In addition, discussion ensued in some cases regarding power dynamics in general, specifically regarding transfer for students of color and the power of the UTC faculty union. These are sensitive topics and can be discomforting to some to discuss openly. Some of the participants held views contrary to their institution, others opposed the actions of their senior leadership, or revealed sensitive information they did not want their supervisors to know. One participant chose not to be 87 recorded. As a critical researcher, I created a space where the participants felt secure in divulging their beliefs by ensuring that the information shared with me could not be tracked back to them. A pseudonym and generic title was assigned to each participant. During the data analysis phase, I also paid particular attention to my own bias. Merriam (1998) argues, “since the researcher is the primary instrument for data collection, data have been filtered through his or her particular theoretical position and biases” (p. 216). Deciding what is important, what should be left out, and what to focus on during analysis is up to the researcher (Merriam, 1998). When analyzing the data, I was careful and conscious about not letting my assumptions or theories force the data into specific categories. Summary In this chapter, I outlined the research methodology to answer my research questions. I employed a case study design using qualitative data. The next chapter delineates a history of technical education in the state of Wisconsin and more specifically outlines the historical transformational events in regards to transfer for the technical college system. While not directly related to the implementation of transfer policy at UTC, the next chapter provides a historical context to transfer from technical colleges, a factor found to be important in policy interpretation. 89 CHAPTER IV PART I: A History of Technical Education in Wisconsin In this chapter, I provide a historical context for the analysis of transfer policy interpretation and implementation that follows in Chapter V and Chapter VI. By drawing on historical documents and literature, as well as individual accounts of Wisconsin’s higher education history from interviews, I advance the argument that history complicates efforts to make transfer a priority in a system that by law has been forbidden from increasing transfer opportunities and that has been historically linked with non-postsecondary education. The institutional and perceptual legacies that are a result of the state higher education history influence how practitioners interpret and implement transfer policy. This chapter outlines the social and political forces that shaped the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) mission. The chapter is divided into three parts: a) the political background and events that influenced the design of Wisconsin higher education, b) the history of transfer between the technical colleges and the University of Wisconsin System (UWS), and c) the current state and local political context. The chapter illustrates that political decisions made early in the development of Wisconsin higher education have resulted in a historical positioning of the technical colleges that persists today. It also reveals that despite large transfer policy gains for the technical college system over the last 50 years, the systems of higher education in the state remain firmly dedicated to bifurcated missions. The Continuation Schools Charles McCarthy, considered the father of Wisconsin’s vocational-technical system, saw vocational schools as a means to “even out disparity” between the rich and the poor (Paris, 1985, p. 8). He created an educational system in Wisconsin that “rather than restricting people to 90 narrow occupational choices, could break up tendencies to class distinctions by offering opportunities not presently available” (Paris, 1985, p. 12). Similar to John Dewey, McCarthy believed that vocational education should be coupled with a liberal education to elevate the masses. Thus in 1911, the Continuation School Law was passed, creating educational opportunities and training to those currently working or planning to work in the near future (Paris, 1985). In addition, the state of Wisconsin was also in the midst of a recession and vocational schools were viewed as a means to keep young adult males off the street. According to a faculty member at a UW four-year institution, “legislators wanted to create vocational high schools to attract unemployed young male adults so that they wouldn’t riot during the recession.” He also mentioned that the creation of the vocational schools arrived fortuitously, as the vocational schools created a direct pipeline into the manufacturing industry. The Continuation School Law included four categories of education: a) compulsory attendance for children ages 14 to 16, regardless of employment; b) trade schools; c) evening schools; and d) apprenticeships (Snider, 1999). The continuation schools were an early sign of the division between academic and technical education that persists today. This design served Wisconsinites by providing basic education and workplace training, as well as meeting the increasing appetite of business and industry for trained workers. Industrial education through continuation schools became an important issue nationwide in the early 1900s. In 1914, Howell Cheney of Connecticut wrote an article in which he compared Connecticut and Wisconsin’s vocational education. According to Cheney, “the aim was to attempt to give those, not yet entered into business and industry, the elements of a trade training” (Cheney, 1914). Cheney (1914) also stated the following: With a large vision, Wisconsin in one law determined to write the following principles into her legislation: first, that she would assume the responsibility for some form of 91 education of her children up to the time they were 16 years of age; second, that the trade experience of all children in industry should be supplemented by a school training in the years between fourteen and sixteen; third, that the state would regulate an apprenticeship system in a way that would guarantee a real training in all of the processes of a trade to all workers in the skilled industries until they were sixteen years of age (pp. 192-193). The goal of Wisconsin continuation schools was to prepare students for the workplace rather than the university. The continuation and adult schools were part of Wisconsin high schools, serving 80 to 90% of those who never attended high school (Paris, 1985). In addition to the continuation schools, McCarthy also developed the UW Extension. The extension model of education delivered no-credit programming and provided assistance to farmers with agricultural education opportunities. He believed that the University should be for the people. The continuation schools and University Extension were the foundation of the current system of the Wisconsin Technical Colleges and the two-year University of Wisconsin Colleges (UWC). Each developed from these two distinct historical models and hold philosophies today that are similar to the ideals they were founded on: one to provide workforce training and the other to provide a university education to those that do not immediately enroll into a four-year institution. German Model of Industrial Education After careful study of other models of vocational education, the German model was recommended for the continuation schools. According to Snider (1999), the model was adopted from the German system of industrial education and included (a) local boards of control, (b) compulsory attendance, and (c) a “learning by doing” method. The German model, called Fortbildungschule, provided local boards of control in which business and industry leaders could govern and influence programming to ensure skilled workers for local businesses (Paris, 1985). According to Paris (1981), rather than restricting people into limited occupational areas, 92 McCarthy wanted the continuation schools to break down class distinctions by offering them additional educational opportunities. Financial Assistance for Vocational Education In the 1920s, Wisconsin’s major political contributions to education were financial. In 1918, John Callahan became the third State Director of the Board of Vocational Education, which governed the continuation schools. In 1921, he successfully ran for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. His work provided support for vocational education to be viewed as an extension of the K-12 system (Paris, 1985). The continuation schools saw increased financial assistance when Callahan served as State Superintendent and George Hambrecht as State Director of the Board of Vocational Education. The consolidation efforts were beneficial for education as state aid increased from $10,000 to $150,000. Additionally, the taxation power of local school boards tripled, and by 1921 there were 47 city continuation schools (Paris, 1985). The growth of the continuation schools provided basic adult education and vocational training to expanded communities within the state. The close relationship between the Superintendent and the Director of the Board of Vocational Education had two enduring influences on the continuation schools. First, the relationship the continuation schools had with secondary schools solidified an association with K-12 education rather than the university. Second, the coupling of adult education and vocational training provided the foundation for the current model of general education at the technical colleges. According to Administrator 2, the continuation schools offered “occupational” general education, which is not considered college-level and therefore not transferable. The early establishment of non-transferable general education still influences credit transferability today. 93 WTCS currently offers two divided general education models. The Liberal Arts Transfer program general education courses, referred to as college transfer courses, constitute one model for general education delivery and are referred to as “Aid Code 20” courses. The technical colleges that only offer occupational programs provide a second model of general education courses, which are coded as “Aid Code 10” (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2011b). A 10-code general education course required for an applied associate degree has limited or no credit transferability and is lower in tuition than a college transfer general education, or 20-code, course. These codes were designed to identify occupational program general education courses and Liberal Arts Transfer program college transfer courses due to differences in tuition. General Education in Vocational Schools In the 1920s, Dr. Edward A. Fitzpatrick, Dean of the Graduate School at Marquette University and President of Mount Mary College for Women, became the first Wisconsin political figure to lead with a vision of blending vocational and liberal education. Fitzpatrick was a worldly and accomplished author, philosopher, and educational administrator, who was deeply committed to people and often stated that human beings were our country’s most valuable resource. In Philosophy of Education he wrote that he believed with the American Federation of Labor that vocational education in its lower level should not simply include training for industry, but training for life in an industrial society. One of the most influential political figures that advocated for general education in the vocational schools was Dr. Jennie Turner. In 1911, she collaborated with McCarthy when he proposed legislation for establishing the continuation schools. Tuner was concerned with incorporating general education at the continuation schools. Turner joined the State Board of Vocational Education as an assistant responsible for English, social sciences, and teacher 94 training. She remained on the board until 1948 and was one of the first members of the State board staff that understood and promoted the inclusion of general education in the curriculum (Paris, 1985). Turner’s support for general education in the vocational curriculum was essential as labor lobbyists continued to consider general education a weakening of technical education. The Great Depression and the First Glimpse of a Transfer Curriculum During the Depression of 1929, transfer courses were introduced at one of the technical colleges. The goal in offering transfer courses was to provide a “second chance opportunity for inner-city youth who were not academically prepared to handle a baccalaureate program” (Paris, 1985, p. 75). At the time, the region where this college was located needed an establishment for high school graduates. It had already experienced several years of the depression and family resources were dwindling, leaving many young people in the area “stranded” (Tarbell, p.147). After a year into operation, the university accredited the transfer curriculum and thus established the first transfer program (Tarbell, 1958). At the end of two years a student would be prepared to continue their academic career at a four-year institution or to enter into a vocation. The State Director of the technical college system, George Hambrecht, was not pleased by the college's decision to include a transferable curriculum. He believed that “vocational institutions should not be getting involved in college transfer courses” (Paris, 1985, p. 75). Nevertheless, the college’s transfer courses had strong local support and the courses continue today in the form of the collegiate transfer program. According to Administrator 25, “the disagreement regarding whether transfer courses belong in a technical college” is still a controversial issue in Wisconsin. The Influence of World War II on Vocational Training World War II also influenced vocational education in Wisconsin. According to Quinn, Pawasarat, & Serebin (1995), the federal government established a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project for Vocational Education for National Defense (VE-ND). These 95 training programs included people on national relief training programs, such as the New York Administration (NYA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In Lanchester County, the NYA and CCC were specifically designed for young people to help them gain skills to be competitive for jobs during the Depression. The NYA included a financial aid program for participants to continue their education on a part-time basis. All VE-ND programs offered only vocational classes. The WPA allowed high school general education courses to ensure that students could obtain their high school diplomas, which further supported the connection between vocational education and high schools. The connection to secondary education was reinforced after WWII, when thousands of veterans returned to school with benefits from the GI Bill. These veterans sought vocational training or to complete their high school diploma. The Wisconsin vocational schools were not viewed as colleges, but rather as an opportunity to have accelerated occupational training after returning from combat. Truman Higher Education for Democracy During the 1920s and 30s the vocational schools had lost much of their financial support and experienced reduced enrollments. As a result, vocational and adult schools were focused on arts and crafts with minimal vocational programs. However, in the 1940s financial support increased from the federal and state level. President Truman’s Commission on Higher Education reported the need to educate the masses, largely due to the effects of the depression where people returned to work without training. The State Board of Vocational and Adult Education determined that the financial assistance provided would only go to occupational programs rather than to college transfer programs. This effort further defined the vocational schools more sharply as occupational training institutions than academic transfer institutions. 96 This decision was largely a result of the continued controversy of general education in the vocational colleges. By the request of the Legislature, a study was conducted on the state’s education system by the Commission on Improvement of the Educational System. Composed entirely of non-educators, they again assessed whether occupational courses should be offered alongside academic courses. Labor greatly influenced their decision arguing that “the two types of education do not mix: courses and systems of teaching are not comparable and administrative problems have no common ground,” a position that Labor continues to have today (Haberman, as cited in Paris 85, p. 95). This decision solidified the mission of the vocational and adult schools as preparation for strictly employment and further confirmed that the state leaders of the time did not value general or academic coursework as part of a vocational program. Coordinating Committee for Higher Education The 1950s saw a general national embrace of higher education. This was a time for state leaders to reexamine higher education, but Wisconsin, steeped in tradition, further divided vocational and general education by supporting its existing separation of university and vocational coursework. In 1955, business and industry continued to be a powerful influence as they lobbied to deny additional allocations to vocational education beyond the standard $420,000 to ensure that non-occupational programs, including college transfer, were not supported. Local districts bore the burden of supporting vocational education growth (Snider, 1999). The conflict between the Wisconsin educational institutions for funding during the 1950s resulted in the state legislature establishing the Coordinating Committee for Higher Education (CCHE) in 1955. The CCHE did not include the Vocational, Technical, and Adult Education System (VTAE) and was established due to conflicts between the UW and the Wisconsin State Colleges (what later become the UWC.) 97 According to Paris (1985), the vocational system was excluded in this collaboration since vocational education was not seen as higher education. For example, the vocational schools were viewed as the dumping ground for the kids who “can’t make it” in high school, many of which were youth of color in the Lanchester area. The University believed that the vocational schools put too much emphasis on recreation, their teaching staff was “mediocre,” and their facilities “inadequate” (Paris, 1985, p. 104). However, in the 1950s the vocational schools elevated their reputation by establishing standards for program evaluation and in 1961 created the first associate degrees that coupled technical and general education in automotive technology, electronics, and mechanical technology. These actions by the vocational schools solidified their place in higher education and represented a major shift in their identity. In 1959, Gaylord Nelson, a strong supporter of vocational and adult education, became governor of Wisconsin. Nelson proposed and passed legislation that added a representative from the VTAE to the Wisconsin CCHE. This was an important move towards the coupling of vocational education with college transfer. However, labor leaders were opposed to the legislation and continued to express concern for the dilution of vocational programs. The Director of Lanchester Vocational and Adult School also opposed the legislation. Despite opposition from labor and select vocational colleges, the leaders of the UW and the Wisconsin State Colleges supported the move, and in 1963, CCHE membership included three representatives from the VTAE. The State Board agreed to membership based on the following conditions: (a) the Vocational Board and system were to be responsible for developing all post- secondary vocational technical programs and (b) the State Board required that they had the same number of representatives to the UW and state colleges. Securing membership on the CCHE was one of the most influential actions taken by the State Board. It was an official expression 98 that vocational-technical education was not an “alternative to higher education, but was higher education” (Paris, 1985, p. 121). In parallel, the state colleges continued to grow whereas the county colleges were losing enrollments. As a result, the county colleges proposed a system of junior colleges. However, the movement did not receive the support of the CCHE because the committee felt that the vocational schools and the UW Extension were already meeting the requirements of a junior college system. The 1960s and New State Higher Education Law In the 1960s, Wisconsin’s VTAE reached capacity and could not meet enrollment demand. The state colleges and the vocational schools founded 16 institutions between 1964 and 1968: ten state colleges and six vocational schools (Paris, 1985). The growth of the state colleges proved to be a major reason why the vocational schools did not provide college transfer courses. With the state colleges supporting a more liberal arts focus, the vocational schools maintained a statewide focus on preparing students for the workplace rather than college transfer. Simultaneously, other Midwestern states, such as Minnesota and Indiana, merged their technical and academic two-year colleges and established comprehensive community colleges (Bailey, Morest, and Columbia University, 2004). Vocational and adult education was limited in funding sources by the municipal tax base through the 1950s and into the 1960s. A redistricting plan was considered and city districts made way for area districts. In 1964, Chapter 414 passed and allowed county boards to form VTAE districts. Governor Warren Knowles took office in 1965 and called for redistricting legislation, which had a lasting statewide impact on Wisconsin’s technical college transfer curriculum. As state director, Clarence Greiber and the CCHE proposed two redistricting plans. 99 Greiber’s plan 16 proposed vocational education districts, while the CCHE plan 17 proposed the establishment of a community college system for Wisconsin. Governor Knowles supported the community college plan but the legislature did not, thus, defeating the CCHE proposal. This was an important milestone in Wisconsin’s two-year college evolution as it solidified the current structure as seen today. The approval of Greiber’s plan, Chapter 292 included the following three amendments: 1. No collegiate transfer program could be offered in a vocational-technical or adult school in any town, city, or village where there was an existing institution of higher learning unless the city, or village had a population of 150,000 or more; 2. Local boards would charge resident tuition at 20% of the instruction cost for statewide, full-time, collegiate transfer courses approved by the board; and 3. Compulsory students, aged 16 to 18, could be referred to vocational schools if one existed in the city of residence (Paris, 1981). After decades of political actions that supported a divide between technical and academic coursework, the state made it impossible for most technical colleges to offer a college transfer program due to the first amendment in Chapter 292, Law of 1963. One of the vocational schools already offered a transfer curriculum, but was still held to elevated tuition prices for transfer courses. Additionally, the second amendment was the basis for the 10- and 20-code general education courses, which separated college transfer courses from general education courses and allowed for tuition difference (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2011). Technical colleges that offered both general education codes were mandated to charge more tuition for 20-code courses. Charging more tuition for transfer courses supported the non-transfer general education, 16 Greiber’s plan is also known as Assembly Bill 501. 17 The CCHE plan is also known as Senate Bill 220. 100 while also limiting transfer opportunities for technical students. Table 10 provides a summary of the events and decisions that influenced the current mission of the technical college system. Table 10 Events and Decisions that Influenced the Mission of the Technical College System, 1900-1970 Events and Decisions that Solidified the Vocational Mission of the Technical Colleges Events and Decisions that Supported the Inclusion of Academic or Transfer Coursework in the Technical Colleges • Early 1900s—Continuation schools were developed to serve students that never finished high school. They developed as an extension of secondary school rather than higher education. • Early 1900s—Adult education was a primary goal of the continuation schools and served as a rationale for a separate non-college level general education for vocational students. • 1920s—Financial assistance from the government was only allowed to support occupational programs rather than general education or transfer courses. • 1950s—Labor lobbied against additional allocations to the vocational schools to support academic coursework. • 1950s—Legislation excluded the Vocational schools from the Coordinating Committee for Higher Education (CCHE), a sign the vocational schools were not considered higher education but an extension of high school. • 1965—Grieber’s Redistricting Plan for vocational districts wins the support of the legislature over the CCHE plan for a community college system. This legislation made it impossible for most technical colleges to offer a transfer curriculum and legislated higher tuition for transfer courses at the technical colleges. • Early 1900s—The founder of the continuation schools believed that vocational students should receive a vocational education and a liberal education. • 1920s—Fitzpatrick and Tuner introduced general education to the vocational programs. • 1934—Transfer curriculum included at Lanchester Adult and Vocational School, despite resistance by State Board Director. • 1950—The vocational schools created associate degrees that coupled technical education with general education. • 1963—State Board was officially included in the CCHE; a sign that the state was starting to view the vocational schools as a form of higher education. Summary A combination of factors contributed to the current bifurcated higher education system in Wisconsin. First, state decision makers influenced the growth of technical programming based on the immediate needs of residents after world events, such as the Great Depression and World War II. Second, leadership at the state level fought to keep vocational education integrated with adult education and the K-12 system, distancing itself from a college curricula. Third, as Labor 101 and select educators and politicians lobbied to focus the VTAE on vocational education, the University and University Extension gradually took over the responsibility of providing a liberal arts education. Finally, in the 1960s state law solidified the distinct missions of the systems. This historical outline provides evidence that the current bifurcated educational structure in Wisconsin is based on a series of decisions establishing the current technical colleges focus. Attempts to integrate academic and transferable coursework were met with resistance by labor, select educators, and politicians that adhered to the traditional educational roots of the state. Although transferable coursework has been integrated into the technical college curriculum at select institutions, some of the identical arguments against offering transfer coursework at the technical colleges persist today and are evidenced in the history of transfer between the UWS and the WTCS. The history of transfer is described in the next section. PART II: The History of Transfer in Wisconsin - A State Perspective The history of transfer between the WTCS and the UWS is considered an important component of this case study. According to the theories guiding this study, history influences how individuals interpret policy. Methods of thinking and practicing become institutionalized over time and carried by practitioners as part of their cognitive lenses. As a result, a historical analysis of transfer between the systems was included as an important contextual factor. This chapter provides an overview of the history of transfer between the systems and a larger social context by which to situate the case of Urban Technical College. I found that the transfer function at the WTCS has evolved over time from a concept that was generally forbidden by specific policy mechanisms to a process that has become routine. The evolution of transfer from the WTCS to the UWS is a result of student demand and pressure from the legislature. In this section of the chapter, I highlight the transformational events and policy decisions regarding 102 transfer from the WTCS to the UWS. The transformational transfer events and policy decisions are illustrated in Figure 10 and referenced throughout this section. Figure 10. Transformational transfer events in Wisconsin technical college history. The Question of the Junior College As early as the 1940s the establishment of a community college system was debated. In 1945, a report titled “Junior College Needs in Wisconsin” was written based on a study that assessed the educational needs of the state (Bower, 2002). Legislators were particularly interested in the report due to their concern that multiple higher education institutions were claiming the ever-increasing share of the state budget. They analyzed the question “did Wisconsin need a system of junior colleges, two-year schools which would offer both transferable college credit courses and non-transferable vocational programs?” The report Two$statewide$ ar,cula,on$agreements$ created,$2000$ A$transfer$program$was$included$at$ Rhinelander$because$there$was$no$ exis,ng$higher$educa,on$ins,tu,on$ serving$the$northern$part$of$the$ state,$1968$$ 1940$ 1950$ 1960$ 1980$ 1990$ 2000$ 2010$ $Madison$Area$ Technical$College$ starts$offering$a$ transfer$curriculum$ with$the$ambi,on$of$ receiving$Title$III$ funds,$1965$ The$UW$Merger,$ separate$missions$ become$ legislated,$1971$ Transfer$ Informa,on$ System$ mandated$by$ legislature,$1989$ JACCE$and$JACAP$ created,$1972$ VTAE$changed$its$ name$to$Wisconsin$ Technical$College$ System$,$1993$ $JACAP$creates$a$ working$group$to$ assess$students$that$ transfer$from$WTCS$to$ UWS,$2000$ $$$WWII,$$ 1939S1945$ 1930$ During$the$ Depression,$UTC$ starts$offering$transfer$ courses$to$displaced$ workers$and$inner$city$ youth,$1934$ Depression,$$ 1929S1939$ 1970$ BOR$Transfer$Policy$ Created,$1973$ $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ UW$Board$of$Regents$ transfer$policy$amendment$  $Legislated$transfer$ac,on$   Working$group$$created$to$ suggest$recommenda,ons$for$ increased$transfer,$2003$ COBE$Report,$ created$ recommenda,ons$ to$increase$the$ number$of$ bachelor$degree$ holders$in$the$ state,$2005$ 2000$ 2001$ 2002$ 2003$ 2004$ 2005$ 2006$ 2007$ 2008$ 2009$ 2010$ 2011$ 2012$ UWS$created$Criteria$ for$Establishing$a$ Collegiate$Transfer$ Program,$2007$ Chippewa$Valley$ Technical$College$ granted$authority$ by$BOR$to$offer$a$ collegiate$transfer$ program,$2007$ Western$Technical$College$granted$ authority$by$BOR$to$offer$a$ collegiate$transfer$program,$2008$ $Wisconsin$Transfer$ Equity$Study,$2008$ ✖$ $State$discussions$to$create$a$ system$of$junior$ (community)$colleges$ ✖$ ✖$ ✖$ ✖$ ✖$ ✖$ 103 recommended the establishment of a junior college system, where the state would take seven existing Extension Centers (what later become the UWC) and add a vocational component. While the report was clear in its recommendation, it was shelved by the UW BOR and the Legislature due to the cost of adding vocational facilities at each of the Extension Centers. The junior college question resurfaced in the 1950s when the governor engaged the American Council of Education to reexamine the question. The council recommended that Wisconsin follow California’s lead, where the junior college movement was proving to be successful. When the governor did not seek a second term, the question was forgotten until 1953 when two assemblymen lobbied for the establishment of a junior college, arguing that the state had a “peculiarly formless system of two-year postsecondary” education (Bower, 2002, p.63). Another study investigated the possibilities of a state-directed junior college system. The vocational school administrators ardently opposed the concept of the junior college, arguing that the liberal arts mission would overshadow the vocational function. The report recommended against establishing junior colleges, outlining multiple disadvantages to the idea. For example, the report stated that junior colleges were “advanced high schools” that did not attract the best students or the best teachers. It also said that smaller communities did not have the capacity to fill such institutions, although local populations were in favor of the idea. The primary reasons for not creating junior colleges stemmed from political tensions. University officials (including those from the Extension Centers), the State Colleges, and the vocational schools “had worked together to maintain a strong position against junior colleges, which they saw as potentially damaging to their interests” (p. 64). Instead, the higher education institutions decided that they wanted to coordinate their efforts rather than establish new institutions. 104 Despite a strong negative reaction to the junior college idea in the 1950s, the issue proved to be persistent and periodically resurface over time. In 1965, legislators revisited the issue. The governor wanted to create community colleges to provide adequate post-secondary educational opportunities at an affordable cost. He also wanted to give control of the colleges to the VTAE with the hope of preventing the academic track from dominating the curriculum. He argued that current higher education institutions fail to “coordinate anything” and it was time for a community college system. Concurrently, the city-sponsored vocational high schools were in decline. The legislators passed a bill that closed the remaining vocational high schools by 1970 and replaced them with multi-county vocational-technical school districts (as mentioned in the previous section). The districts would be supported by a district-wide property tax levy. The original bill would have given VTAE the option to authorize liberal arts transfer courses in addition to their traditional programs, turning all of them into community colleges. However, an assemblyman, who was prompted by the UW and State University lobbying, amended the piece of the legislation and prohibited the transfer of liberal arts credits to either the UWS or the State Universities. This provision to the legislation successfully halted the community college movement in Wisconsin. The issue resurfaced in 1969 when a study came out on education and employment. The report recommended the creation of a statewide system of “comprehensive area colleges” (Bower, 2002, p.97). These colleges would offer programs in four areas: adult education, vocational education, technical education, and liberal arts. The plan suggested forming the area colleges from mergers of existing vocational schools and either UW centers or WSU branch campuses. The proposed plan would save the state money in higher education costs and benefit the students. According to the plan, “students would be better served by being able to transfer 105 easily from a liberal arts curriculum to a vocational-technical program without the stigma that was often attached to such a move” (Bower, 2002, p.97). All existing higher education institutions resisted the plan. Once again, the technical schools were concerned that the liberal arts function would dominate the vocational curriculum. The business community sided with the vocational schools, worried that a focus on the liberal arts function would produce a less viable workforce. The UWS was also against the proposal and “noted that the missions of the Centers (UWC) and the Vocational-Technical institutions were significantly and deliberately different and that serious damage would occur to both if they were compelled to merge programs” (p.97). The UWS offered an opinion that if the Centers merged with the vocational schools, the administrators and faculty members from the Centers would seek new employment rather than continue to serve in a radically different institution (Bower, 2002). Transfer Curriculum Offered at Three of the Technical Colleges While the decision to add a transfer curriculum at one of the technical colleges was completed well before the Coordinating Committee for Higher Education was established in the 1950s, another two technical colleges were approved by the committee in the 1960s for different reasons. The first technical colleges to offer the transfer curriculum developed as a result of the Depression. There was increased demand in the region to provide an education to those that were displaced after high school and also for inner city youth in need of a “second chance opportunity” (Paris, 1985, p. 74). The next technical college to offer the curriculm added the program for primarily financial reasons. Their educational leaders initiated the transfer curriculum in 1965 in the form of liberal arts courses to strengthen their chances of accreditation by the North Central Association. Securing accreditation was a requirement for securing federal funds under Title III. The transfer program was included at the third technical college in 1968 106 because there was no existing higher education institution serving that region of the state (Paris, 1985). The University of Wisconsin Merger The merger of the UW and the state colleges in 1971 was a key event in the history of transfer. This event defined the bifurcated missions by law, establishing the UWC as the gateway to the baccalaureate and the technical colleges as an occupational institution. The merger was also significant to the transfer relationship between systems, as it established that the systems would function “cooperatively yet independently” (Paris p. 136). It was legislated that the president of the Wisconsin Board of VTAE would be an ex officio member of the BOR and the president of the BOR would be an ex officio member of the Wisconsin Board of VTAE. The goal of this joint representation meant that the UWS and the VTAE system would work together to ensure that the system coordinated efforts, however the ambiguous language in the legislation allowed collaboration to be left at a minimum. After the merger completed, the BOR passed the Undergraduate Transfer Policy in 1973. In it, the system acknowledged that there were increasing numbers of students that use credits from more than one institution to complete a bachelor’s degree. The policy made it clear that the only credits that would transfer from the VTAE institutions were those taken as part of the college parallel program (courses taken at one of the three vocational schools mentioned in the previous section). No vocational courses or non-college general education courses would be considered by the UWS. The section of the document that discussed VTAE transfer was titled “special situations,” which demonstrates that the transfer of courses from VTAE was rare and typically disallowed. Despite the message that courses taken at the VTAE do not typically transfer, the BOR policy concluded with a message that urges UW “units,” what are now called institutions, be “sensitive” to non-baccalaureate institutions and to “consider the special 107 situations of transfer students” (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1973). Although there were three policy amendments in 1975, 1976, and 1984, major changes to the vocational school transfer section did not occur until 16 years later in 1989. However, the idea to develop a community college system resurrected in the middle of the 1970s. In 1975, the Department of Administration conducted a budget analysis and concluded that it would be fiscally responsible to merge seven UW Centers with vocational schools. Similar to what occurred in the late 1960s, the proposal was met with staunch resistance. The vocational schools and business community worried that a merger would result in a diminishing focus on vocational education. Also against the merger, the UW argued that there were large obstacles to overcome before the merger could occur, including the struggle for control “between academic and vocational-technical personnel” and “accommodating those tenured Center System faculty who refused voluntarily to transfer to the VTAE schools” (Bower, 2002, p. 127). As a result, the proposal was tabled. During the 1970s and 1980s, the UW Centers 18 became the two- year liberal arts colleges for the state. The VTAE system remained connected with high schools and true to their mission of preparing people for the workplace. Statutes to Increase Collaboration From 1940 to 1982, vocational enrollments grew dramatically from 48,000 to 466,000 (Paris, 1985). During this time, programs developed to meet the needs of industry and student demand. Statutes were passed that required VTAE to charge tuition and improve cooperation and coordination with the UWS. Thus, in 1972, the president of the UWS and the State Board of VTAE established the Joint Administration Committee for Academic Programs (JACAP), the Joint Administration Committee on Continuing Education (JACCE), and the Joint Administration Committee on Physical Facilities (JACPF). These committees provided an 18 The UW Centers become the UW Colleges (Bower, 2002). 108 opportunity to conduct mutual planning between the VTAE system and the UWS (Paris, 1985). While the primary responsibility of JACCE was to coordinate noncredit programs, the responsibility for coordinating full-time academic credit programs was held by JACAP. JACAP is responsible for all new programs and is charged with eliminating unnecessary duplication between the systems. Whether credit or noncredit, each system must “sign off” on the other system programs to ensure there is no program duplication. For example, in the 1970s a problem arose when a UW cheese-making program was referred to as an apprenticeship. JACAP recommended that the program not be referred to as an apprenticeship since that is the responsibility of the VTAE system. Although developed 40 years ago, JACAP still oversees all coordinating efforts between the systems, including transfer. In the early 1970s to late 1980s, transfer between the technical colleges and the UWS happened only inter-institutionally. According to Administrator 2, the systems were relatively uninvolved in transfer during this time period, despite “student complaints that their credits do not transfer.” She said that students that followed the transfer curriculum at one of the three technical colleges authorized to offer a collegiate transfer program could transfer credits, however students enrolled in technical associate degree or diploma programs “transferred relatively few general education or technical coursework.” Additional Action by the Legislature and Changes to the Transfer Policy In the late 1980s, the state was recovering from a recession and years of inflationary price increases. Concurrently, the technical system was fiscally deteriorating. A governor’s task force once again proposed a study to examine a possible merger of the UW Centers and the vocational institutions. From a government perspective, this appeared to be a logical solution, as it would economize through staff reductions and the elimination of duplicate courses. However, protests 109 from both the vocational schools and UW institutions once again took place. They argued that “historically, Wisconsin had deliberately separated the two systems, so that each could concentrate on its distinct mission: job training for the VTAE and college transfer for the Centers” (Bower, 2002, p. 192). Industry also pushed back on the proposal in fear of a deemphasizing vocational skills education. As a result, the governor decided not to complete the merger. However, due to the scrutiny the technical institutes came under as a result of the governor’s task force, they pursued a name change from “technical institutes” to “technical colleges” in 1988. This name change was assumed to help the technical colleges be perceived as more collegiate (Bower, 2002). Student frustration grew regarding the transferability of coursework between the systems and in 1989, the legislature created a law that mandated cooperation between the systems. According to Wisconsin Statute 36.11(3)(cm), The Board (of Regents) shall establish and maintain a computer-based credit transfer system that shall include, but not be limited to, the following: 1. All transfers of credit between institutions within the system 2. Program specific course requirements in the system 3. Vocational, technical and adult education college parallel program offerings 4. Other courses for which the transfer of credits is accepted According to the UWS (2010), the Transfer Information System (TIS) was designed to monitor and communicate transfer policies between the VTAE and UW systems. TIS is a computerized course equivalency and degree requirement matrix designed to provide students and staff with accurate, current, and accessible information to assist students with decisions that will enable them to transfer into and between the UWS institutions and complete their degree programs without unnecessary delay. This web-based service can identify the transferability of general education courses and other courses that have been articulated between the systems. 110 Administrator 2 said, the TIS began “with a very good clear message from the legislature that we needed to be doing something.” This legislation came at a time when educators were starting to explore how to use the Internet for educational purposes. Wisconsin modeled the TIS after a similar Internet based program the University of Minnesota created. Administrator 2 said that while she was “probably more enamored by the technology” than the actual topic of transfer, the TIS has really evolved over time. She said “we’ve gotten to the point where we are really focused on what’s on the site and in the meantime have stayed toe to toe on that since 89.” The systems currently meet twice a year to discuss the TIS and have designated people to populate the information and monitor the coursework as it changes over time. The TIS has evolved to a system where students can not only go to see how their courses articulate, but also a place where they can address other transfer issues, such as “what transfer means” and “how some majors require specific general education, whereas others do not.” While the TIS has clear benefits for students, the site only provides information for courses that are already articulated. It does not provide major specific general education courses 19 . For example, if a student at UTC wanted to major in chemistry once they transferred, the TIS can not provide them a course list of specific general education courses required as part of a chemistry degree to take before they transfer. Therefore, a student in this situation might complete an associate of arts or sciences at UTC, but still have additional courses to take to satisfy their major. At the same time that the TIS was mandated by the legislature in 1989, the VTAE went to the BOR to discuss the barriers VTAE students encounter in the transfer process. Administrator 19 Major specific general education courses are courses that are part of the general education curriculum but are also prescribed by a given major. It is important to note that in 2011, UWS started a project to enhance the TIS. The enhancement project focuses are articulating how students’ courses articulate into a specific major at a particular four-year institution. For example, if a student wants to transfer from UTC to the local public four-year institution for a degree in English they can go online, plug in their credits earned and see how the credits filter into that particular four-year English degree plan. UWS is currently rolling out this project one four-year at a time. 111 2 said that representatives from both boards met several times in the late 1980s to discuss possible solutions to the “transfer dilemma.” According to Administrator 25, a former high-level administrator at UWS, the collaboration was encouraged rather than mandated. He said “as constituents, mainly parents and students, were putting pressure on their legislators to get their credits to transfer.” In the BOR meeting minutes from December 1989, the BOR thanked the VTAE board for sharing their concerns regarding transferability with the BOR. This collaboration was significant for three reasons. First, it demonstrates the first system collaboration regarding transfer. Second, it illustrates an awareness of the importance of transfer for vocational students from both boards and is the first time that the VTAE had advocated formally in support of student transfer. Third, when the president of the BORs discussed the importance of vocational student transfer, a Regent noted that a transfer relationship with VTAE can provide a bridge “from one system to another,” but more importantly “should have an impact on minority students, many of whom start their postsecondary educations in VTAE institutions” (University of Wisconsin, December, 1989). This was the first time, formally, that minority students were acknowledged in regards to transfer, demonstrating that some administrators and educational leaders were aware of the potential impact transfer and transfer polices could have for historically underrepresented students in the vocational schools. The result of the discussions between the boards was a revised BOR transfer policy, signed during the same meeting in December of 1989. The BOR transfer policy, originally created in 1973, was altered in a number of ways to allow more vocational students to transfer more credits to the UWS. First, the VTAE was no longer included under the heading of “special situations,” but rather a section titled, “Facilitating the Transfer of Credit from Non- 112 Baccalaureate Institutions to the UWS Baccalaureate Granting Institutions” (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1989). This change, although small, symbolized that VTAE transfer was no longer a special circumstance, but something that would happen more regularly. Second, where previous policy objected to any occupational general education (non-college parallel courses) to transfer, the UWS now allowed 15 credits to transfer if the student earned the applied associate degree. This was a large victory for the VTAE and opened the door for future policy amendments regarding the acceptance of occupational general education courses. This allowed a vocational student to transfer to the UWS with at least 15 credits completed towards degree. Finally, a section was added noting that in many cases the vocational programs offered at VTAE align with select bachelor degree programs at UW institutions. It is recognized that a professional development pattern exists for many persons trained in certain vocational-technical programs who inter transfer to a UWS institution to continue their studies in the same general field. UWS institutions will work with the Wisconsin VTAE institutions to identify cases where non-college parallel associate degree programs have a direct relationship with one of their programs. In such cases, students who complete a VTAE associate degree program and subsequently enroll in a UWS program may be able to transfer certain related occupational and technical credits. Where program relationships are found to exist, transfer articulation agreements are encouraged (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1989). This amendment to the policy was also a large success for the VTAE institutions. Similar to the non-college level general education, the vocational-technical courses were not allowed to transfer before this policy was signed. It meant that articulation agreements between the systems would make it possible for vocational-technical courses to transfer. The caveat was that in order to take advantage of the agreement, students had to complete the applied associate degree. Despite the progress that was made for vocation-technical students in this policy amendment, language was added to the document to remind educators of the continued bifurcated missions of the systems and the importance of retaining the quality of their programs. 113 The University of Wisconsin System bases its general policy on the acceptance of credit from another institution on that institution’s mission, quality of programs, and its status with an accrediting agent approved by the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA) (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1989). This sentence in particular demonstrates that although the UWS added amendments that facilitated credit transfer from the technical colleges that the acceptance of credits is still contingent on what institution the credits are being transferred from and whether UW faculty deem the coursework of the appropriate level of rigor. The addition of this sentence to the transfer policy identifies many of the transfer concerns mentioned today regarding technical college student transfer. According to Administrator 25, some administrators, faculty, and staff are still concerned that the emphasis on vocational education will ultimately bring down the level of rigor of the coursework. This part of the policy also establishes the UWS in the position of power when it comes to course acceptance. The 1990s and a Shift Towards a Comprehensive College Model In the 1990s, transfer from the technical colleges became a concern for two primary reasons. First, faculty and staff were increasingly being approached by students about credit transferability and second, technical program transfer was being discussed nationally. In 1993, Barkley, a higher education administrator predicted the following: The need to articulate community college vocational/technical programs with university baccalaureate programs will become increasingly important as our society’s technological needs evolve. The nation’s community colleges have largely embraced the concept of their partnership with business and industry as part of their mission. As more community college students earn technical certificates and degrees, more also will be interested in furthering their education at the baccalaureate level. (Barkley, 1993, p. 42) Providing college transfer courses in the technical schools was a challenge for the VTAE as Wisconsin Statute 38.04 (4)(c) stated the following: “Collegiate transfer programs shall not comprise more than 25% of the approved credit hours offered in any technical college district” (State of Wisconsin, 2011). In other words, 20-code courses (college transfer courses) can not 114 represent more than 25% of the college course inventory. Additionally, the VTAE is limited in its ability to offer Liberal Arts Transfer program, statewide. Despite these policy restrictions, the VTAE was heavily influenced by transfer pressures from their students and the national landscape to increase transfer offerings for students. As a result, the vocational schools continued to move in the direction of establishing themselves as reputable two-year comprehensive colleges by abandoning the name of “vocational school” and changing the title of vocational school leaders. Although the vocational schools started offering associate degrees in the early 60s, they were not referred to as a “college” until the late 80s (Bower, 2002). In 1993, Wisconsin Act 399 renamed the VTAE system, changing it to the Technical College System, and designated the State Board as the Technical College System Board. The term “Director” traditionally used to designate the leader of a vocational school district was also changed to “President.” According to Administrator 2, the title change occurred to reflect the more common term used nationally to refer to leaders of two-year public colleges. The name change at the system and campus levels, as well as the title change of administrative leaders highlights a subtle shift in identity from a vocational school to a traditional comprehensive community college. At about the same time, the Senior Vice President of the UWS appointed a UW working group to study transfer within and between the systems. “The charge of the group was to review the UWS Undergraduate Transfer Policy of 1989, assess current transfer practices and recommend revisions or additions as needed to improve the overall transfer process” (University of Wisconsin, December 1995). In 1994, the group visited several UW institutions to speak with faculty and sent out a formal survey to students. The WTCS was mentioned in the study, but no 115 formal interviews were conducted with faculty from technical colleges, symbolizing the continued perception that transfer was more likely to happen within the UWS, rather than between the systems. The major policy change adopted as a result of the working group was a change to policy title. Instead of “spirit of accommodation,” the section was renamed the “principles of accommodation” (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1995). The principles of accommodation did not apply to WTCS at the time, but are eventually extended to them in 2011. Where the term “spirit” encouraged institutional accommodation of transfer students, the underlying expectation in the revised policy of 1995 is that transfer students should be accommodated by institutions to the fullest extent possible and should, with rare exception, be treated the same as continuing students (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1995). This change highlights two developments. First, the UWS recognizes that they can no longer simply encourage institutions to work on behalf of transfer students, but it has to mandate it through policy. Second, it also highlights that transfer students from the WTCS are not yet considered on par with transfer students from within the system, as the principles, only applied to internal UW transfer students. Other policy changes in 1995 include altering two aspects of the WTCS transfer section to give WTCS more freedom in transferring their credit to the UWS. Similar to the 1989 version of the policy, students from WTCS can transfer 15 credits of occupational general education courses, but without earning the applied associate degree. A similar policy change was made to the articulation agreement aspect of the WTCS transfer section. Students that are taking technical courses that are part of an articulation agreement can transfer those courses to the UWS without finishing the applied associate degree (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1995). 116 Statewide Articulation and Program Assessment In addition to policy changes in the 90s, statewide articulation agreements between the systems were also discussed, but did not come to fruition until 2000. As mentioned in the Chapter II literature review, many states in the 1980s and 1990s promoted transfer between two- and four-year institutions. Specifically, several states promoted statewide articulation agreements for purposes of transferring credits from one institution to another, but in 1999 Wisconsin had not yet developed such agreements, a common general education core, or a common course numbering or equivalent system between its two- and four- year institutions (Ignash & Townsend, 2000). In 2000, Wisconsin introduced two new system wide articulation agreements in the areas of nursing and early childhood education. These new agreements are the first and only of their kind in Wisconsin. According to Administrator 2, they are both 2+2 models, where students from WTCS transfer to UWS with junior standing. According to Administrator 25, department faculty proposed the statewide agreements, where faculty recognized that many of the requirements for transfer were similar regardless of institution. Most articulation agreements between the technical colleges and UW institutions are created inter-institutionally. At the same time, transfer between the systems was increasing. JACAP established a joint working group between the two systems to design an appropriate reporting mechanism for program assessment and improvement for students transferring to the UWS from WTCS. In March 2001, a Data Exchange Memorandum of Understanding between the WTCS Board and the UW BOR was developed. The group’s primary objectives were to: (a) track students that transferred to the UWS from WTCS, specifically what their major was at WTCS and then their major at UWS; (b) identify potential program areas for developing new transfer articulation 117 agreements; and (c) assess outcomes of the WTCS transfer students, including retention and graduation. Although not disaggregated by race, the first report by the group was created in 2001 and provided a baseline for the assessment of current agreements and new agreements. The working group is currently working on their ninth report. According to Administrator 2, before the program assessment was created most of the transfer agreements were facilitated by the technical colleges. Before the report was disseminated faculty from both the WTCS and UWS were under the assumption that technical students do not perform well once they transferred. This highlights one of the perceptual barriers that technical students encounter in the transfer process. Some faculty from both systems perceived the transfer from the technical college as a “lesser” student, one that would not perform as well academically as a native student. According to Administrator 2, One of the reasons that we began that is that we had believers out there among faculty at the four-year and our own that did not think technical college people were retained at the four-year over time. So “why are we spending all this time on transfer? They come to the four-year by their second or third semester and by the time they get to the end they are gone. We put a lot of time and effort into this and the students don’t complete.” Or we have people who said and this is in nursing in particular, “we take them but they’re grade points are not good. When they come in it is just an issue.” Then we have people who have concerns that the majority of our students are part-timers and that they take a long time to complete. So it’s not just retention its also the amount of time it takes them to complete. So we decided to study these people and their grade points are good and retention is fine and they do complete. So we use that assessment report to reassure people that technical students were doing well and also to identify new program areas that we think are emerging. Increased Collaboration After 2000 In 2003, representatives from the UWS and the WTCS came together to discuss implementation strategies to increase the number of students that transfer between the systems. The group was established to address ongoing concerns from the technical college system, the legislature, and also select UW four-year institutions that depended on technical student transfer. Administrator 25 said, “UW-Stout was as concerned about opening transfer opportunities for 118 technical students as the technical colleges. They pulled most of their transfers from the nearby technical college.” The discussions of the group resulted in a report titled, the “6pts of Transfer.” Each point represented an implementation strategy for transfer that, if put into action would help to increase the number of transfer students from the WTCS to the UWS. The report was the impetus to yet another UWS transfer policy revision. It was also a partial impetus to the creation of the Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion, also referred to as COBE. For nearly 10 years, the UW Transfer policy had gone unchanged, however due to the 2003 collaborative discussions between the systems three amendments were made to the policy in 2004. Based on the discussions of this group and the subsequent report, the 1998 UW transfer policy was amended to include half of the recommendations put forth by the “6pts” of transfer group. First, UW institutions would now be able to transfer technical course on a course-by- course basis (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 2004). This is significant for the technical colleges. Before 2004, technical courses could only be accepted at a UW institution if they were already part of an established articulation agreement. Second, UW institutions can now accept up to 30 credits of occupational general education, whereas before it was only 15 credits (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 2004). Finally, the policy was amended to allow any student that completes the collegiate transfer program at a technical college the ability to transfer to any UW institution and have their lower division general education be considered met 20 (University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 2004). This amendment was a large gain for the technical colleges. It protects associate of arts and associate of science transfer students from the technical colleges from having to take additional lower division general education once they transfer to a four-year institution. Symbolically, it also brings technical students one step closer to the status already obtained by the UWC students. 20 This same provision of the policy was implemented for the UW College students’ 15 years prior. 119 When the UW transfer policy was amended, the COBE group was created. The COBE group was composed of members from both the UWS and the WTCS and was charged with identifying “additional cost-effective and collaborative strategies to expand the pool of baccalaureate degree holders in Wisconsin” (Pruitt & Smith, 2005). According to Administrator 28, the COBE group, although not legislated, was created due to “clear pressure from the legislature.” The legislature believed that the systems were not working as closely as they could be and were concerned about the loss of credit and the duplication of efforts across the systems. The legislature urged the systems to work together to create methods to increase the number of bachelor’s degree holders. The COBE group created 13 strategies and a proposed implementation process. The recommended strategies focus on enhancing student success and educational quality. These strategies seek to expand access to diverse populations, provide market-driven solutions, and build the foundation for long-term commitment between the two Systems to increase access to educational opportunities (Pruitt & Smith, 2005). After the committee concluded their work, the BOR asked the legislature to fund several projects associated with the recommendations put forth by the committee. The state responded by providing funding to the UWS for a grant program associated with the COBE project. A total of 37 projects were funded up to $75,000 between 2005-2012. According to Administrator 26, in order for WTCS to receive funding the program had to be in collaboration with the UWS, as “the money was provided from the state to the UWS.” After spring of 2012, the COBE grant program was combined with the Growth Agenda grant program, as grant managers noticed program duplication. The programs that were funded included degree completion programs, creation of Bachelor of Applied Sciences degrees, outreach programs to high schools, as well as the development of articulation agreements. Approximately 50% of the proposals funded were collaborations between a UW institution and a technical college. Only four of the funded 120 projects sought to specifically target students of color. The proposals that specifically involved UTC were collaborations that sought to create articulation agreements between UTC and a UW four-year institution. None of the grant-funded programs were statewide, but focused on specific programs and collaborations either at one institution or small groups of one to three institutions. Increasing the Collegiate Transfer Course Offerings In 2005, WTCS indicated that it would pursue additional collegiate transfer offerings through the development of pre-professional associate degree programs and through increasing the number of liberal arts associate degree programs. Motivated in part due to the recommendations of the COBE report, WTCS established criteria for approving collegiate transfer programs. At its September 2006 meeting, the WTCS Board approved the establishment of a liberal arts collegiate transfer degree program for the Chippewa Valley Technical District. As required by state statute (Wis. Stat. §36.31) 21 , any approval of additional transfer offerings at a technical college has to be approved by both the UW BOR and the WTCS Board. Prior to considering approval of the Chippewa Valley Technical District collegiate transfer program, the UW BOR decided to create and adopt criteria to be used in approving any broadening of collegiate transfer programs in WTCS districts. At the December 2006 Education Committee Meeting a set of criteria was presented. The criterion was approved by the BOR in early 2007. The key criteria includes: a demonstrated long-term need not currently met by a WTCS or UWS institution that cannot be reasonably met by a UWS institution, evidence of appropriate collaboration with existing UWS or WTCS (1) The board shall not, without the approval of the technical college system board, broaden the system's post-high school training mission to include the preparation of persons for semiprofessional or skilled-trade occupations beyond those offered during the 1972-73 academic year. The technical college system board shall not, without the approval of the BOR, broaden its system's collegiate transfer program offerings beyond those in existence during the 1972-73 academic year. 121 program, and the efficient and effective use of state higher-education resources. The WTCS is to draft a proposal demonstrating these criteria, submit to the UWS, and then the final authority rests with the BOR. In 2007, the WTCS wrote a proposal to request Chippewa Valley Technical College District be allowed to offer a collegiate transfer program. The WTCS justified the proposal, by stating that the nearest UWC was nearly 60 miles away and the UW four-year in the area “ has a very competitive admissions process and is currently unable to accommodate all qualified students interested in attending as new freshmen” (Chippewa Valley Technical College District, 2007). Unlike the programs offered at the original three technical colleges, Chippewa Valley was to offer the transfer curriculum in collaboration with the near-by four-year institution. Chippewa Valley would offer approximately two-thirds of the courses, where the other third would need to be completed by taking courses at the UW institution. The goal of this collaboration was to avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts. The proposal was approved by the BOR. This action represents another large gain for the WTCS in terms of transfer. The last transfer program that was approved was 40 years earlier. The WTCS also wrote a proposal in 2008 for Western Technical College to be allowed to offer a transfer curriculum. Similar to Chippewa Valley, Western Technical College had some of the same justifications for implementing the curriculum. The nearest UWC was 70 miles away and the closest four-year UW campus “is not an option for most of students because admission as a freshman is extremely competitive due to their limited capacity and high student demand” (Western Technical College District, 2008). The transfer curriculum was to be offered in collaboration with the UW four-year, where Western Technical College would offer approximately 45 credits and the UW four-year would offer approximately 20 credits. The 122 proposal was granted and Western Technical College became the fifth technical college district to be granted the authority to offer a collegiate transfer program. Efforts to Increase Transfer Students of Color To meet the goals of the Wisconsin Growth Agenda, the UWS participated in the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study in the fall 2008 through the summer of 2010. The study arose from the findings that emerged from using the Equity Scorecard, an ongoing initiative designed by the Center for Urban Education (CUE) to identify and close achievement gaps for historically underrepresented students. The specific goals of the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study (WiTE) were to: • Increase access for racial and ethnic minorities to the UW four-year institutions • Enhance transfer from the UW two-year colleges and the WTCS institutions for racial and ethnic minorities • Enhance baccalaureate degree attainment for racial and ethnic students from UW two- year colleges/WTCS institutions to UW four-year institutions • Establish benchmarks to assess progress towards transfer equity at the system level and for individual campuses The system evidence team, comprising representatives from UWS and WTCS, engaged in a variety of inquiry activities over the two-year project to gain insight into policies and structures that affect transfer outcomes for African American, Latino, Latina, Southeast Asian, and Native American students in Wisconsin. These activities included an extensive review of transfer data, a multi-state transfer policy audit, and a survey of transfer practices, policies, and programs administered to transfer professionals in Wisconsin. Two working groups on accountability and transfer policy also engaged in inquiry on transfer accountability and 123 articulation for technical programs, respectively. In the spring of 2010, teams of faculty and staff from three public four-year institutions, one UWC, and one technical college joined the study to provide institutional representation and identify choke points or barriers in the transfer pathway within an institution or between institutions. During the study, the system evidence team learned about many of the transfer challenges faced by Wisconsin. Notably, the system team discussed that WTCS could be a source of recruitment in terms of equity. For example, when the team compared the enrollment proportions of students of color in the UWS versus WTCS, they found that the majority of students of color are enrolled in WTCS, at approximately 3:1 22 . When the UWCs are compared to WTCS, at approximately 50:1 23 , demonstrating that students of color are more likely to be enrolled in a two-year technical college than a two-year liberal arts college (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). In addition, by conducting a multi-state transfer policy comparison the system team learned that Wisconsin transfer accountability needed to be improved. For example, the previous UWS accountability report included a hyperlink to a transfer informational memorandum in the “More to Explore” section, but otherwise did not systematically report on transfer in the main report. From the combination of these findings, the system team came to a consensus that it was important to enact policy and practice that would facilitate transfer from the technical colleges, as well as create an avenue to conduct continuous monitoring of the transfer via accountability reporting. At the conclusion of the study in the summer of 2010, the system team made several recommendations based on their inquiry activities and data examination. In June 2011, 22 Students enrolled in vocational adult or community service coursework were excluded. Data obtained from the UW Office of Policy Analysis and Research and the Wisconsin Technical College System. 23 The data includes students pursuing an associate’s degree, diploma, or basic skills. Students enrolled in vocational adult or community service coursework were excluded. Data obtained from the UW Office of Policy Analysis and Research and the Wisconsin Technical College System. 124 Administrator 1, presented the findings of the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study to the UW BOR at the Educational Committee BOR meeting and put forth the recommendations initially developed by the system team. One of the recommendations included revising the 2004 UW Transfer policy. The findings of the study showed that the Principles of Accommodation were not extended to WTCS transfer students. The system team recommended that the current UW Transfer Policy be revised so that the Principles of Accommodations for transfer are extended to technical college students. As a result of the WiTE, the 2004 UW transfer policy was revised. The UW Transfer Policy extends the Principles of Accommodation to WTCS students. Extending the principles to WTCS students requires UW institutions to treat transfer students identically in the admission process. This is a significant policy change for symbolic as well as practical reasons. Symbolically, it shows that the UWS welcomes technical students—who are more likely to be students of color—to pursue their baccalaureate degree at UW four-year institutions. It also provides evidence of a partnership between UWS and WTCS in ensuring that transfer is a robust pathway to expanded baccalaureate access for populations of color in Wisconsin. From a practical perspective, the WTCS student transition experience may potentially be less problematic because accommodations regarding academic procedures will be extended to them, including registering at the same time as continuing students. And, second, despite resistance from administrators at the UWC, students at the WTCS can now transfer an unlimited number of occupational general education, if approved by the receiving four-year institution. The UW Colleges were specifically concerned about allowing WTCS students to transfer an unlimited number of credits to the UWS for two primary reasons. First, they were concerned that these students would not be successful once they transfer and second, they argue that the 125 WTCS funding structure is at odds with the technical college system serving as the “front door” to the baccalaureate. Administrator 20, outlined the UWC position and argument as to why the cap on WTCS credits that transfer should not be lifted. WTCS is largely funded through property taxes. The UWCs argue that local property taxes are not appropriate funding for a university education given, a) university students are not typically trained to serve the local workforce, b) university programming is not typically customized to meet the needs of local business, and c) a university education makes individuals more mobile and more likely to relocate, “as opposed to the typical constituent of a technical college.” In addition, they argue that because of the large tax component (over 55% of operating budget), the technical college campuses are able to maintain very low tuition rates. Administrator 20 said, “this heavy subsidy, again, is consistent with tech college mission to train local workers and support local business.” The UWC argue that removing the cap on credits that transfer from the technical colleges only encourages students to take general education at the technical college, at a heavy subsidized price, and then transfer those credits to the university. They argue that this is in direct opposition to the intent of the property tax, which is to provide local residents with job training and support needs of local business. Administrator 20 argues that, “the property tax was never intended to fund over 55% of the first two years of a bachelor’s degree, which happens to make people more mobile.” 126 The Current and Future Status of Transfer at the Systems Level Transfer agreements between the institutions continue to happen inter-institutionally, with little coordination at the system-level. Currently, there are no specific system-level transfer task forces or groups that focus on increasing transfer between the systems. According to WTCS administrators, the systems meet twice a year to discuss issues of transfer. According to a former UW Regent, typically “the systems come together only when transfer is legislated, and then eventually go back to their respective corners.” According to a former legislator, transfer continues to be a “hot button” issue for legislators. The systems have received pressure from the legislature for more than three decades, urging them to work together and implement a seamless transfer system. However, Administrator 2 argues that the Legislature does not understand the “complicated” nature of transfer and creating a seamless system is “easier said than done.” To continue to encourage transfer between the systems, the governor is once again stepping in. He is preparing to implement new performance based budgeting metrics into state higher education funding streams. While the new budgeting scheme will include many weighted metrics, transfer is on the list, in the hope that tying metrics with funding will provide incentives to the institutions to work together (UW four-year faculty member, personal communication, July 7, 2012). Summary Overall, the WTCS has witnessed significant policy gains since the original 1973 UW transfer policy. In 1973, the technical colleges were not considered a potential pool for transfer students, but rather transfer was considered a “special situation.” Over time, the WTCS has been given more transfer rights and today has almost as many transfer rights as students transferring from the UWC. According to the policy, WTCS students are treated the same in the admissions 127 process, can transfer unlimited occupational general education courses and technical courses (given that they are approved by a UW institution), and when students transfer from a collegiate transfer program they are treated the same as students who have an AA or AS from a UWC. According to Administrator 22, “the missions have blurred over time between the [UW] Colleges and the technical colleges.” However, the barriers that technical college students’ encounter in the transfer process is still apparent in the current policy. The WTCS is still referred to under a separate section of the policy and the language in the introduction to the policy positions institutional purpose and quality of coursework as major factors in whether courses will be accepted for transfer. For example, while the UWS “welcomes transfer students from accredited colleges and universities both within and outside of Wisconsin,” the BOR still recognizes that there are limitations to transferability contingent on the type of sending institution. In the opening statement of the 2011 transfer policy, the BOR added a caveat to their “student-centered transfer process.” The BOR recognizes that the transfer policy must also consider legitimate differences among educational institutions and their missions and academic programs, and acknowledges institutional autonomy and program integrity. In this statement, the BOR still identifies the institutional mission as a factor in whether courses are transferable. This statement illustrates that credit acceptance is contingent on the evaluation of the receiving institution, where maintaining the level of coursework rigor is an important component. This places all the power of transferability in the hands of the four-year institution and allows for technical college students to be discriminated against based on where their credits were earned. The history of transfer in Wisconsin provides context to the current transfer landscape. Collaborating on issues of transfer has evolved over time. Historically, the legislature encouraged or forced transfer collaborations. The reluctance to work together on issues of 128 transfer largely stemmed from the historical roots of the educational system that have become institutionalized. For more than 100 years, leaders and decision makers have adhered to a state higher education structure that serves two purposes: (a) provide educational opportunities for students in the university system and (b) provide educational opportunities to prepare students for employment. Despite an early reluctance to work together regarding transfer, collaborating has increased due to factors such as student demands for course transferability and an awareness that the state needs to increase the number of baccalaureate degrees. According to Administrator 2, “transfer has become common practice,” “we no longer need committees made up of top level leadership, but transfer has become something that happens with our staff on a day to day basis.” Although the transfer function at the WTCS has become a common practice, there is still evidence of transfer barriers that exist due to mission, perception of the technical colleges, and the risk of duplicating effort. Although the period of the vocational school is over, it has left a complex institutional legacy for the technical college system. While system-level transfer policy has made significant gains since the early 1970s, how the transfer policy is interpreted and implemented by technical college practitioners has yet to be examined. In Part III, I briefly outline the current state and local political context. PART III: Current State and Local Political Context While the history of transfer provides the necessary context, today’s state and local political landscape must be addressed to further understand the UTC environment. In this section, I briefly discuss the current state and local politics in which UTC is embedded. According to Administrator 31, “UTC is located in a state that just experienced the most contentious legislative session in Wisconsin history.” In the midst of partisan politics in the 129 state, the UTC campus also came under fire and was the subject of the last bill to be debated on the floor before the legislative session ended in March 2012. Although these politics did not specifically focus on transfer, the political environment is important to acknowledge as it has implications for the future of UTC leadership and Labor agreements, both of which were found to influence how transfer policy is interpreted and implemented. State Politics The 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, also known as the Wisconsin budget repair bill, was legislation proposed by Republican Governor Scott Walker and passed by the Wisconsin Legislature to address the projected $3.6 billion budget deficit (J. Stein & Marley, 2011). The legislation primarily impacted the following areas: collective bargaining, compensation, retirement, health insurance, and sick leave of public sector employees. On June 29, 2011 the bill was passed into law (Biggs, 2012). The aim of the legislation to amend the collective bargaining rights made this legislation particularly controversial. Under the previous law, municipal employees have the right to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment (Biggs, 2012). The bill limits the right to collectively bargain for all employees to the subject of base wages. In addition, unless a referendum authorizes a greater increase, any general employee who is part of a collective bargaining unit is limited to bargaining over a percentage of total base wages increase that is no greater than the percentage change in the consumer price index. In addition, under this law state and local government workers are required to increase contributions to their health insurance and pensions (Biggs, 2012). As a result, many union workers, such as faculty, have faced pay cuts. The battle over the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions were at the heart of the 2011 recall election in Wisconsin. 130 According to Administrator 31, the labor contracts in Wisconsin were very complex and “had grown up over years and years.” The collective bargaining agreements, which were created and decided upon by professional negotiating teams, ran the “day to day” of the college for over forty years. These agreements not only set wages, but also decided on “what faculty taught, how often they taught, where and when they taught.” According to Administrator 31, all of this changed when Act 10 was passed. In the pre-Act 10 era, the technical college boards could not make any decision regarding faculty without union input and approval. For example, at one of the technical colleges, the administration wanted to change the semester schedule to three terms instead of two. Enacting this type of change was not possible for administrators pre-Act 10. He argues that this is a “major shift” in the culture of the college and will create “tension” between the faculty and the administration and board. Currently, UTC is still operating under their pre- Act 10 agreements, but the “changes are to dramatically affect how Urban Tech operates over the next two years” and he argues that “its going to play out in some very dramatic ways in terms of the role the union has or tries to exert.” Local Politics In addition to Act 10, approximately seven months after Act 10 was made into law, a bill was proposed to change the composition and appointment process of the technical college boards. The original bill was broad in scope and aimed to influence all technical college boards, however after consideration the bill was amended to specifically focus on UTC and the new version included dramatic changes to the board, its composition, and the appointing authority. The guiding principles that established technical board composition and appointing authority were created when the continuation schools were founded over 100 years ago and signed into law in 1971 (Merrifield, 2011). For over forty years, the technical boards were 131 appointed according to law and consisted of two employers, two employees, one local K-12 school administrator, one state or local elected official, and three at-large members (Merrifield, 2011). The appointing authority rested with school district leaders. According to the proponents of the bill, the legislation was the result of poor business and industry alignment with the UTC curriculum as well as the argument that UTC graduates are not as well prepared as the graduates of other technical colleges (Royal, 2012). The new bill sought to eliminate all nine persons from their UTC board positions upon passage. It also stood to eliminate the longstanding appointment committee of 22 school board presidents and replace it with a committee of four county officials. Finally, it planned to eliminate the two-employer, two-employee and one of the three at large members on the board, to be replaced with five private for-profit “businessperson” seats. It defined private business seats as open only to current employees of businesses a) larger than 30 employees (all five business seats), b) larger than 100 (two of the five seats), and c) manufacturing businesses (two of the five). In the spring of 2012, the bill was vigorously debated inside the assembly and in the public. The bill received strong support from business groups led by the Metropolitan Association of Commerce. However, it was opposed by all of the technical colleges, the Wisconsin Technical College System, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, and the Wisconsin Counties Association. A large number of advocates made contacts opposing assembly concurrence. According to Administrator 31, college presidents, board members, faculty and staff, students, and others made calls, sent email, and visited the Capitol. UTC faculty, staff, and students came to the Capitol on the evening it was debated, which also happened to be the last day of the session. A leadership team from UTC spent significant time in the Capitol for several days, as did WTCS staff including the president and vice president 132 of the technical college system. Despite these efforts, the bill passed in a “marathon 36-hour final floor day that concluded the 2011-2012 session.” According to Administrator 31, we worked very hard to keep the bill from passage. In the end, however, this bill became the last test of wills between majority Republicans and minority Democrats in a session that was highly contentious from start to finish. Opponents of the bill say that the bill had much less to do with aligning business and industry needs with the UTC curriculum and more to do with getting those who were in power out of power. According to Administrator 30, “UTC had a political board” and “everything about UTC is political.” A returning UTC board member said that the bill was a way to remove the previous board whom had made several political decisions that Republicans “did not like.” For example, the previous UTC board came out against Arizona Senate Bill 1070, also known as the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. The UTC board decided they would not do any business with the state of Arizona until the law was repealed. This political decision created a radio talk show, online blog, and other media “fire storm,” where the board was characterized as “a bunch of liberal union lackeys” and “off the rails.” The community perception that was created by the media gave the bill traction. A lobbyist for the WTCS agreed that the bill was proposed as a result of such political decisions, but also in response to a UTC board that Republicans felt was too “pro-union.” At the state level, Act 10 was intended to limit the power of unions, yet Republicans felt that Act 10 was not enough in the case of UTC because more than half of the previous board was “sympathetic to Labor’s cause.” Passing the bill ensured that the current members were immediately replaced and the “hope by Republicans that this bill would dramatically reduce the power of the union at UTC.” 133 Summary Since the passing of the bill, a new UTC Board has been appointed using the new appointment guidelines. The results of Act 10 have yet to be implemented because the Act is currently under appeal. If upheld, the fruits of Act 10 will not be witnessed until the end of the current faculty contract, which expires at the end of 2013. The UTC union will have less power in matters concerning academic programs and the day-to-day operations of the college. If upheld, dramatic changes will be on the horizon for UTC. Although not specifically linked to issues of transfer, the current state and local political context is important because it provides a glimpse into the highly political environment in which UTC is embedded. As evidenced in the beginning of this chapter, reinforcing the original mission of the technical colleges was firmly rooted in a series of political decisions made in the last century. For example, there were several attempts to create a community college system, yet practitioners and politicians tended to support the idea that the systems were deliberately different and merging the two was not in the best interest of the state. More importantly, efforts to integrate the academic and transferable curriculum were continually met with resistance not only by educators and politicians, but also by Labor as well, citing the notion that the addition of academic coursework would be detrimental to vocational programs. In the following chapter, I explore the UTC context comprehensively emphasizing the results of this dissertation. 135 CHAPTER V: Factors that Influence Policy Interpretation The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the factors that influence how administrators, faculty, and staff interpret and implement the transfer program and policy. In this chapter, I outline the primary factors that influence policy interpretation. As mentioned in Chapter III, I coded the data from prior research and theory and identified themes found in the raw data. By extracting common themes, I was able to identify factors that influence policy interpretation that align with findings from previous research as well as additional factors that can contribute to this body of literature. Table 11 lists the factors and the number of interviews where practitioners referred to the corresponding factor as important in the policy’s interpretation. Table 11 Factors that Influence Policy Interpretation Factors that Influence Policy Interpretation Number of Interviews Where Practitioners Mentioned the Factor as Important in Policy Interpretation Institutional Identity and History 23 A Fear of a Loss of Power 15 Actions and Priorities of Leadership 13 Perception of the Policy Target Population 19 New Narratives 18 Concern for Equity 6 Note. The bolded text refers to factors that previous researchers have also identified as important in the interpretation of policy. 136 Institutional identity and history was the most prevalent factor, mentioned in 23 of the 46 interviews conducted with UTC board members, administrators, faculty, and staff. A concern for equity was mentioned the fewest times at six out 46 UTC interviews. Although there were other factors, these six were the most discussed in interview conversations. Of the six factors, only institutional identity and history and the actions and priorities of leadership are previously discussed in the policy implementation literature framed by sensemaking. In the following sections I discuss each factor. Institutional Identity and History: “Its in our DNA” The primary factor that influences how practitioners interpret the transfer policy at UTC is institutional identity and history. When practitioners were asked to rank the importance of transfer on their institutional agenda, most practitioners report that transfer was an important option for students, but also noted that the transfer function was a clear “second” when compared to providing students with occupational skills to enter the workforce. Institutional identity and history were found to guide how practitioners perceived the concept of transfer within a technical college environment, but also served for some as a rationale for resisting the expansion of transfer opportunities. In this section, I describe a culture with a strong occupational education identity that serves as a lens for how practitioners interpret transfer policy within a technical college environment. When speaking with Faculty Member 7 about the mission of the college—she stated that UTC was a place for “higher education, spelled H-I-R-E education” and then she laughed. This African American female is a strong supporter of transfer and sees humor in the fact that the “jobs” mission is so pervasive in the institution. She describes that the word “transfer is almost like a dirty word” to some people on campus. Administrator 5 is also aware of this apparent 137 divide of transfer supporters and those that are “vehemently against anything transfer.” When asked why transfer is perceived in this manner, She said, I think it is the history. That’s an extremely important piece. It was in the 60s or the 70s that we got the transfer function, so it’s relatively new to our history. I think it was this add-on piece that wasn’t part of our original frame and people think it takes us away from who we are. Our city has a past in manufacturing and our college a history in the trades. The history and identity of the college was the most mentioned factor participants offered as a rationale for transfer being a secondary aim of the college. When discussing the goals of the college, almost every practitioner told the story of how the college system is unique from other states and was founded to provide students the skills for employment. Both transfer supporters and those favoring the occupational mission cited the region’s strong past in manufacturing and the college purpose as rationales for the secondary ranking of transfer on the list of institutional priorities. As the president of the college mentioned, “providing people the skills for jobs is just who we are.” According to practitioners, while the identity of the institution originated with the technical college system, it also grew out of the need for manufacturing workers in the city. A city history of manufacturing. As an administrator said, “a two-year college situated in a city with a manufacturing past that focuses on the trades—makes sense.” The city of Lanchester was once “the machine shop of the country.” As early as 1860, Lanchester had become the center for modern manufacturing by creating finished products from raw materials in the environment. Lanchester's strong base in small skilled crafts provided a foundation for the large manufacturing companies that came to dominate the region. While Lanchester was not Wisconsin's only city to experience a growth in manufacturing during the late 19th century, it had the advantages of an expanding market, a steady stream of immigrant labor, and easy access to materials and customers through an advancing transportation system (Wisconsin Historical Society, n.d., p. 7). Lanchester led the 138 country in iron and steel industries before they became concentrated in other large cities. Production of iron on a large scale began when the Lanchester Iron Company opened its doors in 1870. The plant produced iron rails for railroads, a seemingly inexhaustible industry as railroads expanded westward, that provided a base for an enlarged foundry and machinery industry. Lanchester was also home to the Ellis Company, which from 1901 to 1980 built heavy machinery for mines, power plants, and public utilities. Most of the other cities in Wisconsin focused on one or two industries, whereas Lanchester held a great variety (Wisconsin Historical Society, n.d.). Currently, Lanchester is still considered a commercial and industrial hub. It is home to six Fortune 1000 manufacturing companies, and the metro area places among the top in the United States for percentage of its workforce in manufacturing. It currently leads the nation in the production of industrial controls, X-ray equipment, steel foundry parts, and mining machinery. The city is also considered a printing and publishing center, as more than 11% of the top 70 printing companies in North American are based in the area (Wisconsin Historical Society, n.d.). While manufacturing is a strong component of the city’s economy, jobs in this area are decreasing with the largest gains seen in service jobs (Wisconsin Historical Society, n.d.). Job losses in the manufacturing area are blamed for large increases in the city’s poverty levels. Since 1970, Lanchester has lost 40% of its manufacturing jobs, leaving the unemployment rate at 9% overall and at 53% specifically for black men in their prime working age years (25-64) (Rohde, 2011; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). The significant losses in manufacturing jobs are illustrated in the urban decay when walking on the periphery of the UTC campus. Large vacant warehouses run kitty corner to the 139 main UTC building. A tall metal fence and a sign that says “No Trespassing” enclose an old factory made of brick. Other examples include the shipping and receiving area of the factory and the parking areas and streets of abandoned buildings, where shrubs or natural vegetation can be seen growing in the cracks of the pavement. Administrator 9 argues that Lanchester’s longstanding past in manufacturing jobs has created a “blue class mentality” that has persisted even though manufacturing jobs are in decline. This is a working class city. It’s a city where people worked in factories and did very well. When I came to this city in 1967 I viewed it as a workingman’s paradise. You could work at one of the factories. You can see those cream factory buildings. You can work at the foundries. It has roots of the working class culture. Manufacturing and the technical trades are perceived to be in the “DNA” of the city and subsequently the college. UTC is as old as some of the longest standing manufacturing companies and prides itself on providing these companies with a stream of workers. Even after many of the manufacturing jobs were “off-shored” in the 1980s and 1990s, the community, and the college still identifies itself as “blue-collar.” This is a blue-collar community. It’s not as blue-collar as it was when I came here forty years ago. Most of the people here have family and parents who worked in manufacturing in the factory. It’s a town where people worked three shifts, a manufacturing town. While some things have changed as jobs have moved abroad, there is still a blue-collar mentality at the college. Administrator 9 said that the culture has changed slightly, but “only for the white folks.” He argues that the white men that worked in the factories of Lanchester want a better life for their children. So they got their kids and told them, “You need to go to college. You can go to [name of local private four-year institution] over there. Go to [name of local public four-year institution], places like that.” But the culture maintained is still a working class culture. The idea of education, higher education was not something that was pushed in these African-American communities. The racial divide described is observed in which demographic populations are going to the 140 university. If you look at kids at the Southside of the community in the suburbs, their parents were very blue collar but now they are getting their kids on the path to college. On the north side, in the inner city, they are not being encouraged; there are not a lot of jobs. We have a very high unemployment rate for African-Americans. Despite an evolving culture, the area prides itself on its manufacturing past. The city’s longstanding relationship with manufacturing provides UTC a niche in serving the community. According to the UTC president, UTC was created on a manufacturing “bedrock.” An embedded technical identity. UTC has trained workers to labor in the city’s manufacturing industries for decades, providing the city with a viable workforce, while also providing the college a strong technical education identity. As mentioned in Chapter IV, Part I, the history of the technical college system is unique. The law defines the mission, specifically focusing technical college efforts towards occupational education and preventing transfer curriculum expansion beyond 25% of their curricular offerings. The findings of this study illustrate that the technical identity of the institution is not only embedded in laws at the state level, but is heavily embodied by many UTC practitioners. The majority of practitioners interviewed in this study ranked providing a technical education higher than a transfer curriculum because of the institutional historical identity. Often in conversations with practitioners about transfer they narrate how the college was founded and how it is different from community colleges across the country. In this section, I outline the identity of the college by describing how the identity is visible on campus and reflected in select procedural policies of the campus. Board Member 1 describes UTC as a place that provides student opportunity. As the UTC mission clearly states, UTC “is a premier, comprehensive technical college that provides 141 excellence in education to enrich, empower, and transform lives in our community.” She describes UTC as a unique institution in that it is different from a traditional community college. Sometimes someone coming from another state may not understand. Wisconsin is a unique system. A lot of the technical colleges in other states came to the states in the 70s or in the last ten years. We have always been who we are. We are anchored into the labor needs of our region. The technical in our name begins with a capital T. A state-level WTCS administrator shares the perception of Board Member 1 of the UTC role in the community. “We are not a community college, we are a technical college. All the technical colleges have a primary purpose to provide sub-baccalaureate education that is directly related an occupation.” When asked how the college is different than a community college, Administrator 8, said, “it comes down to philosophy.” He said that the philosophy at UTC is to provide opportunity for students to find immediate employment, where most of the program curriculum does not transfer to a university. At a community college, more courses transfer and they hold a philosophy “that transfer is important.” Administrator 8 said that the philosophy at UTC is that “if you go to UTC, you go there to be able to get a job, not to go on some place else.” Administrator 8 describes the mission of technical education as a philosophy that is “embodied by the employees” and “blurs their vision.” A high-level administrator at UTC supports this characterization when he says, This is in our blood. We’re never going to be anything but a technical college. We were founded as a continuation school for the forgotten children of Lanchester. That’s it; literally. The documents that founded us describe us that way because child labor laws were nonexistent, all immigrant children were working 12-15 hours per day in factories which were all over Lanchester and not protected by labor laws and were not going to school. A very progressive legislator, Charles McCarthy, wrote the bill that founded the technical colleges and with the idea that kids were to be allowed out of the factory three hours a day to go to school and that was the beginning of the apprenticeship programs in America. 142 The technical college identity is also illustrated in its visibility on campus. For example, the interior design of the Office of President lobby promotes a strong occupational identity. In the lobby there are four chairs. Between two of the chairs is an accent table that displays a metallic chess set. Across from the chess set are two additional chairs and between them stands a metal sundial the height of the chairs. The metal chess pieces were made in the foundry at UTC. A similar chess set is displayed in the president’s office that he created in the UTC foundry. The sundial was made at UTC for the first president of the college, approximately 90 years ago. For the years before his death, the former president kept the sundial in his garden. Following his death, the sundial was relocated to UTC, where it is currently. The walls surrounding the lobby chairs hold a sample of course catalogs, the UTC graduation report, as well as various wood carvings and metal design work from past instructors and students. In addition to highlighting students and instructors work from the past, the office walls hold large posters advertising the new and expanding technical programs. They advertise new cell phone technologies for creating applications and interactive media design. Next to these posters is a signed memo by the UTC president committing his support to creating green energy and sustainability programs. The occupational identity is also displayed in the halls of the main building. On the main campus, large-glass protected display cases line the hallways. Within each of these cases hang large black and white portraits of UTC students learning their trade from previous decades. One display case highlights the bread making classes in the 1930s, where students were trained to work in bakeries. Another display case portrays young men testing electrical equipment in a 1920s lab. 143 In addition to photos displayed throughout the campus, the “jobs first” or technical focus of the college is illustrated by the smells that permeate the buildings. During my first day on campus, Administrator 7 showed me the campus. On the first floor there was an overwhelming smell of hair products. I was told that there are six classrooms modeled after personal style salons. Barber/Cosmetology students are available to provide services to students, faculty, and staff under the guidance of faculty members. In addition to the salons, UTC also has a nail technician lab and spa services. During the walk around campus, I also smelled sugar or what seemed like I had just stepped into a bakery. On the sixth floor of the main building everyday the bakery students sell freshly made baked goods. The UTC learning facilities are also evidence of the strong identity in technical education. In addition to the main campus building, UTC also has three other large buildings downtown that offer instruction: a) the technical and applied sciences building, b) the health sciences building, and c) the “C” building which holds the television station and the basic skills courses. UTC has state of the art equipment for students to learn new skills, and provides students learning experiences identical to working in industry. As an example, in the health sciences building an entire floor is dedicated to the nursing profession. Once a student steps off the elevator, their surroundings are transformed into a hospital setting. In addition to several simulation labs and a simulation patient named “Steve,” there is also a room that has been transformed to simulate a Doctor’s office. Dental hygiene and culinary students are provided with the same type of “real-life” learning environments. Creating spaces for students that replicate what they will eventually encounter in the world of work is a feature that UTC prides itself on. 144 This level of detail is also observed in the technical and applied sciences building. When walking through the halls, observers can see into classrooms through large glass windows. Students learn how to be electricians in a classroom that has a wooden frame of a building standing in the center of the room, where they can be seen wiring the house for electricity. Once those students learn the trade of an electrician, the wires come down and the house is ready to be used again for the next group of aspiring electricians. In another classroom, students are observed in what appears to be a garage, several cars up in the air, the sound of metal banging together, and students with oil stains on their clothes and dirty hands. The classrooms described here illustrate a college that provides state of the art facilities for students to learn a trade. The occupational identity is best captured in the UTC student services building, which is the main entrance and primary point of contact for new students. This entrance is highlighted in many UTC brochures and on the website. Once through the doors students are confronted with two large signs. One is immediately to the left and can not be missed. Imprinted on a beam that helps support the structure a sign reads “JOB SHOP” in bright colored paint. The Job Shop is an office on campus where students can go to find employment and connect with employers. Directly above the Job Shop, hanging on the second story railing, is a sign that says “Urban Technical College, 100 Years of Innovative Education.” These two signs are significant in providing evidence that getting students into the workforce is the number one priority for the institution, a goal they have had for over a century. Finally, there are physical signs of a “work first” identity when walking around the periphery of the campus. Located in the center of downtown, UTC’s external environment is not typical of a collegial or academic environment. Outside of the main building and student center stand groups of African American students, a hot dog stand, and a sign that says “Urban 145 Technical College.” The sounds surrounding the campus are typical of a downtown area: car motors and brakes, police sirens, and the stop and go sounds of large industrial trucks. The UTC dedication to technical education was commemorated last year during a large campus celebration. Remnants of the celebration are still present around campus. Brochures highlighting the job successes of students are available in the Welcome Center, President’s Office, and student services area. Large signs reporting “Years of Innovation” are still hanging from light poles outside of the campus. As part of the celebration, videos were made to highlight UTC contributions to American history. The videos capture how UTC taught students “how to clean their mess kit for the army,” “Morse code during World War II,” how to “sew things onto uniforms,” and construct airplanes. The technical identity of the college is also built into select procedural policies specific to professional development and hiring of employees. All professional staff in the WTCS are required to be certified. When professional staff are hired into a technical college, they must be initially certified. Initial certification includes a specified level of education required for the position, official transcripts, a form of verification of work experience, and any other copies of licenses or certifications. After employees meet the initial certification level, they are eligible for hire. Once hired, they are required to take ongoing professional development courses, including what are known as the “magnificent seven” certification courses. Table 12 lists the title of the courses initially required and corresponding learning objectives. Each course requires approximately 80 hours of instruction. 146 Table 12 Initial Certification Courses Course Title Course Description Technical and Adult Education in the WTCS Prepares technical college educators to contribute to the accomplishment of the WTCS mission and purposes. Participants will think critically about their personal philosophy, roles, and responsibilities as they focus on serving technical college customers. Curriculum Development Prepares educators to employ the performance-based instructional design process. Participants designate performance expectations, design learning plans, develop assessment tasks, and produce a syllabus. Teaching Methods Prepares educators to create a learning environment that supports learners and results in the achievement of designated learning outcomes. Emphasizes teaching and learning techniques that promote active learning, support learners with a variety of learning preferences and needs, and generate continuous improvement in teaching and learning. Educational Psychology Prepares practitioners to use principles of educational psychology to develop their personal philosophy of learning. Focusing on the importance of a learner-centered educational environment, they apply what is known about how people learn to the process of planning, evaluating, and improving the quality of teaching. Educational Evaluation Prepares educators to design and implement the performance assessment component of a course. Places emphasis on the development of criterion-referenced performance assessment strategies, the application of varied assessment formats, and the use of assessment as a tool for improving teaching and learning. Participants will design performance assessment strategies for a course or other learning experience, create varied assessment tools, and summarize their assessment philosophy. Guidance and Counseling Participants will explore the educator's role in meeting the guidance and counseling needs of learners. They will develop a personal theory of counseling, explore available student support resources, and analyze legal and ethical implications of the educator's role. Leadership and Supervision Prepares practicing or aspiring leaders and supervisors of instructional staff in the WTCS to provide effective leadership of the planning, design, implementation, evaluation, and marketing of learning opportunities and other related services. Participants evaluate models and share best practices in their leadership role and overall responsibility of coordination of the delivery of quality learner-centered products and services. Participants will differentiate the roles of leader and manager and grow to appreciate followers and their professional and personal growth. 147 Strategies for the compliance with laws, policies, and procedures will also be addressed. Educational Diversity Prepares participants to create an inclusive and effective learning environment that will meet the needs of diverse student populations. Participants examine organizational, classroom, and individual diversity issues, and develop strategies for increasing personal effectiveness in working with diverse groups. These populations include, but are not limited to diversity of: age, sex, physical and cognitive ability, race, ethnic background, and sexual orientation. Note: The information provided in this table is publically available on the WTCS website (Wisconsin Technical College System, n.d.-b). Most directly related to the mission and identity of the technical college is the course on Technical and Adult Education in the WTCS. Its aim is to teach the mission of the WTCS, the local technical college, the UWS, and the K-12 system, as they relate to a philosophy of post- secondary education in the state. During the course, professional staff summarize the historical events that shaped the technical college system, evaluate the impact of current issues and trends on the system, and develop a personal philosophy of teaching and learning that aligns with the goals of the WTCS. The main learning objective of this course is to be able to articulate the difference between the systems of higher education in the state and how the systems coordinate as to not duplicate the delivery of services (one of these services being transfer.) According to a staff member, staff are “taught that transfer is not the primary objective and to promote it goes against the objectives of the technical college system.” Staff Member 3 argued that the institution requires that new staff take this course so “that if they do come from a traditional community college they would understand the difference.” Before a faculty member can be hired at UTC, they need to demonstrate competency in their occupational area. Showing mastery in a given trade aligns with the technical and practical mission of the college, but this competency is also required of all liberal arts and sciences faculty. Liberal arts and sciences faculty are required to have a minimum of 12 months (2000 hours) of verified non-educational work experience in their field. Occupational faculty are 148 required to have at least 24 months (4000 hours) of appropriate verified work experience in their occupational area. This requirement is system-wide and according to Administrator 14, requiring occupational faculty to have work experience outside of an institution of higher education makes sense. However, requiring liberal arts and sciences faculty to have a whole year of work experience in their field outside of higher education is extremely rare. Administrator 14 asked, “Am I going to find a math teacher with work experience outside of education? Most likely not.” We sometimes have a difficult time with people who have worked in schools their whole lives to be able to certify and then hire them, if they have not spent their youth as a waitress or a bartender. Many of the professionals have not worked in the field that would be good to teach in the non-occupational fields, so that is a concern for a number of people that don’t have those hours. The policy makes sense for occupational teachers because they want the faculty to have some type of bond or relationship with the students. But here in the liberal arts and sciences it makes it hard to find qualified teachers. For example, some people have many degrees in science and math or in other areas, but they do not have a year of experience in an occupational area. So we can not hire them as teachers or subs, because they are not certifiable. The hiring policy demonstrates a strong mission to provide high quality occupational education by employing faculty with years of industry experience rather than hiring the most qualified academic faculty to prepare students to transfer. In this section, I provided evidence that UTC adheres to an institutional identity of technical and occupational education. Largely influenced by location and the origins of the WTCS, the technical education focus is embedded throughout the campus, including but not limited to their written mission statement, the physical aspects of the college, and human resource policies. In the next section, I describe how transfer policy is interpreted through the lens of institutional identity and history. Policy interpretation was captured as practitioners discussed the expansion of the transfer policy and how it is ultimately at odds with their institutional past. 149 Policy interpretation through the lens of historical identity. A strong adherence to the technical education identity is illustrated as the importance of transfer grew in the state and at UTC. As discussed in Chapter IV, Part II, transfer between the systems of higher education in Wisconsin was encouraged by the legislature as early as the 1980s, but did not “take off at UTC until the early 2000s.” According to Administrator 5, transfer as an increasingly important goal of the institution emerged in the early 2000s. Movement towards a transfer driven college is a result of internal and external support for transfer. The experienced “shift” towards transfer at UTC was a response to a shift in the state system and at the “governor’s request.” Wisconsin really had a push for transfer. So, we have the technical college with the system mission and vision, which has always been technical education and technical programming as the first mission, with the second component which has evolved over time of transfer. In the early days, people didn’t talk about transfer, it was not a mission, it was not the goal, and it was not something that was really discussed. We had some really early articulation agreements in the 90s, and they kind of died off. But there was resurgence when the governor put transfer and articulation between technical colleges and the UWS in his biannual budget. Administrator 9 recalls that before the early nineties “there was not a strong orientation to transfer.” He started in the technical college system in 1989 and he describes transfer as “almost nil” at this time. This changed at UTC because more students wanted to transfer and because soft skills were becoming more important. According to Administrator 9, “the institution is not driving transfer, it’s the students, it’s the clientele.” “Since that time, we’ve seen increasing pressure and increasing political shift, expectations, all those kind of things, about how we interact with our sister colleges, both in our systems and across systems.” As illustrated in Figure 11, the number of students enrolling in transfer courses has consistently grown when compared to all other course categories. The transfer program has grown by approximately 9% between 1999 and 2008. Together with a sister technical college, UTC enrolls about 95% of the 150 system’s college transfer enrollment (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008b). The growth in college transfer students also benefits UTC financially. In 2009, each college transfer FTE yielded $1,041 more in tuition than a vocational or non-postsecondary FTE, while the FTE cost of a college transfer student was $6,861 less than that of a vocational student (Day, Allen, & Henken, 2010). Figure 12 illustrates that the transfer program has the second largest program enrollment. Figure 11. UTC percentage growth in course enrollments by course level, 1999 and 2008. Data shows that course enrollments have decreased in every category except the college transfer level courses. Students that enrolled in college transfer level course grew 9.1% over the ten-year period (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008b). 0" 2,000" 4,000" 6,000" 8,000" 10,000" 12,000" 14,000" 16,000" 18,000" 1999" 2008" !9.1%&Applied&Associate& !20.4%&Basic&Skills& 9.1%&Transfer& !2.8%&Diploma& 151 Figure 12. Number of UTC student enrollment by program, 2010. This data show that UTC’s second largest program enrollment category is students pursuing a bachelor’s degree. It is important to note that the number of students pursuing a bachelor’s degree may be higher than presented because several applied associate level programs have articulation agreements that are not reflected in the college parallel program headcount. This data only reflects the number of students that have declared a program of study (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). To fulfill the needs of transfer and meet the demands of students and the state, an administrative position was created at UTC to develop transfer agreements in 2000. According to Administrator 5, the purpose of the position was to facilitate relationships with other technical colleges and four-year institutions. However, the person occupying this role met significant resistance due to an “old guard” of faculty. Some people you talk to believe that we should only be a technical institution and deliver technical programs. That should be our focus and those are the diehards; I want to say old-time people. That has strong roots in our community and Wisconsin’s foundation and in the roots of the technical college overall. Because that is where we came from and that is what they think we should continue to do. The “old guard” of faculty object to transfer policy expansion because it does not align with the identity of the institution and duplicates efforts across systems. Figure 13 shows 49% of UTC are over the age of 55. While it can not be concluded from this data that half of the UTC are 152 opposed to transfer, it does show an aging faculty. There were two primary arguments against expanding the transfer policies and programs at UTC: a) a belief that transfer is not the role of the college and b) a belief that the UTC identity had to be protected from elitist outsiders. Figure 13. Age distribution of faculty at UTC, 2012. Figure shows 49% of UTC are over the age of 55. While it can not be concluded from this data that half of the UTC are opposed to transfer, it does show an aging faculty, something consistent with most other institutions of higher education in the nation. Transfer as mission creep. When Faculty Member 8 talked about transfer policy expansion he said that “many people actually fought it, which is understandable because it changes really what we do and the focus, because they forget where our roots are and why we exist as a system.” As an example of resistance, Administrator 5 recalls that during initial transfer meetings with faculty members, individuals would stand up and say, “we’re not a transfer institution.” She said that this was confusing in that the faculty that would say such things taught in the transferable curriculum. She argues that these faculty members have a strong allegiance to the heritage of the institution. 0" 50" 100" 150" 200" 250" 300" 25"<="30" 30"<="35" 35"<="40" 40"<="45" 45"<="50" 50"<="55" 55"<="60" 60"<="65" 65"<="70" 70"<="75" 75"<="80" 80"<="85" 85"<="90" 90"<="95" 95"<="100" 153 These faculty are concerned with “mission creep.” Mission creep occurs when the goals of the technical college are gradually expanded beyond their original goals. Mission creep has a negative connotation because it expresses the idea that there is a duplication of efforts between the two systems of higher education. If the technical colleges were to expand their transfer opportunities, they would be duplicating the efforts of the UW two-year colleges (UWC) and infringing on their mission. I’ve often said, “if we become just a transfer institution, we’re not really needed as a system.” We have two public school systems in Wisconsin. We have the UWS, funded by taxpayers, and we have the technical college system, funded by taxpayers. You can’t expect to duplicate efforts, you know, without…being unfair to the taxpayer. Faculty Member 5 has similar perceptions of transfer policy. In addition to his faculty position at UTC, Faculty Member 5 also served several years on the WTCS Board. As mentioned in Chapter III, Wisconsin originally had three technical college districts that were authorized to offer a transfer curriculum in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Faculty Member 5 publically opposed expanding the transfer policy because of mission creep and expressed “its not our place, its not who we are, why are we needed if this continues?” External constituents reinforce the concept of mission creep. Since the merger of the UWS in the early 70s, the state has assigned primary responsibility for transfer to the UWC. Although the systems of higher education have increased collaboration and transfer from the technical colleges has expanded over time, the notion that the UWS is responsible for transfer is continually reinforced. For example, the UWS and the WTCS come together formally once a year to discuss transfer issues. This day-long meeting, called the Joint UWS/WTCS System Transfer Coordinators Fall Meeting, provided evidence that transfer is considered the responsibility of the UWS. Professional staff from public institutions are invited to the meeting every year. At the 154 2012 meeting there were approximately sixty people in attendance. Individuals in attendance held positions such as articulation officers, counselors, admissions, and outreach staff. The meeting was coordinated and led by administrators from both systems. Although the meeting is called a “joint” meeting, the UWS level staff controlled the event. There were four primary topics presented and discussed during the meeting: a) the UW Legislative Taskforce, b) the UW Flexible Degree, c) the UW Prior Learning Assessment Expansion Initiative, and d) the Transfer Information System (TIS). Each topic was delivered and discussed by a UW representative. While the primary topics discussed were important for the technical college staff to be aware of, none of the topics discussed would influence their work with transfer students with the exception of the Transfer Information System. For example, the UW Prior Learning Assessment Initiative is an initiative that is funded by the Lumina Foundation and only supports work done at UW institutions. During the meeting there were no presentations or updates from technical college transfer representatives. This meeting provided evidence that the primary responsibility for transfer in the state still resides within the UWS. The technical college representatives were not contributors to the meeting, but rather receivers of information. Administrator 7 said that the transfer relationship has evolved between the systems over time and this joint meeting is evidence of that. He said that the system relationship regarding transfer is one of “civility. If you have a progressive UW, they will approach the tech college regarding transfer, but if they are seeped in tradition they don’t. They are in control of transfer.” The notion that the UWS is responsible for transfer and the WTCS for occupational training is also reinforced by state law. The Teacher Education Track, also known as TET, has a long history at UTC. The TET has historically been housed under the liberal arts and sciences 155 division at UTC. This track is a transfer curriculum for students who start at UTC with the goal to become teachers. They can follow the curricula that will prepare them for baccalaureate level teacher training. Students in this track take a prescribed number of courses that include transferable curricula from the liberal arts and sciences and also courses that have been specifically created to prepare them to be teachers in an urban setting. The track was renamed to the “Teacher Education Program” in 2008, which met resistance at the state level. According to the state, UTC is only authorized to offer the two transfer programs, the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science from the liberal arts and sciences division. Adding the Teacher Education Program meant that UTC was expanding their transfer opportunities beyond that which was sanctioned by the UWS. Faculty Member 1 said, The word “program” has a lot of embedded meaning as in a state sanctioned program, which we are not due to a whole host of reasons connected to the historical division of labor between the UWS and the technical college system allowed to offer. In other words, they train teachers, we don’t. And even though we know we’ve been doing this for years, we all know this; sort of institutionalizing it, codifying it is problematic, politically. Faculty Member 1 argues that external constituents opposed adding “program” to the Teacher Education Track because it would appear to expand the transfer programs at UTC. Transfer programs are viewed by many internal and external to UTC to be the primary responsibility of those at the UWC. Adding a transfer program at UTC is perceived as mission creep and was thus not approved by either state system. Thus, the historical division of labor that was established by law in the 1970s influences practitioners’ perception of transfer policy as “mission creep.” They interpret it as a responsibility of the UWS. In this view, the notion of adopting more transfer programs would be unfair to tax payers and would take the technical college away from its intended purpose. In addition to mission creep, practitioners also perceived transfer policy as a rejection of 156 occupational education; a move away from who they are and where they came from. A belief in maintaining the institutional identity. As transfer opportunities were beginning to be given serious consideration in the early 2000s, there was a campaign to change the image of the institution from a technical college to a more comprehensive community college. As discussed in Chapter IV, Part II, a community college system was considered in Wisconsin several times, but never came to fruition for political reasons. This is also something that UTC has struggled with over time. According to Faculty Member 1, I think its inconsistent and its a political question because of how the technical college defines itself…There is this ongoing debate as to whether we are a community college, are we the two year college for the four year college or are we really a different animal that directly contributes to the workforce in Lanchester through the diploma and two-year programs? And that’s just an ongoing discussion. In the early 2000s, it was up for discussion again. A new marketing effort was introduced to reflect transfer as a student option and the creation of a UTC transfer website. At the same time, there was an attempt to change the name of the institution from Urban Technical College to Urban Community and Technical College. Similar to debates at the state-level, there were practitioners that were in favor of the change and others who were adamantly opposed to it. Administrator 8 spearheaded the initiative and said the goal of the name change was to accurately represent the programs UTC offers. However, he characterizes the reaction from the faculty, specifically faculty union representatives, as “vicious.” They reacted as if he “was taking their eldest child and killing them.” Administrator 8 did not understand the resistance at first and cited several other examples across the nation where institutions had changed their name to accurately represent the changing nature of their institution. 157 In colleges through, if you look at a number of different models, and if you look at the Cincinnati Technical College, they had a similar discussion and they said, “Okay, we want to keep technical, so we’re going to call ourselves Cincinnati Community and Technical College. When you look at those colleges that came from technical colleges, like Ivy Tech from Ivy Technical College to Ivy Technical Community College, they still offer the same programs. Then in Minnesota, where they merged the technical and vocational colleges into the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, and they still offer the same programs. There is just example after example. Administrator 8 argued that institutions do this type of name change all the time and he was surprised that the board and other practitioners had an adverse reaction to the proposal. Faculty and staff that were in favor of the name change believed that adding “community” to the name would accurately reflect the programs offered to students. It would help the community understand that UTC offers opportunities to further their education beyond a two-year training degree. Administrator 15 appreciated the idea of a name change. “I just think we should be Urban Community College or something similar.” She along with other practitioners believe that the “UTC” name does not reflect all the educational options at the college. “It seems like we’re in the last century. I know that Wisconsin’s Technical College System is something that is pretty well known in the country, but I also think that we need to move forward.” However, it was this specific change in identity that other practitioners opposed. Opponents thought that a name change would alter who they are as an institution and what they practice. These practitioners have a strong allegiance to their historical identity and believe that the institution should take pride in their technical mission. Select practitioners “felt it was their job to protect the technical part of our college.” Administrator 9 said the technical mission is “held very sacred” by many faculty members. An advocate of the name change, Administrator 15, argues that those who represent the faculty union largely opposed the name change. At UTC, the faculty union is characterized as 158 “extremely powerful. They really have a presence here. Typically if they do not want it, it does not happen.” Administrator 15 speculates that the union was not supportive of the name change because unions are historically associated with the trades. They take pride in the history of the institution and see the name change as attempting to distance the institution from the past. Administrator 15 argues that these are the “old guard” faculty who have been teaching at UTC for “years and years when it was more of a technical college and less of a community college.” Administrator 15 believes “there would be just an explosion if the word technical came out of our name.” Another supporter of the name change, a student service specialist, Staff Member 3 believes, It goes all the way back to historical, the forefathers saw that there was the need for people to be trained. Then World War I and World War II and people being put into industry to support the war machine and all of that kind of thing. That is how it all got started. I think there is such a pride in technical education that the union doesn’t want to get away from that. Plus, couple that with union history. Opponents of the name change believed that the change symbolized a move from the past, a history that they believed everyone should be proud of and support. I think potentially it was seen as not being proud of our heritage and trying to distance us from lesser jobs that the community needs no matter what. You’re still going to need that person to draw your blood when you go to the hospital, or take the x-ray, or those things. That would be my only guess is that trying to prop ourselves up a little bit, and in the process, have it be perceived as trying to distance ourselves from our past. In recent years, other technical colleges in the state have informally dropped the “technical” part of their name, and those at UTC argue that the “technical part should be embraced, not discarded.” Faculty Member 5 explained that other technical colleges have an “inferiority complex” when it comes to technical education and believe that adding transfer or community college aspects to their school will make them more respected. He explains that for as long as he can recall technical colleges have had a negative connotation and are viewed as “a place where you get your hands dirty.” He said, 159 To me, it’s ridiculous. We should be proud of who we are. What they want to do and what they wanted to do to us is turn us into a junior college. That is not who we are, that is not who we should be. We play an important role in this community, providing people with the skills they need to get into the middle class, and we should keep doing that. To the majority of faculty at UTC keeping the traditional name of the college symbolized support for technical education and being proud of their past. Over the last century, UTC has changed names seven times. However, practitioners were upset by this more recent proposed name change because of the word “community.” Adding “community” to the name reflects a more comprehensive mission and is perceived as “elitist.” According to Staff Member 3, “community colleges sound a little bit more upscale than technical colleges,” and it was this negative perception of technical colleges that practitioners wanted to avoid. Unlike the current attempt to change the name, all previous name changes were not perceived to change the identity of the institution. Practitioners viewed this change as an attempt by outsiders to change the purpose of the institution and in the process degrade the value of technical education and technical colleges. The name change did not materialize due to strong opposition from practitioners. As a result of the proposal, a counter marketing effort on campus was launched that advocated taking pride in the college’s history. While not all practitioners interpreted the name change as a negative one, the majority supported the union position that UTC should focus on occupational education. Practitioners that support the community college function have “hopes” for the future that change can occur. Many of the older faculty members are anticipated to retire when their contracts run out in 2013. One high-level administrator said, We still hear some faculty tell their students’ things like "Don't worry about this math course. I can teach you all the math that you need for this." Even though the student really needs the math if they would ever want a bachelor’s degree. We do still have some of that attitude that exists. These people will retire eventually because of the end of our contract. I don't know if you're aware of that, but our faculty contract ends early 2014. That means that whoever wants to retire under that old contract really has to retire in 160 December at the end of the fall semester 2013. We're really expecting a mass exodus at that point. Then we can start to see some change. As shown, a strong identity and history in technical education influences how practitioners interpret and react to transfer policy. Practitioners that are resistant to expanding transfer opportunities tended to interpret the transfer program as an attempt by outsiders to distance the institution from its roots and original purpose and infringe on the mission and goals of other institutions. This interpretation influenced their sharp negative reaction to efforts at increasing transfer efforts. Institutional identity and history provided a rationale for maintaining the status quo for these practitioners and also provided a lens for them to reject the proposed policy changes. Even though practitioners tended to report that transfer was an important option, their institutional identity as an occupational institution is stronger. Fear of a Loss of Power: “You open up this can of worms, you could potentially regret it” The second factor found to influence how practitioners interpret policy is their perception of how the policy will impact their work. Practitioners are wary about the concept of transfer because it is viewed as potentially detrimental to their own work and livelihood. As a result, transfer is not welcomed among many at UTC. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a change occurred in the credentialing policy at UTC that required faculty teaching in the transfer curriculum to increase their educational credentials to keep their jobs. This was described as “a major battle in the institution” and according to UTC practitioners, expanding transfer policy is still feared by many faculty because it poses a threat to technical program enrollments, and current hiring and course assignment procedures. In this section, I describe how the transfer policy affected UTC faculty in the past and outline current practitioner fears. 161 Transfer policy forces increases in faculty credentials. As transfer picked up momentum at the state and local levels in the late 1990s, UTC was going through an accreditation process. The Higher Learning Commission, formerly North Central, required faculty who taught transfer courses at UTC to have a minimum of a master’s degree in the discipline that they teach or at least some graduate-level work. Four-year institutions also supported this requirement, in that they desired students transferring to their institutions to have been taught by a master’s prepared instructor. Administrator 9 said that most four-year institutions “did not want to accept anyone that had credit where their teacher had a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree in an unrelated field, like educational leadership.” In the late 1990s, UTC adhered to the WTCS policy regarding credentials, which only requires faculty to have a “baccalaureate degree with a minor in the subject area or 20-semester credits in the subject area that they teach” (Wisconsin Technical College System, n.d.-b). As a result, many of the faculty that taught in the transferable curriculum only had a bachelor’s degree. The new emphasis on higher credentials was not widely received and “made many bitter towards the idea of transfer.” We had credentialing issues in this college ten years ago brought on by this new emphasis on college transfer…students who are going to transfer to the universities the receiving universities expected individuals to have been taught by individuals who had at least a master’s degree and a minimum of 18 graduate credits. This college had to make major changes to do that. Because of that, there are many people who are still against transfer inside this college. In order to be accredited and to create more partnerships with four-year institutions, UTC needed to increase the education level of their faculty that taught in the liberal arts and sciences. According to Administrator 18, there was “a fight regarding credentials and accreditation that left many faculty upset towards transfer.” The faculty at UTC had strong opposition to this requirement, which meant for many, going back to school to receive a masters degree or 162 additional graduate-level coursework. As a result, faculty at UTC opposed having a transfer curriculum and believed that the college should eliminate the program altogether. The faculty “felt that the one solution to the accreditation issue was that the college shouldn’t be involved in the college transfer piece.” The faculty union prides itself on protecting the rights of labor and the new credentialing requirements posed a threat to many of the faculty employed at UTC. Among union representatives, “there was a feeling that there would be a need for a whole different core faculty” and this was unacceptable, specifically because they believed that transfer was not and should not be part of the UTC mission. Faculty feared that those in the liberal arts and sciences would be replaced and also that this type of change could be an impetus to eventually requiring technical program faculty to also have higher degrees. To solve the issue, UTC paid for practitioners to obtain the necessary credits of graduate- level work. This ensured that UTC was successfully accredited through the Higher Education Commission. Since the late 1990s, higher credentials have been institutionalized in the liberal arts and sciences at UTC. Today, it is required for liberal arts and sciences faculty to have a master’s degree in the discipline they teach and many faculty either have or are working on doctorates. However, this requirement is not a statewide policy in the technical college system. Practitioners that supported the new credentialing requirements said that it improved the college in two ways. First, having the college accredited by the Higher Education Commission brought a level of prestige to the institution that it did not have before, and second it “opened more doors for transfer opportunity.” According to Administrator 18, being accredited made developing articulation agreements much easier. Four-year institutions understood that when 163 students “finish these programs and they take these subjects, they’re being taught by instructors that have competence within those areas.” Practitioners that opposed the higher credentialing requirements believe that it negatively affected the institution, such as introducing elitism into the institution. Faculty Member 8 said, There’s a certain elitism now that has moved into this college as a result of more [faculty] coming in with very high credentials. In other words, they’ve come in from a university setting, many of them with PhDs, many of them not really teaching at this level, trying to think that this is what we are. Faculty Member 8 explains that the higher credentialing requirement has brought faculty into the institution that do not “really understand what they [UTC] are about.” His comments suggest that those with lower level credentials believe higher credentialed faculty members in the liberal arts and sciences do not understand the purpose of the institution. Administrator 9 reports that he senses resentment from the technical faculty towards those in the liberal arts and sciences, although it has waned over time. Administrator 14 also believes there is resentment from the technical program faculty towards those in the liberal arts and sciences. She said, Some people are jealous. Because really, we started off as a technical college and now the transfer program is the only one growing. We are moving towards a community college and some people are upset by that. It seems to them that we are not fulfilling our original mission. Not everyone loves the fact that we transfer students. This subtle division between the liberal arts and sciences faculty and the technical program faculty was also detected in a conversation with Administrator 15. She was candid in describing how hiring and course assignment policies at UTC were very different from a university’s hiring and course assignment policies. She said, “the university is based on merit, and here it’s just based on how long you have been here.” She asked me not to tell other faculty that she mentioned the topic because she will “just be viewed as an those elitists trying to change the institution.” 164 Practitioner fears surrounding the transfer policy. While the credentialing requirements were modified over ten years ago, there still remains a level of fear among select faculty of future change if the transfer policy is expanded. Some practitioners believe that expanding the transfer policy would mean a potential loss of enrollment in their programs. Faculty Member 8 has worked on committees to increase articulation and transfer for students in his program. He said that when he started to look at ways to create agreements with four-year private schools, older faculty cautioned him about changing the role of the institution. We have an older group and they looked at it and said, “Watch out what you ask for.” And again, it comes down to this—resistance comes from if you do this and you highlight that, it might mean an impact to us. Remember our first goal is jobs. The second is transfer out of our department. The older faculty believed that “opening that can of worms” (that is, transfer), could potentially change the mission of the institution. Faculty Member 8 speculates that faculty worry about changing the mission because transfer may mean having fewer students enrolled in technical programs. Many of us still worry about that as a whole, because of the discussion of the community college, and looking at this as maybe a transfer college versus a jobs first college. Transfer may mean students leave faster. Faculty Member 8 expresses that faculty have a fear that if transfer policy expands there will be negative ramifications for their programs. With more transfer opportunities, it is thought that students would transfer to a university quicker and thus leave faculty with lower enrollments. This shows that while the mission and identity are “held sacred,” as others have reported, that the possible impact to program enrollment might be of greater concern. Administrator 6 also mentioned that faculty fear a loss of enrollment due to transfer. She describes that the level of fear is different depending on the department. Programs that have too 165 many students would “be happy there are other options for students.” Programs like, nursing, dental hygiene, or radiology are overenrolled and transfer options to practitioners in these areas would be welcomed. However, Some of the automotive programs or architecture or civil engineering, I think would probably take offense to it. Faculty members perceive what is going on based on their future and the status of their program. If you have more than enough students to make your life comfortable here I think that diverting students to other areas is no problem. If your programs are not doing well and not successful you may have a different perspective on transfer. As described by Administrator 6, the faculty that are concerned about loss of enrollment also fear that expanding the transfer policy would represent a philosophical movement of the college from a “blue-collar institution” to a more “academic college.” To practitioners at UTC, transfer symbolizes a policy that is more inline with the policies of a university environment, geared towards earning a bachelor’s degree. Administrator 6 speculates that faculty members, specifically those that strongly support the union, do not want the college to be perceived as an academic environment because the academic values typically found in a university setting do not align with a “union shop.” For example, union values adhere to the “idea of seniority,” whereas academic institutions are characteristically grounded in policies based on meritocracy. She argues that this fear was one of the prime reasons that select faculty did not want the word “community” added to the name of the institution. Even though the liberal arts and sciences has the most students, in fact the most FTEs and contributes the most to the budget, they [select faculty] want to keep that under wraps, they do not want to publicize it. That would show the community that we are headed towards a college. Academic values are the opposite of what they want. It’s not about merit, but how long you have been here, longevity. The most senior gets the most money, the most senior gets to choose what classes they teach. So anything that brings in academic values, which is about merit as well as what is good for the campus gets squashed by that contingency. Currently, faculty contracts dictate policies and procedures for course assignments, teacher evaluations, and hiring. Members with the most seniority are given preferential 166 treatment when courses are assigned and in the hiring process. Administrator 15 described both processes. For course assignment, each semester faculty members fill out what is called a “preference sheet” that is used to signal the days that they are available, the hours of day, and what courses they wish to teach. She said, Even though they’re only given six spaces to write down their courses some of them add many pages of courses that they think they’re qualified to teach. Because we have this very strict seniority system it becomes very difficult not to assign a course to a teacher that we really know is not qualified, shouldn’t be teaching that course, or has done a poor job teaching that course in the past, and we’re stuck giving that to them. We can try to be creative to an extent, but those preference sheets are pretty strict. Administrator 15 said that assigning courses to faculty is difficult because the faculty contract does not require instructors at UTC to collect teacher evaluations. She said faculty members are encouraged to distribute them, but it is not a requirement. Similar seniority rights are written into hiring policies. Whether the open position is fulltime or part-time, the three most senior qualified faculty have to be interviewed before other qualified individuals from inside or outside of the institution can be interviewed. “I always say when we’re lining up our interview pools that we have the ‘have-tos’ and we have the ‘want-tos’. I’ve had people that I’ve interviewed time and time again, and I’m sure it pisses’em off, because I’m not going to hire them.” Administrator 15 attributes the strict seniority policies to the strong union environment at UTC and believes that it gets in the way of educating students. There’s just a lot of things that go on that I think really ties our hands as administrators to be able to make some positive changes and get the right teachers in the right classes and get rid of those who aren’t doing the job. Administrator 15 believes that diminishing the power of the union would make her job easier. She, as well as other administrators and registered democrats, find themselves supporting their current republican governor because he has come out strongly against unions and passed 167 legislation that would dramatically reduce their power (as outlined in Chapter IV, Part III). Diminished union power is welcomed because administrators view it as an avenue to creating student-centered rather than faculty-centered policies. To faculty union supporters, expanding the transfer policy is interpreted indirectly as a move towards diminished power. The policy symbolizes one step closer to identifying as an academic college, rather than a college that supports the “working-class.” Select faculty members interpret this as a possible catalyst to a values change at UTC— from one based on seniority to one based on merit. It translates indirectly as a loss of power for the faculty. As a result, some practitioners interpret transfer policy not simply as a policy pathway for students to pursue a bachelor’s degree, but as a policy that would negatively impact their work life. Leadership and Institutional Priorities: “I’m not sure college transfer to the university is going to be top priority, we just changed presidents” The third factor found to influence how practitioners interpreted the transfer policy is campus leadership. UTC leadership sets the priority and the direction of the college, yet over the past twelve years the priorities of the institution have shifted from expanding the transfer program to a focus on retention and completion. In this section, I first outline the roles and responsibilities of UTC campus leadership, consisting of the Board of Trustees, the campus president, and his administration. Next, I describe the campus priorities and actions of the current president and the role of the faculty union leadership. Finally, I conclude by describing how campus leadership influences how practitioners view the role of transfer policy at UTC. The Board of Trustees. According to a lobbyist for the WTCS, technical college boards have two primary roles. First, is their role by statute, where the boards are designed to be local governments that govern 168 one or more counties. In a legal sense, the boards function as a city council or similar to how a county board might function. This is in stark contrast to the manner in which the Board of Regents (BOR) for the UWS functions. The BOR is a state entity, where there is centralized control. Technical college boards are the governing authority over their specific college, “they hire, and fire all employees.” The president reports to the board, who is considered the ultimate authority of everyone at the technical college. The board controls all facilities, approves all curricular programs, and “sets the budget and strategic direction of the college.” In addition to governing the college, the board also sets the tax levy for the district. The second role of the technical college board is that they are the “stakeholders or community representatives to the college.” Boards are designed to represent the “world of work.” According to Wisconsin Statute 38.08, the board must include employers and employees of the district. Each board has a superintendent, a local elected official, and at-large members. The composition of the board is selected to represent the district in which the college is situated. The UTC board’s primary objective is job training and placement. This goal is demonstrated in how the board views student success. To explain this relationship, Board Member 1 said, The vast majority of our students do not come to us to graduate or transfer. They come to us to get something they need. This is a harder thing to measure than graduation rates. We are working on improving those rates and I think that is important, but if you want to be an airline mechanic there are two different certificates they can get. When you complete them, you get certified by the FAA. One hundred percent of our students in that program last year got certified by that program and were employed immediately after school and not one of them graduated, because it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth it to them, why pay the money, and walk across the stage if you’ve got everything you need? The “job out” idea expressed here happens when a student leaves the institution without graduating and obtains a job in the industry they were studying. There is currently no system to track students who job out. Administrator 8 said that while the administration is continually 169 working towards improving completion rates, the college has board members who think that it is “just as good for students to job out, as to complete a program.” While the board is responsible for the large policy decisions and setting the strategic direction of the college, the president is charged with ensuring the day-to-day operations of the college and communicating their vision to practitioners. According to Administrator 31, the relationship between the board and the president has to be one of “trust.” The board trusts that the president will prioritize the board’s vision into action. In the following sections, I describe the current presidency at UTC, his goals for the college and how his views of transfer policy influences his work and the work of his practitioners. The President. The President, Dr. Dan Fogarty has a vast degree of high-level administrative experience working within two-year colleges. Dan adheres to an institutional vision that aligns with the “jobs first” vision of the board. He believes that the primary goal of the institution is technical education. Administrator 12 said that the president would like UTC to be a “premier” college; “he wants us to globally stand out amongst everyone else that educates students with the latest and greatest in technology and being innovative.” The president’s emphasis on technology is illustrated in the three primary reasons he provides for not expanding and implementing transfer policy. First, he argues that the majority of students are enrolled for the technical programs, rather than to pursue transfer. When asked about the importance of the transfer mission at UTC, Dan said, “only 20 percent of our students are here to save a few bucks on a four-year degree. We are nice and happy to do it, but it’s a fifth of what we do.” To further explain, he described the difference between a community college and UTC. It is a “night and day difference,” 170 I’ve almost worked exclusively in two-year colleges my entire career. What is different frankly is a matter of scale. We have 200+ technical programs and certificates that are state recognized and industry recognized. The sheer size here is different when compared to other states, where you might have a dozen technical programs, but for example here we have 31 different health programs. It’s unusually different. Second, the president argues that transfer is not an institutional priority because UTC already does it so well. He said, “I honestly do not spend a lot of time on transfer. It works too well. I hardly give it any thought. It happens. I sign all the articulation agreements.” He says that when compared to the technical programs, the transfer curriculum “does not take a lot of care and feeding.” According to the president, the technical programs are more challenging to maintain and need more attention because the curriculum is continually changing based on industry needs. Technical programs also have advisory committees that convene biannually to evaluate curricula. According to Dan, the reason that UTC successfully implements transfer is that the curriculum is already set. Those courses don’t change a whole lot. Surgical technology changes every couple of hours. There is a lot more care and feeding around the technical programs. I won’t say that transfer is on automatic pilot, but those courses take care, more or less, of themselves. They’ve got a very standard curriculum: sociology, psychology, history, and government. We teach that stuff. We know how to do it. Dan explains that his attention is concentrated on the technical programs since the transfer curriculum is “effortless” and continues to be successful. Finally, the president believes his primary focus should be to solve current environmental challenges. Dan listed several challenges that his administration is concentrated on. Within the local community, Dan is concerned with the high unemployment and poverty rates. “We have huge unemployment in the African American community, at 54% last time I checked. Horrific stuff. We are also one of the poorest cities in the nation. That kind of wakes you up everyday.” At UTC, Dan is concerned with maintaining the integrity of the institution as well as high attrition rates in basic skills. He says, 171 We are very successful in finding people jobs once they graduate, but what we struggle with is getting folks who do not qualify for those programs because of their basic skills issues. We get them into basic skills, the trick is getting them out. That is my focus. I’m spending time getting the data together. The board is now looking at data that they’ve never seen before and realizing that this precollege work that we’ve been doing is pretty much a Bermuda Triangle. Dan’s institutional priorities are directly linked to solving these challenges at UTC. Current institutional priorities. In response to the high unemployment and poverty rates in Lanchester, Dan emphasizes creating new technical programs to “revitalize the economy.” He is well-educated on the region’s manufacturing past, as well as the large number of jobs that left the region in the past two to three decades. His plan creates new programs in emerging industries that can replace the lost manufacturing jobs. For example, he is expanding programs in food manufacturing, water industries, animation, and smart phone technology. There are a number of huge food manufactures in this area that people don’t really know about that are off the radar screen. We are trying to develop curricula and programs in place as these food companies grow. The majority of water-related industries are in this region. There is a lot of water-metering manufacturing in the area. So we are trying to build curricula around these newer industries. They are not so new, we’re just changing our focus on these industries that haven’t been focused on in the past. He also discussed animation and smart phone programs. He says, We’re developing creative animation and smart phone technology programs. I just went to a strategic planning event on the creative economy and we have a creative animation program here in the Department of Visual and Creative Arts. So we are really trying to find new markets if you will. They have innovation parks being created for the twenty- something geeks out there who design iPad apps and that sort of thing. We want to train those folks. We are trying to grow those industries here, creating jobs, getting people to work, trying to stay up to date. We still do plumbing and all that stuff you have to do. We are just trying to branch out to the emerging technologies. Dan believes providing programs that are linked with emerging industries will help positively position graduates from UTC. His goal is to increase job placement, which he believes will help reduce the high poverty rate. 172 Another priority in response to unemployment, poverty, and basic skills attrition is the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) College Completion Challenge. The president reported that UTC signed onto the AACC Completion Challenge with the goal of increasing the percentage of students that complete degrees, certificates, and other credentials by 50% over the next decade. When asking practitioners what the number one item on the institutional agenda was, the majority either said retention, graduation, or completion. The president led a task force in 2011 to “develop some recommended strategies” to meet the College Completion Challenge that are currently being incorporated into the strategic plan. For example, UTC has recently instituted an “Early Alert System,” which raises faculty and counselors awareness of students that are at risk from being placed on academic probation. As previously discussed, UTC is also developing a Career Pathways Initiative with the goal of helping basic skills students or those at other levels understand how their current coursework is linked to certificates, associate degrees, jobs, or transfer programs. This will help students visually recognize “all of our various programs and how they weave together.” Dan is also working on maintaining the integrity of the institution by participating in what he referred to as “ERM” or Enterprise Risk Management. Dan was hired in 2010, and the first item on his agenda was to introduce internal auditing procedures. In the process, he found that an employee from UTC had been embezzling money from the college throughout the prior decade. The employee was dismissed from the institution and criminally charged. He reports that much of his time at UTC has been concentrated “on dealing with these types of issues” and getting budgets in order. “I’m really focused on putting systems in place that for a college that is X years old should have had already.” 173 In response to this type of challenge, Dan is participating in ERM. He said, “if you think of us as an enterprise, ERM is the management of all your risks, which obviously are fiscal, facilities, but it also includes reputational risk.” When asked what he meant by reputational risk, he said, It’s the extent to which, how you are perceived in a community, for example. The extent to which your students graduate. Do they get jobs? Do they make the salary that is larger than what they would have made out of high school? Are we a credible institution? Dan is invested in managing reputational risk and has heavily involved his communications department to portray a positive image of UTC to the community. This investment is necessary to help improve the current reputation, which has been tarnished for two primary reasons. First, the indictment and then imprisonment of their former employee for embezzlement was heavily covered by the media and negatively impacted the UTC image. Second, the community is unhappy with the high property tax allotted to UTC every year. According to Administrator 10, “UTC heavily relies on property tax. Every time when the tax bills go out, there’s usually some pushback from the community because they think their taxes are too high.” Figure 14 shows the primary funding streams for UTC between 2005-2009. Property taxes consistently represent the primary funding source (approximately 60%). Between 2005-2009 the property tax contribution experienced a 32% growth, where the other categories either decreased or remained constant. According to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS,) in a national comparison of UTC and its national peers 24 , UTC ranks first in tax support per full-time equivalent 25 (FTE) (Day, et al., 2010). 24 Included in the national comparison were 85 institutions. 25 The UTC tax support per FTE was $13,329 compared to the median of $1,689 (Day, et al., 2010). 174 Figure 14. Primary UTC funding stream totals, 2005-2009. The figure illustrates that the property tax remains the primary funding source for UTC (Day, et al., 2010). The community members are “enraged” by the high property taxes and appointment, rather than election, of the board, which they consider “taxation without representation.” Unlike other states where community college systems have little reliance on the property tax, Wisconsin’s technical college Boards do not only depend on the tax, but they have the authority to set, raise, and spend the tax. Reputational risk management is the process of demonstrating the UTC financial return, including its reinvestment in the community. For example, UTC employed a strategy to distribute messages to the community, such as the following, If you call 911 in the middle of the night, the person responding probably has a UTC connection. If you go into any kind of healthcare facility for an appointment, test, physical therapy, somebody who interacts with you probably came through UTC. The notion of community services that our graduates provide, if your kitchen sink isn’t draining, the plumber you call probably has come through UTC. $0# $20,000,000# $40,000,000# $60,000,000# $80,000,000# $100,000,000# $120,000,000# 2005# 2006# 2007# 2008# 2009# Prpoperty#Taxes# Tui:on# State#Aid# Fees# Federal#Grants# Miscellaneous# 175 Reputational risk management is an attempt by Dan to change the negative perceptions of UTC within the community and to illustrate how the technical college improves the city. UTC demonstrates how it trains workers to contribute to the community to alleviate some of the negative perceptions. This training emphasizes gaining immediate employment rather than transferring. As evidenced by his institutional priorities, Dan is focused on what he believes are more immediate concerns and challenges. When he compared transfer to the issues of unemployment, poverty, basic skills completion, and the integrity of the college, he said, “I’m dealing with some big stuff, and transfer just seems to hum.” He said he is happy to offer the transfer curriculum, but he needs to first address these other issues. Dan and the board generally “share a vision.” The board believes Dan “is an excellent college administrator” and “is well-versed in his trade.” When Board Member 1, described Dan, she said, We are very much in service to our community and our business and industry. We are driven by the needs of the business community and industry. He really shares that and a lot of other two-year colleges are like community colleges rather than technical colleges. He gets that we are first a college that provides technical training. The Faculty Union Although the faculty union is not part of the formal UTC leadership structure, the current state and local politics (as discussed in Chapter IV) provide the union with an informal, yet powerful, campus leadership role. The faculty union was organized in 1930 and was the first college faculty union in the nation to negotiate a contract. According to the union leadership, the union has two primary goals, “to ensure that its members are treated and compensated as professionals” and to have a “voice in running the college.” The union constitution advocates for the “construction of an equitable society where no man is a serf and where hunger cannot stalk in the midst of abundance.” 176 Administrator 18, a community activist, said, “the UTC union defends the employee at all costs, for every opportunity, and ensures that every benefit that is due to them is negotiated into their contract.” Administrator 6 said that the union “is very good at negotiating faculty contracts.” In 2008, a fulltime faculty member at UTC earned, on average, a higher salary than any other technical college faculty member in the state (approximately $87,000 for a nine-month contract) (see Figure 15). A fulltime faculty member at UTC earned the second highest average salary when compared to all other public higher education institutions in the state (see Figure 16). This data shows that the average UTC faculty salary in 2008 was $19,000 higher than the median of all other technical colleges, and $29,000 higher than the median of UW institutions (Day, et al., 2010). Finally, when compared to their national peers, UTC ranks number one for faculty salary per student FTE in 2008 (Day, et al., 2010). Figure 15. WTCS fulltime faculty salaries, 2008, by WTCS district. The figure shows that UTC faculty earn on average more than all other faculty in a WTCS district. According to IPEDS, the salary figures displayed in this figure only include base salary, and exclude additional stipends, such as overload or overtime (Day, et al., 2010). 0" 10,000" 20,000" 30,000" 40,000" 50,000" 60,000" 70,000" 80,000" 90,000" 100,000" UTC" A" B" C" D" E" F" Median"Salary" G" H" I" J" K" L" M" N" O" 177 Figure 16. UTC fulltime faculty salaries, 2008, compared to UW institution faculty salaries. The figure shows that UTC faculty are the second highest faculty earners in the state. According to IPEDS, the salary figures displayed in this figure only include base salary, and exclude additional stipends, such as overload or over time (Day, et al., 2010). According to internal and external UTC constituents, the union also achieves their second stated goal, “to have a voice in running the college.” The union has a reputation as “another form of administration” and is involved in the daily decision making of the college. They have a say in the day-to-day operations of the school, which totally conflicts with what an educational setting is supposed to be. I think that they see themselves involved in every aspect of the operation of the college. I cannot imagine that they would ever say they should not be involved in something. I cannot think of an issue that they would answer in that manner. They see themselves as a significant player in every decision. Administrator 9 has similar comments regarding the involvement of the union in UTC operations. The union is very instrumental in running the college, and there are times when the union ran the college. If you have someone who is very active in their position that they are not interested in, the union will push them out. The union has more power than the administration in the organization. They call it shared governance, but it’s really control. We can’t hire and fire or do anything. The union is actively involved in all phases of the college. If you want to move a secretary from one place to another you have to ask the union and go through her contract. You can’t do things, even if it’s in the best interest for everyone; you have to confer with the union to discuss things. 0" 10,000" 20,000" 30,000" 40,000" 50,000" 60,000" 70,000" 80,000" 90,000" 100,000" A" UTC" B" C" D" E" F" G" Median"Salary" H" I" J" K" L" M" N" 178 The involvement of the union in making college-wide decisions is important for two reasons. First, practitioners in this study report that union representatives influence the decisions of the board and second, the union maintains that the focus of the college should remain technical education rather than the promotion of transfer. Administrator 18 said that the union has an “immense amount of power.” “They go in front of the board and testify on things that have nothing to do with teaching or contracts, and the board listens to them.” Another administrator said, You need to recognize that the union has ties to the board; they put the board there. They control that. When they do not get things through the administration, they go through the board. The board gives them what they want. For example, Administrator 15 said that when the name change was to include “community,” the union was against the decision. Administrator 6 said, “the union went to the board and convinced them it was a bad idea and the name change was squashed.” Administrator 9 said, The union has a tremendous amount of input in policymaking at the college; board members that did not want the union upset decided to drop it. They didn’t pursue it because the union was not for it. There was a controversy about it and so they hired a consultant and there are documents out there. But, there were people inside the college that they wanted to maintain the technical vocational approach as a technical college and they did not want to have anything to do with any idea of being a community college. The union position maintains that the college should focus their efforts on finding employment for their students. Aligned with the primary goals of the board, the union adheres to a philosophy that obtaining a job is more important than completing a program or transferring. When asked about the president’s Completion Challenge agenda, a union representative said that “they push that. I don’t think it has much impact in the lives of the faculty or relevance in the classroom. We really should be looking to getting these kids jobs.” The president of the college is aware that the priorities of his administration are not perfectly aligned with those of the union. He said, 179 The union sees the importance of completion and they go along with me, but there is an asterisk by jobs and that we can’t lose sight of that. We need to help them get jobs, even if it means not completing. The union has not taken a public position on the transfer function of the college, but maintains that the priority of the college should be teaching skills and job placement. Practitioner policy interpretation based on leadership priorities. The priorities and actions of campus leadership were found to be a factor in how practitioners interpret the transfer policy. Practitioners cited a shift in leadership, along with administrative priorities, as changing the value the campus places on the policy. For example, when describing how transfer opportunities evolved at UTC, practitioners noted that transfer growth began approximately 12 years ago and this was evidenced in increased transfer funding and programming. However, they were uncertain as to how or if this growth would continue because current campus priorities are concentrated on retention and completion. Administrator 12 describes the transfer policy as valued and encouraged approximately 12 years ago. He said, However, I don’t think that’s been the top priority on the radar now, so I can’t—I wouldn’t say that the level of concern isn’t there. I just think our priorities are different right now. Our priorities are if students want to transfer, that’s all well and good, and we have programs there for them, but the priority right now are for people that are dislocated and establishing programs that will get them back into the workforce. Our initiatives are directly related to these, not really getting students to transfer. Another high-level administrator said, Twenty years ago there was no discussion of transfer at meetings. Things have changed. They changed about 10 years ago. However, I’m not sure that [the transfer policy] will continue to be valued among the faculty and staff because we’ve changed presidents and our board chair is on the record as saying that she thought the previous president over emphasized the transfer piece. Faculty Member 4 argues “transferability—there was a huge push for it several years ago and everyone was involved. But now, I think success, retention here at the institution is more important to the president. I’m not sure where transfer stands actually.” 180 The messages that campus leadership send to their practitioners regarding campus priorities influence the importance practitioners place on the policy as well as how they collaborate with their students and staff. Administrator 17 said that previous campus leadership reminded her to discuss transfer options with her departmental faculty and staff on a weekly basis. The number of articulation agreements was expanding rapidly during this time and UTC had just signed guaranteed transfer agreements with the two largest four-year public universities in the state. Transfer updates were “always being communicated to us through memos or the campus newsletter.” These frequent reminders helped her to remember to discuss transfer policy in her departmental meetings with the goal that her faculty and staff would speak to students about transfer. Similarly, Faculty Member 1 said that previous campus leadership reminded them about transfer options when addressing the broader campus community. For example, she remembers transfer was discussed as a priority at faculty convocation and during commencement addresses. Whereas, current leadership may mention transfer or continuing to earn a bachelor’s degree, “but only as a token, not giving it any real attention at all.” The priorities campus leaders pursue project messages to their practitioners on the importance assigned to a policy and where their efforts should be focused. Over the last 12 years a focus on expanding transfer opportunities has shifted to a concentration on retention and completion. The level of importance and value of the policy has diminished as current leadership has deemphasized transfer, amidst more pressing challenges and concerns. The priorities of the president can best be captured by how he is described in a booklet that highlights a timeline of presidential contributions. Dr. Dan Fogarty’s inscribed legacy says he 181 “is distinguished by educational innovation, continued brisk enrollment growth, and securing record amounts of grant funding to spur additional educational initiatives.” Perception of the Target Population: “The Ay Pobrecito Syndrome” As described in Chapter III, UTC is a diverse institution and in conversations with practitioners I learned that UTC practitioners are aware of the demographics of their student body. In asking practitioners to describe their population, Administrator 7, for example, replied that, They’re everybody and everything. They are every socio-economic group, every race, both genders, all ages. We have people here who already have degrees and people here who do not have high school diplomas. We have people from affluent roots and those who live in extreme poverty. They are literally everyone and everything. Similarly, Staff Member 1 describes the student population as “all different.” “They come from different backgrounds, different family trees, different countries, they are all different.” Her students not only look different and have different backgrounds, but they have different goals. She describes that when she sits down for an advising session she meets with students that come with a long history in industry, such as welding or machinery. These students would like to change careers and earn a degree or certificate quickly. Other students come to UTC to explore career options and “may have been at the college a while.” While they might be enrolled in a medical technology program, it is only because they know other students in the same program. She also meets with students who are fresh from high school; “those are the students that dream big, shoot for being a M.D. or lawyer.” In addition to serving a diverse student body with various goals, practitioners are aware that UTC is a majority minority institution that serves a large number of students that live in poverty. According to a board member, there are 82,000 students in the public school system and 82% of them qualify for free or reduced lunch, which is the federal indicator of poverty. She 182 also mentioned that 88% of these students are children of color. In describing the Lanchester student population she said, “we are a majority minority school district with poor children.” Practitioners used their perceptions of students when interpreting the value of the transfer policy. Practitioners felt that transfer policy was important, but before they could emphasize transfer they first needed to concentrate on remediating their students. Faculty Member 1 describes UTC as a college culture with low student expectations. We haven’t quite gotten over the ay, pobrecito syndrome. It’s like, “Oh, they’re lucky they graduated. They have so much.” I was just reading some stuff from some of the minority-serving institutions, and there’s an ethos. There’s an ethos about, “These are our students. We need them to reach for the stars.” That’s not the case here. That exists on a faculty-by-faculty basis, and I mean, it always does, right? But I wouldn’t say that’s part of our institutional message to students. I think our institutional message to students is, “Finish your Associate degree and get a job,” and that’s fine. That’s totally fine, but I think we, without needing to, we sort of sacrifice the transfer message because there is an overall belief that students can’t do it because of where they came from. The fourth factor found to influence how practitioners interpret the transfer policy is their overall perception of the student body. The majority of practitioners interviewed believe that their students are “lucky” to get an associate’s degree since they are not academically prepared, suffer from the ails of poverty, have personal issues that typically conflict with earning an education, and lack the motivation to persevere through college. Practitioners used words and phrases such as “downtrodden,” “disenfranchised,” “urban,” “intellectually-challenged,” “those that were denied admission everywhere else,” and students that “come with baggage” to describe this population. Practitioners described their students as academically weak and dealing with many complicated personal issues. In this light, practitioners believed that the institution should focus on student aspirations that are more realistic than transfer. Weak academic preparation. According to Staff Member 4, UTC enrolls approximately half of their students in basic skills. The majority of students in basic skills are students of color (74%.) The majority of 183 students that enroll at UTC come from the public school system. Administrator 9 described the majority of the UTC student body in the following way. Many of our students have gone to very weak high schools. We have one of the largest gaps in graduation attainment for African-Americans in the nation. We’re getting a lot of our students who are very weak. They’re very, very weak. We’re getting high school graduates who are testing in the basic skills, not basic skills III, but basic skills levels I and II in reading, communication skills, all of that. So our students are having to get through major obstacles to even qualify for a program. We have voucher schools that are out there where students are going in. They’re certifying that they graduate. They never took the sciences courses, a decent science course. They never had a decent math course. If you were a scientist or a mathematician would you work out of somebody’s church basement? You wouldn’t, you’re not going to do that. So they don’t have the qualifications. So what we have is a lot of our students of color are individuals who are in the central city. They’ve gone to these schools and it’s just not that strong. Even if they have a desire for higher education, even if they have that in many cases the schools have let them down. It’s just not there. I’ve looked at many of the students that are there who are testing, who are testing in the basic skills and it takes fortitude to get through there and then some wind up at the adult high school program. It takes time. When discussing the populations’ level of academic preparation, the lack of skills was typically attributed to the public school system. Staff Member 6 said that UTC has one of the worst school systems in the United States. In his division he argues that only 10% meet the academic requirements to enter UTC at college level in reading, English, and math. A lack of academic preparation is seen as a challenge at UTC, prompting some practitioners to view transferring to a four-year institution as “impossible.” Faculty Member 4 said that UTC has several sections of sixth to tenth grade math, “they don’t know fractions, decimals, or percentages.” Administrator 18 had similar remarks in terms of math preparation. When you start talking about the average student coming out of the public school system, and that’s where the majority of our students of color come from, they’re functioning on a fourth through seventh grade level. Knowing this, then getting them ready to participate in a program area is a challenge. According to Faculty Member 8, academic preparation has always been a challenge at UTC. The academic preparation of students attending UTC over the years has given UTC the reputation as a “bum’s college.” He said, “this is where the bums, the people who never finished 184 high school, start.” This reputation of the student body was also used as a rationale against the increased faculty credentialing requirements mentioned in a previous section. According to Administrator 9, faculty that opposed the higher credentialing requirements argued that they did not require higher credentials because of the low level of academic preparation exhibited by their students. People said they don’t need more credentials, “What do they need all that for? I’ve got students who can’t read and write. Why do they need all that? Why do I need to go back to school?” Staff Member 6 argues that it might require working with students to understand the challenge, a task not typically undertaken by administrators. He says that while working at UTC administrators have “pushed the four-year education and told us that we really serve as the keeper of dreams for students. Okay, fine, but they’re not in the trenches with our students.” He argues that most of their students are unprepared for the academic rigor required of a four-year institution, are first generation students, and do not have family or relatives that “have anything above an unskilled job.” According to Staff Member 6, UTC has the most students in basic skills when compared to any other technical college. Current data supports his claim and shows that UTC enrolls the highest proportion of students enrolled in basic skills when compared to the other technical colleges in Wisconsin (see Figure 17). 185 Figure 17. Percent of students enrolled in at least one basic skills course at all 16 technical colleges. UTC enrolls the largest proportion of students enrolled in basic skills when compared to all other technical colleges in the state (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012a). Staff Member 6 argues that the “keeper of the dreams might be helping them to a two- year associate degree,” rather than going to the university. Staff Member 6 said that, as far as academic preparation, “students who we get don’t have the potential to get an associate degree.” “They can’t read, they can’t write, and we’re supposed to turn their lives around?” He worries for some of their “intellectually-challenged” students because in the past UTC offered occupational programs that didn’t require much academic ability, such as watch repair or tailoring. However, even the technical programs require higher levels of academic ability. Staff Member 6 also expressed his concern for students that do transfer because of their lack of academic skills. For example, new transfer students from UTC graduated at lower rates from UW institutions in comparison to all other WTCS new transfer students. The most recent data, which follows the progress of the 2002 cohort, show a six-year graduation rate of 39% for former UTC students, compared with a six-year graduation rate of 44% for former WTCS 0.0%$ 10.0%$ 20.0%$ 30.0%$ 40.0%$ 50.0%$ 60.0%$ A B C D E F G UTC H I J K L M N O UTC.$49%$of$students$ enrolled$in$at$least$one$ basic$skills$course$ 186 students overall 26 (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2008-2009). Instead of transfer, Staff Member 6 argues that the institution should invest in building their students’ basic skills and assisting them through a two-year program. He believes the transfer option should be offered for exceptional students, but is not “something that is realistic for most students.” Most practitioners at UTC agree that transfer should be offered as an option to students, however, it was common for practitioners to agree that transfer was not for everyone. A new initiative was created at UTC where transfer is an option. The project is intended to provide students with a visual curricular map of required courses along a continuum that leads to diplomas and associate degrees, while providing “stop outs” where students have the option to go to work or continue their education. Figure 18 provides an example of the project recently presented to the Board Of Trustees. The objective is to provide transfer among the array of opportunities. 26 This data takes into account transfer to UW Colleges and UW four-year institutions. Data is not publically available for vertical transfer specifically. 187 Figure 18. Welding Career Pathway. New initiative at UTC that will provide students at any education level a visual of how their program of study is connected to further educational options. Administrator 16 said, I think the pathways will expose students to what is possible. The thing we are really good about is giving students hope. We are really good at that and really believing that students can succeed, given the right environment and the right tools. Given all that, I think it’s just a matter of their aspirations and supporting them and having them believe that they can in fact move through these pathways and get to wherever they want to go with the right support and the right kinds of tools. And of course, their capability. But not everybody should transfer. Administrator 16 describes the goal of the pathways project as providing students the complete set of options. While providing transfer opportunities was espoused as important, she also references student “capability” followed by the idea that “not everyone should transfer.” This idea is prevalent throughout conversations with practitioners. Transfer should be offered as an WorkKeys)Integra/on) iBest)Integra/on) High)School)Ar/cula/on) Weekend,)evening) Accelerated))))))))High)School) AWS)Inspec/on)Cer/ficate) 188 option, but whether students actually transfer is dependent on their aspirations and their capability. Practitioners believe it is their responsibility to offer the transfer option, but do not hold it as an expectation that their students actually transfer. Student personal issues. In addition to students’ lack of academic preparation, practitioners described personal, pre-existing challenges that “get in the way” of success. Although not a direct correlation, the signage posted in every building provided evidence that UTC students were perceived to have external challenges. On each exterior door was a sign, the size of a typical stop sign, that read “Weapons of any kind prohibited” with a picture of a gun and a knife with an “X” through them. During a campus tour, I asked about the signs and was told that a couple weeks prior to my visit there was a stabbing on campus. The campus warning signs are atypical collegiate symbols, but align with how practitioners describe the challenges that their students bring to the college. These challenges are not limited to criminal activity, and also include mental illness, living in poverty, and being single-parent households. Practitioners used student “personal issues” as evidence of the challenges they encounter in educating this population. The challenges that practitioners refer to are perceived to be a barrier to student success and ultimately, a rationale for focusing student efforts towards finding employment rather than transferring to a four-year institution. Faculty Member 5 describes student situations that he encounters in the classroom. I don’t think the problem is ours, that we’re for example, insensitive. I think you’ve got that this is a really poor city, people are trying to make it, there’s a lot of distractions in their lives, a lot of pulls on them, both personal, financial, family. I constantly have to tell my students that because I’ve seen it over and over where students—well, this one young woman yesterday emailed me, “I can’t come to class, I’ve got an appointment.” I wrote her back and I said, “You know, we meet once a week, you really should not set your appointments up during the class” and she said, “Well, my grandmother’s got cancer and”—you know. I said, “I certainly understand.” 189 On the other hand, I tell the students, they’re always getting pulled into, whether its their brother getting thrown in jail, someone getting—whatever. Poor people are constantly in trauma and the students get sucked into the trauma, or the drama. I mean, they miss school for two weeks; they miss class for three weeks. I just had a student who, he had missed, I was about to drop him, he showed up and I said, “You’re lucky I didn’t drop you.” I said, “where were you?” He said, “I got picked up.” He was in jail. He couldn’t call me. He was in jail for two weeks. That’s the kind of situation we have here. Faculty Member 5 believes that his students have complicated lives that serve as barriers to their education. Similar situations were discussed in other practitioner interviews. For example, Faculty Member 8 said, that his students have multiple responsibilities that impede their education. Family, money, children, I mean many of them are very young and have children to be concerned with, especially the women themselves. When we get the women into the program of all colors, you know, and they have children that they’ve had early on. That gets in the way of pursuing their careers. It’s societal issues that get in the way for many of them. He continued, “I mean—this is what we have to teach. This is what we have to try to help.” Faculty Member 8 said, that student personal issues create challenges for himself as an educator. Transfer policy lacks credence by both of these faculty members because they believe students have too many external challenges in their lives to consider transfer. These identified external challenges support the UTC “work first” mission. We deal with all kinds of people that other places aren’t equipped to work with or it’s not part of their mission or whatever. That’s a huge, huge part because being downtown, we become a very urban setting and we deal with all the social ills that come with that and students bring all kinds of baggage and all that stuff. Our mission is so focused on getting those people back into some kind of path that’s going to result in their employment, and we start from ground zero. Our function is so much, of course, just that entrée, but also to be the cheerleaders along the way. Given the students’ weak academic abilities and their personal background, practitioners perceive a two-year degree or diploma as the best possible outcome. In a conversation on the UTC student population with Administrator 7, he characterized UTC as “their Harvard” when referring to what UTC means to the student population. When asked what he meant, he said, 190 “UTC is their only choice, given their backgrounds and it’s their Harvard because it really is the best they can do in terms of selecting an institution of higher learning, one that offers them opportunity.” He then proceeded to share a story about Melissa, who came to UTC at the age of 35. She was a single mother and had her first child when she was a teenager. With great pride he said, UTC gave her skills in cosmetology and now she is out making a living and providing for her family. “UTC is a place students can come to broaden their opportunities.” Similarly, Faculty Member 6 described how UTC places students into middle-skilled jobs, such as cosmetology. For our students, that’s a step up. It might not be a step up for a lawyer’s kid, or an engineering family, but for our students who say “I need to get some skills so that I can go out there and make $40,000 a year.” That is what we do. In both of these examples, the education that UTC offers is seen as the best and often only opportunity for these students. The Influence of New Narratives: “Everybody’s got to get a four-year degree, they say— The reality is that not everybody needs one.” The fifth factor in policy interpretation is the influence of new narratives. Practitioners displayed a skepticism in the individual and societal value of a bachelor’s degree, exhibiting an ideology that obtaining technical skills is preferable to earning a bachelor’s degree. I found that the majority of practitioners valued sub-baccalaureate training beyond a bachelor’s degree as a result of, but not limited to, two new narratives. First, national- and state-level goals and reports argue that the economy needs more individuals with an associate-level of education rather than a university-level education. These external influences have reinforced a belief among practitioners that the education provided at UTC is more valuable than earning a bachelor’s degree alone. Second, UTC has internal data findings that show the education a student earns at a four-year institution is not as valuable as the training students receive at UTC. With external 191 constituents at the national and state-level touting the value of a two-year education, along with the devaluation of skills obtained at a four-year institution by internal data, practitioners at UTC perceived the transfer policy as a wasted effort. An external push for two-year skills. The majority of practitioners interviewed believe that the economy requires education at the certificate or associate degree level. These beliefs stem from two external influences, including a) the Obama administration’s goal to increase the number of college graduates and b) the dialogue regarding the skills gap. Since 2008 there has been national advocacy for two-year colleges to operate as “career centers,” providing the American people the technical skills to find employment (Dembicki, 2012). In July of 2009, in a speech at Macomb Community College in Michigan, and again during subsequent State of the Union Addresses, President Obama has stressed the importance of helping Americans acquire the skills and credentials to succeed in the workforce, focusing primarily on sub-baccalaureate programs. In the 2012 State of the Union Address, President Obama highlighted examples of individuals who have attended two-year colleges to receive technical education. He said, Jackie Bray is a single mom from North Carolina who was laid off from her job as a mechanic. Then Siemens opened a gas turbine factory in Charlotte and formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College. The company helped the college design courses in laser and robotics training. It paid Jackie's tuition, and then hired her to help operate their plant. I want every American looking for work to have the same opportunity as Jackie did. Join me in a national commitment to train 2 million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. My administration has already lined up more companies that want to help. Model partnerships between businesses like Siemens and community colleges in places like Charlotte and Orlando and Louisville are up and running. Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers, places that teach people skills that businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing. The current administration values the two-year college as a critical component of the economic 192 recovery. While leaving transfer to a university (or even, more generally, a bachelor’s degree) unmentioned during the 2012 address does not signal a four-year degree is irrelevant, it does suggest that it is not rendered at the same level of consideration as two-year technical skills. Similarly, when the American Graduation Initiative was announced in 2009, Administrator 16 at UTC offered this statement, President Obama has recognized the important role community and technical colleges will play in our nation’s economic recovery. The American Graduation Initiative is an important step in rebuilding the capacity and competitiveness of America’s workforce. Urban Technical College is committed to providing the education and training critical to helping the region maintain its manufacturing base and develop jobs of the future in technology, information and green industries. UTC is poised to prepare workers for jobs of the future and help the nation and our community thrive and compete in a global economy. In a similar statement, the former president of the WTCS also commented on the initiative. With the new federal investments proposed by President Obama, Wisconsin’s Technical Colleges will develop more options for students to pursue degrees and certificates online and to accelerate their academic achievement in programs that combine occupational learning and skills development. We will build upon our strong partnerships with Wisconsin business, labor and employers to further improve the alignment between technical college curricula and workplace needs. Both the Administrator 16 and former WTCS president expressed a commitment to meet the college completion goals set out by President Obama by enhancing student occupational skills. While only three administrators and one faculty member at UTC mentioned the national campaign focused on college completion during interviews, I have included it due to the context in which it was discussed. In each example, President Obama’s goals for the community college appeared to influence the main priorities of the campus. For example, Administrator 9 said, I can tell you that I’m not sure transferring to the university is going to be a top priority. I think what the college is going to probably do is spend a lot more time trying to figure out how are we going to graduate more students because that’s consistent with the Obama funding and we’re a place in need of improving our graduation rate significantly so that students can have other options and hopefully transfer will become one of those options. 193 Similarly, Faculty Member 9 said that UTC is “under pressure because of the President Obama initiative that we really want to focus on course completion. There are financial consequences if [the administration] does not.” In these excerpts, practitioners reveal that the funding linked with the completion agenda is an important priority at UTC. A high-level administrator said that transfer policy is important to administrators because they have encountered former students who later earned a bachelor’s degree. However, transfer is not as important as completion. Administrator 16 said, “while we know that transfer is important, right now the focus is on completion and that is President Obama’s focus too. What is he saying? Get people to finish degrees and get jobs.” Faculty Member 7 said, “right now we are being funded for completion, not transfer. Its what Obama is talking about, get some tech skills, not really a university education.” Although subtle, these practitioners illustrate that the national attention on college completion has contributed to the college’s priority of completion. It has also provided external validation for the value of sub-baccalaureate degrees when compared to the bachelor’s degree. None of the participants said that a bachelor’s degree has no value, but it was mentioned that in “today’s economy the two-year degree is what is needed.” The second external influence, generally coined the “skills gap,” has gained national traction and is an idea prevalent in Wisconsin. It is the difference between the skills required for employment and those possessed by the applicants. According to Tim Sullivan, a former Special Consultant to Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker, on Economic, Workforce, and Education Development, “Wisconsin is experiencing above average unemployment; yet employers say they cannot find the skilled labor they need to fill vacant positions” (Sullivan, 2012). In a report titled, The road ahead, restoring Wisconsin’s workforce development, Sullivan says that the skills gap is the result of a changing job market and an educational system that has been unable 194 to keep pace with the varying demands of employers (Sullivan, 2012). According to Sullivan, one of the primary solutions to alleviating the skills gap is to encourage “more technical and associate’s degrees” (Sullivan, 2012, p. 74). Sullivan argues that Wisconsin demands employees with middle-skills beyond those with a bachelor’s degree. While this statistic has been debated (Belz, 2012; Davidson, 2012; Mistler, 2013), the significance of the skills gap literature and arguments made in such reports is not whether a skills gap exists, but that the dissemination of such reports, media coverage, and blogs covering the topic present it as fact. The national- and state-level skills gap discussion has elevated the importance of the technical college system in Wisconsin and created a belief among practitioners within UTC that teaching students technical skills to fill middle-skilled jobs is of higher concern than transfer policy or earning a bachelor’s degree. The skills gap, like the national agenda presented by President Obama, justifies the mission of UTC and provides validation on the technical rather than the academic emphasis. According to Administrator 22, “the tech colleges love the Sullivan report because it shows a critical need for them.” This comment was corroborated when I spoke with Administrator 10. She said targeting the skills gap is one of UTC’s strategies in marketing the value of the college. One angle, or message, if you will, is the skills gap. We hear about it nationally. I don’t know if you hear about it as much in California because your industries may be a little bit different. Wisconsin is one of the most traditional manufacturing states, and I would say probably over the last 18 months, that you can’t go a week without reading an article about is the skills gap. As people are retiring and they’re a little bit higher up in a manufacturing company, the entry-level workers or current workers don’t have the skills to succeed them. Then the question is, well, what is the technical college doing? How are we addressing the skills gap? And, then we show them in our materials. Approximately 25% of the interview participants at UTC mentioned the skills gap during our conversation. Typically, interviewees discussed the skills gap as evidence for a need of two- year technical training rather than expanding or encouraging transfer. Staff Member 6 said, “I 195 feel safe to say that transfer is not the end all and be all of UTC.” He said that his business experience and background have led him to “believe that the niche [UTC] should be filling, at least proportionately—a very high proportion, is into the two-year associate degrees that lead to employment.” When asked why he believed this, Staff Member 6 said “part of our counseling tools, intellectual tools are job market statistics and we know [UTC] can help fill the skills gap that everyone is always talking about.” Staff Member 6 believes UTC should concentrate on preparing students for middle-skilled jobs more so than transfer because that is advocated by UTC administration and by state-level reports, such as the Sullivan report. In other discussions regarding the skills gap, practitioners cited the percentage of bachelor’s degree holders in Wisconsin that were unemployed as evidence for their support of two-year technical training. Faculty Member 5 said, Less than 50 percent of four-year grads currently are employed in the field of their choice. Now, part of that is a reflection of the Great Recession, new lack of job opportunities, but it’s a very important statistic. It reinforces what we do here. Did you know that 88 percent of our graduates are either working in the field for which they trained or pursuing additional education six months after graduation? The stuff taught here gets at the skills gap, not the BA. Faculty Member 8 had similar remarks, he said “most jobs do not require a four-year degree. This statistic makes what we do here very important.” Administrator 7 explains that the skills gap is a result of an increasing belief that everyone needs a bachelor’s degree. Nobody wants to actually say that the issue exists because what we have right now in this nation, in this state, in this region, we have a skills gap. People say all the time, “Why do we have all this unemployment, if we have all of these employers saying they need people?” Well, it’s because we have a skills gap. We have a bunch of people who have bachelor’s degrees. I’ll make it very poignant. If you watched two days ago the presidential debate, the question was fired out, “I’m going to graduate in two years with a bachelors degree. Can you guarantee me that I’m going to have a job?” A lot of the banter that went back and forth was, “No.” Fifty percent of the people who graduate with a bachelor’s degree are not going to have a job waiting for them. It's because we’re training them in the wrong way. We’re giving them theory without giving them anything else. 196 Based on the skills gap, Administrator 7 believes that society needs to “rethink” the value they assign to the bachelor’s degree. Administrator 7 believes that in today’s economy educators should be focused on teaching the majority of the population skills rather than the theory that is found in bachelor’s degree programs. Administrator 7 explained that the skills gap evolved over the last 50 years as the perception of education has changed from more “skill focused” to more “theory.” He said that before the GI Bill, only the “few would get the university education, and the many who would get all the other kinds of education.” He said that as a result of the expansion of a “college for all” mindset the country has developed a skills gap. We have all these openings at the middle-skill level, but we don’t have people trained at that level. Instead we have people trained at a level higher than that. It’s maybe not even higher. It’s more theoretical. For which there are no jobs, so we’re skewed. We’re upside down essentially in what we need to be. We are tracking to a higher level of education, but if you look at the way a society actually needs to be structured to function, only 10-12% of the population should actually directly track straight through education to the highest echelon of education. Everyone else should start learning how to do something; how to be something, and then should self select to continue on at the theoretical level, the bachelor’s degree, and the master’s degree, that kind of thing. Essentially, to bring it very down to earth. The American mindset is “we can be anything we want to be.” We fed into that and we’ve said, “everybody’s got to get a four year degree.” The reality is not everybody does and thus the skills gap. Similar to Administrator 7, practitioners at the WTCS also believe that the community needs to start viewing technical education as the preferred method of education. Administrator 29 said, As we know, and anyone who is currently up on the workforce literature at all, knows that the projections are that 70% of the jobs available in the next 10 years are going to be for people who don’t need a bachelors degree and need something less than a four-year degree. Society hasn’t caught up with that yet and they continue to see technical college training or education as the less preferred, you’re not good enough, you can’t cut it at a four-year institution, versus saying the specialized nature of the education is going to prepare you for a sustainable job. So really it’s shifting public perception. Some of it is that we have not done a good job and some of it is that parents, people who have gone to a four-year want their children to have the same experiences that they had and before their experience really prepared them for their job and their role and their success and 197 they don’t think that there’s any other way that their children can be as successful as they are unless they have a four-year degree. Administrator 29 believes that educators need to end discussions of transfer, because that is not what is important in our current economy. “Why are we spending so much time talking about transfer? The jobs that are going to sustain our youth do not require a four-year degree.” She believes that people continue to see “the BA as the answer” because that is what they were taught. “You would think people would be further along in their thinking, given the current economic situation, but it is so embedded.” According to Administrator 29, the answer involves “getting those people into short-term training, hands-on skills development opportunities.” Local data as evidence for the value of technical education. In addition to external references, UTC also has internal institutional data that provides validation that technical skills are more valuable than a bachelor’s degree alone. In one of the conversations I had with the UTC president, I was shown the “UTC Fast Facts” sheet and given a copy of the UTC graduation report. At the top left of the fact sheet, UTC reports in bold font, “UTC students with bachelor’s degrees (or higher): 3,685.” This statistic was mentioned in approximately half 27 of the UTC interviews and used as evidence in support of technical education. Board Member 1 said, “we actually jokingly call ourselves the second largest graduate school, to UW Madison.” Similarly, a high-level administrator also said “we are the second largest graduate school in Wisconsin, from my definition.” In Lanchester’s primary newspaper, an article was published last spring that emphasized this data. The article highlights “20- something” students that have earned bachelor’s degrees, are out of work, and enroll in the technical college for employable skills. For example, a female student in her twenties graduated 27 The statistic that references the number of students enrolled at UTC that already have a bachelor’s degree or higher was mentioned in 21 or the 46 UTC interviews. 198 from a four-year public institution in Wisconsin with a degree in architectural studies in 2008. She just recently graduated from UTC’s associate degree in landscape horticulture and upon graduating is already employed. The article also describes another female student in her late twenties that earned bachelor’s degrees in graphic design and marketing at the state land-grant institution. The company she worked for went out of business and she enrolled in UTC’s dental technician program, seeking a job with more security (Herzog, 2012). UTC practitioners also take pride in the idea that thousands of students with a bachelor’s degree or higher enroll at UTC to learn technical skills. In conversations with practitioners, this data was presented as evidence that earning a bachelor’s degree before gaining technical skills “might not be in the best interest of the student.” For example, I asked an administrator at UTC about the transfer opportunities that UTC offers to students. He immediately stopped me and said, Okay. Let me just mention something to you. We have probably close to 5,000 students at this institution that have bachelor’s degrees that have come back for engineering programs or nursing programs because they get laid off or they don’t have jobs. It’s like they transfer back. Administrator 18 uses the UTC statistic as evidence that UTC does not need to prioritize transfer options since they have a significant constituent of university graduates. In response to a similar question, a faculty member said, “in fact, we have more students here that have bachelor’s degrees than transfer from here.” Staff Member 6 said, “why would we focus on transfer, when many students come here to earn skills that already have a BA?” While most practitioners were not as blunt, the majority of practitioners at UTC believed that a bachelor’s degree was valuable, especially when accompanied by technical skills. This dialogue with practitioners illustrates that practitioners believe students should first earn technical skills to make themselves marketable, and the bachelor’s degree should only be 199 pursued to supplement their technical education. An administrator shared a story of a student that earned her four-year degree and afterwards enrolled at UTC for technical skills. We had a green energy summit here. I was talking to a young lady and she was stirring her coffee. I said, “What are you doing here?” She said, “Well, I have a bachelor’s degree in communications from [name of the state land-grant institution]” which is like the Holy Grail in Wisconsin. Anyway, that is a damn fine school. She goes, “I figure I’m going to be selling stuff for the rest of my life with this degree in communications. I’m not clear what to do with a degree in communications,” although she probably paid thousands for it. She said, “I’m going to the tech college across the street and I’m getting a degree in sustainability, an associate degree in sustainability because I want to sell stuff I believe in.” The student already had a bachelor’s degree from a prestigious four-year institution, but she enrolled at UTC because the communications degree by itself was insufficient. He also said, It’s important to have communication skills, writing skills, computational skills, how to work in teams. All the kind of stuff my daughter is learning at the four-year institution she is enrolled at, for sure. However, I would say that they probably won’t hire them unless they have the technical skills to operate a CNC machine. This administrator believes that the “soft skills” students learn as part of a bachelor’s degree are sought after by employers, however those skills by themselves are not as valued when unaccompanied by technical skills. These data increase the level of perceived prestige of UTC. In the article highlighted, the idea was expressed that students from the most prestigious public university in the state were enrolling at UTC after they earned their bachelor’s degree. These circulating examples and stories provide practitioners evidence that a technical degree from UTC may be more valuable than a university degree. The internal and external dialogue regarding the need for people with middle-skills has created a strong belief among practitioners that sub-baccalaureate degrees are more valuable than the bachelor’s degree. This data provides further validation for the “work first” mission of the college and also shows a devaluing of the four-year degree. It is important to note that not all 200 practitioners expressed this view, however select practitioners used the data as evidence for questioning the “college for all” ethos that has developed in this country. Doubting the value of a bachelor’s degree gives less precedence to the development, maintenance, and implementation of the transfer policy. Concern for Equity: “A policy of opportunity” The sixth factor found to influence the interpretation of policy was a concern for equity. While the majority of practitioners interpreted transfer policy as a means to provide students with an opportunity to pursue a bachelor’s degree, a select few described transfer as a “policy of opportunity” for students of color. When discussing the policy, these practitioners provided two primary reasons for the importance of the policy; first, the policy provides a pathway to the baccalaureate for students of color and second, these practitioners believed that if implemented in a manner tailored to students of color, the policy could greatly benefit minorities in the Lanchester area. Select practitioners acknowledged that the policy could provide “bridges” or “pathways” for minorities to earn a bachelor’s degree. When Administrator 9 discussed the transfer policy, he said, “it provides students of color with a new option, it provides a new avenue for them.” In the same discussion, Administrator 9 shared how the higher education systems in Wisconsin are structured and that it was not until after serving over 20 years in the state that he realized what was happening. He said, I’ve always known the systems were developed for different reasons. The tech system was tied to manufacturing and getting a job. The students were not ready to be engineers or lawyers. So, we had these parallel systems running. You have the technical college over there and the university over there. The two did not intersect. After coming to UTC and seeing the number of kids of color, it dawned on me that this is really a form of stratification, whereby students that go to the tech college are thought of as not having the intellectual ability or desire to become lawyers or engineers. Why else would you have parallel systems set up? And there’s no intersect? You have this track in the technical 201 college and over there you’ve got the university track and there’s no way to get over there. This is deliberate and if you are in the tech college you stay over there. The transfer policy is a way to bridge the two. To get the black kids on the academic track. How do they get to the university? They got to transfer. Administrator 9 interprets the transfer policy as a solution to the parallel systems of higher education in the state and as the only option students of color in the area have to earn a bachelor’s degree. Other practitioners shared Administrator 9’s perception of the transfer policy as one of hope and opportunity for minorities. Faculty Member 7 said that the transfer policy adds value to the institution, but also “provides a role for many students of color as their first level of entry to the bachelor’s degree.” Faculty Member 7 said, “if minorities are in college in this state, they are most likely at UTC. Providing transfer is a way to get them to further their education and get these groups into four-year schools.” She said that transfer policy provides a path to the university system for minority students, albeit some may ‘stop out’ to pursue employment. Interpretation of the policy was influenced largely by an acknowledgement and awareness of the diverse group of students served at UTC, as well as the notion that UTC may be the only ‘avenue’ for minority students to a four-year institution. Faculty Member 9 mentioned that if a student is prepared to go directly to a four-year institution after high school, the Lanchester area is a great place, as it has a plethora of four-year institutions. However, if students are not prepared to transition from high school to the university, UTC is the only option they have to commence a bachelor’s degree. Faculty Member 9 and other practitioners mentioned that since students in the area tend to stay locally, UTC is their only pathway to a bachelor’s degree. She said, Many of the students of color in this area might not have the financial or academic background to begin at a four-year institution. The transfer policy of the college really provides a vast number of students of color really their only option at the baccalaureate. 202 A student service specialist described the transfer policy similarly and said, There is a UWC that is 18 miles down the interstate, but minorities are not going to go there. Transportation out there is bad and they want to stay in Lanchester. That is why UTC’s transfer function is critical for this crop of students. To these practitioners, the transfer policy is particularly important in providing students of color an opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree given the lack of another two-year college in the area. Additionally, practitioners report that students tend to resist going out of the area for college. The transfer policy was also interpreted as a policy that could potentially expose minority students to careers that they had never considered. Administrator 17 said, We have huge minorities in our barber and cosmetology, all women, all minorities, and I keep saying, “that’s great, but what else can we expose them to?” We are just perpetuating the same thing over and over. Transfer pathways can expose them to other possibilities so once they finish, they can go on and maybe get higher paying jobs. Another faculty member said many of his students arrive at UTC with aspirations of earning a two-year degree. When his students, which are primarily students of color, realize that many of their credits will transfer to the university, many show an interest in transfer. He provided the following example, The transfer agreements we have here are really great options for students, and specifically students of color that are a large part of my group. They might start here wanting to do something in TV, like being a camera operator, or broadcast technician. However, once they learn what transfers to the university and how it could open further options, some change their trajectory. They might want to do editing or look to be a television broadcast director. So, to me, the transfer policy is an eye opener for my students. I think it is great for students that are disadvantaged, and really provides these ethnically diverse students a way into higher paying positions. In these examples, the transfer policy was discussed as a means to provide students of color opportunities to earn a baccalaureate. However, in addition to providing a pathway, they interpreted the policy as also being a mechanism to alter or change career paths. Students of color may start their education at UTC with the aspiration of earning an associate’s degree, but some consider transferring after learning of the professions available with a four-year degree. 203 These practitioners believe transfer agreements that UTC has with nearby four-year institutions is an avenue for students of color to obtain higher paying positions. The concept that the transfer function could open up opportunities for students in general and specifically students of color was discussed with Faculty Member 4. He said that he has “met many students that change their minds about their career path.” He believes that the transfer policy is particularly important for these students because it allows them to “switch gears.” Knowing this, he argues that all programs, specifically those offered in the liberal arts and sciences, should require that their curriculum requirements include the core credits that would allow students to “easily change their mind and pursue transfer.” These courses include college level math and English. However, he knows of programs at UTC that do not require college level math as part of the degree plan. He provides the example of Early Childhood Development. We have an early childhood program, which are mainly people looking to go to daycares and things like that. The faculty don’t think they need the higher-level math, they don’t think they can handle the higher-level math, and so they’ve kind of pulled back from that. Our thing has always been, and we’ve tried to push that you don’t know which students are actually going to daycare and which of them want a pre-K to third grade license. If they want a pre-K to third grade license then they need the higher-level math, the Math for Elementary Teachers 1, the Math for Elementary Teachers 2. Faculty Member 4 believes that structuring a program without the basic requirements to transfer is a “disservice to students.” He said “because transfer is an important pathway, specifically for our ethnically diverse population, we should really have smart curricular development and make sure that all of our programs can make it easier on our students to transfer.” Currently, the Human Services and Early Childhood Development associate degree programs do not have a math requirement. He speculates that these programs omit the math requirement since students are likely to graduate without including a math course in the 204 curriculum. His concern regarding omitting math has made him “fight hard” during curriculum meetings, but as of yet there has been no change. The policy is also important for students of color because of the additional support practitioners believe students receive at UTC when compared to a four-year institution. Practitioners cited multiple ways UTC can offer students of color more support in their first two years of a bachelor’s degree than a four-year institution, including; smaller class sizes, more contact with their faculty, lower tuition, as well as flexibility and access. For example, Administrator 13 was one of the administrators that viewed the transfer policy as an opportunity for students of color to gain access to the university. After disclosing her view of the transfer policy, she mentioned, The policy provides the bridge for students of color, which is important. It gives these students the opportunity to start somewhere that might be more inviting than the university. When you’re dealing with probably a lot of students of color, your dealing with students who have not had the experience of having family that go to college. They don’t have anyone to help them. So when you have small classes and closer contact with faculty it helps them before they go to the university. When they’re here on campus they can make that connection, then they’re more comfortable when they transfer. Faculty Member 4 also acknowledged the added support that UTC can offer students of color before they transfer. “Its quite a bit less expensive to start here, which is important for our diverse students.” Faculty Member 3 said, “we also offer a lot more flexibility and access because we have four campuses, pretty much because everyone in the district is not really far from one our campuses, plus online courses.” While the policy was recognized to be a potential “policy of opportunity” for students of color by select practitioners, Administrator 6 and Faculty Member 1, viewed the policy as beneficial to students of color only if it is implemented in a culturally-oriented manner. These two practitioners understood that the policy could benefit their students of color, but the implementation of the policy would need to be more deliberate. The tone by which they 205 discussed transfer at UTC was one of disappointment and that if only the policy was implemented differently it would benefit students of color. Faculty Member 1 said, The policy can provide the pathway for students of color, but does it? I’m not sure. We need more than the policy. It represents the avenue, but without people behind it, to help our students from diverse backgrounds it will have no traction. So, I’m not sure what it all means. I’m just not seeing the fruits. I’m not seeing a push for transfer for students of color. I’m seeing a push for transfer through some programs, but kind of without color. Colorblind transfer. When I asked her what she meant, she said that UTC has the transfer policy and there are structures in place or programs for transfer, but not that support students of color. She said that the institution, Needs to understand that there are particular issues connected to transfer, that not all students come to UTC with the same level of cultural know how, I don’t know how else to put it, but UTC doesn’t really acknowledge this when they are helping students transfer. Administrator 6 also viewed the transfer policy as a mechanism to increase the number of students of color with a bachelor’s degree. However, she expressed similar concerns that if practitioners do not implement the policy in a “culturally minded way, it would be useless.” She said, We have this great policy piece. What we do on a daily basis on the ground is where I think we fall short. We have lost sight of how to do it in terms of what the literature says works. For example, students of color are particularly very people-oriented. So, having information on the website is not really supportive of minority students to transfer. Non- minorities have informal networks that teach them the ropes and tell them what to do and not to do. Minority groups can not as easily form these connections because minority students are often first generation and they have any number of barriers. For example, we know that the majority of our minority population start here with some alternative method of graduating from high school. They come from the GED route or some other way. This means that upfront we should be tailoring our transfer resources differently for this group. While we do want our students to take initiative and understand what that is to be a student, we need to understand that minority students come to a two-year college and we need to teach them how to do college and how to transfer. We put the transfer structure there and we say they need to show the initiative they need to take responsibility. They need to figure out how to go to the website and attend workshops. They need to analyze it. Well, I say, when something is important we need to assist. We need to help them understand it all, which we don’t. 206 Administrator 6 acknowledges the transfer policy as the first step in helping students transfer, but believes that UTC does not implement the policy in a manner that is helpful to students of color. Both Administrator 6 and Faculty Member 1 interpret the transfer policy through a lens of equity. They perceive the policy as an important pathway for students of color to earn a bachelor’s degree, however, they both provided comments that illustrate that the policy is only beneficial to students of color if implemented in a culturally-sensitive manner. Thus, while most practitioners did not show a concern for equity when interpreting the transfer policy, there were a select few practitioners that interpreted the policy as a means by which students of color could earn a bachelor’s degree. While most practitioners did not illustrate this concern for equity when interpreting the transfer policy, many practitioners showed an equity concern when discussing other initiatives or programs. For example, when the majority of practitioners described rationales supporting basic skill programs or retention-driven initiatives, they noted the importance these program had for their students of color. This illustrates that practitioners tend to demonstrate a concern for equity in policies and programs more oriented at aiding students of color achieve at the two-year level or below, not necessarily the bachelor’s degree level. Summary As studies from the sensemaking and policy implementation literature suggest, the interpretation of policy is complex and often the result of multiple factors (Coburn, 2005; Datnow, 2006; Dorner, 2012; Kezar & Eckel, 2002; Lin, 2000; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002; Vaughan, 1996). In this chapter, I outlined the primary factors found to influence how practitioners interpret the transfer policy. I found that practitioners were most influenced by the identity and history of the institution, followed by a lesser degree, a fear of 207 a loss of power, the actions and priorities of campus leadership, the perception of the policy’s target population, the influence of new narratives, and finally a concern for equity. This discussion highlights how practitioners choose to define the transfer policy and the importance placed on the policy given their current context. The research on policy implementation indicates that how practitioners interpret policy mediates how they enact policies (Coburn, 2001). In the next chapter, I delve into how the transfer policy is implemented in light of the contextual interpretations found in this chapter. 208 CHAPTER VI: Transfer Policy Implementation at Urban Technical College In the previous chapter, I examined the factors that influence how practitioners interpret the transfer policy within a technical college environment. In this chapter, I detail how the policy is implemented. When considering how the transfer policy is implemented, I chose a broad definition of implementation by including institutional and individual efforts directed at transfer as evidence of policy implementation. I approached learning about transfer implementation by attempting to understand how the institution and practitioners teach their students about transfer. What policies, programs, or other efforts are in place to help students learn about transfer and the transfer process? In answering this question, I found two levels of policy implementation. First, the policy was implemented at the structural level, which includes the formal implementing efforts taken by practitioners. This level includes all formal actions taken by the institution to implement transfer, including the creation of transfer policies and programs aimed at increasing the ease by which students transfer. Second, the policy was also implemented at the informal level, which includes actions taken by individual practitioners to promote the transfer function and aid in the successful transfer of their students. Structural Implementation The structural implementation efforts are divided into actions at the physical, documentation, and digital levels of implementation. The physical level includes structural efforts that either occur in person or are a tangible resource for students. The documentation level includes all signed articulation agreements with four-year institutions. The digital level includes all resources that the institution has online or are presented in a digital format. 209 The physical level. The transfer policy was implemented in three ways at the physical level of implementation: programmatically, through human resources, and in print materials (see Table 13.) Table 13 Physical Level Implementation of Transfer Resources Programs/Events Human Resources Print/Promotional Materials • Transfer Days (2 times a year) • Transfer Workshops (2 times a year) • General UTC Open House • Counselors • Faculty Advisors • Student Service Specialists • Specific Four-Year Partner Transfer Specialist • UTC Transfer Guide • Catalog • Posters/flyers to advertise programs and events Transfer programs and events. Programmatically, UTC hosts two transfer programs per academic year called Transfer Days. These events last one to three days and alternate between campus locations. Practitioners view this event as a service to students who wish to learn about four-year institutions. Faculty Member 4 said, The college puts on college fairs where all the colleges come in at least once or twice a semester. So it is kind of neat for the students the fact that we have these colleges— they’re called, I think, college transfer days. And, they’ll have 15-20 colleges, even more sometimes, located over in the cafeteria area in the atrium. And, the students can just walk table to table. They can get information on whom to speak with. As an example, I attended the Transfer Days event in the fall of 2012. There were approximately 20 four-year institutions in attendance, including five public four-year institutions. Each campus in attendance had one to two campus representatives, typically from either outreach or admissions offices. Each four-year institution had a single table draped with a banner or 210 tablecloth advertising their college. The tables displayed business cards of campus contacts, transfer information, university pens or pencils, and other promotional materials. Each representative sat in a chair behind the table waiting for students to approach with questions. Most of the university representatives were occupied with either talking to students or colleagues, reading a book, or most often working on their laptops. UTC uses the Transfer Days events to host other related transfer programs and collaborate with four-year institutions. During the lunch hour, UTC holds a Transfer Workshop for students. The goal of the workshop is to teach students about transfer resources and provide students an opportunity to have their questions answered. During the workshop in the fall of 2012, a student service specialist gave students and parents in attendance a tour of the transfer resources online and connected them with four-year university contact information. During the Transfer Days event, UTC practitioners also connect with their four-year partners by bringing them together at the lunch hour to give them updates on “what’s happening in the college. What initiatives we have, sometimes we ask them to volunteer to help us.” For example, at the last Transfer Days event, UTC spoke with four-year partners about the Transfer Guide, a booklet that UTC publishes and includes ads from four-year colleges. They discussed whether the schools were going to participate, along with the new career pathways initiative, “although they are not directly impacted by it.” Although not specific to transfer, UTC also hosts an Open House event once a semester. During this event, a representative from the liberal arts and sciences division will attend to provide prospective students with transfer program information. Administrator 13 said, A part of our open house is that division representatives come, we also have some four- year partners here, with the idea you start here—with the liberal arts and sciences associate degrees, our primary transfer degrees. You’re starting here, but you can end up 211 there. You can end up at the local four-year. We have all these articulation agreements that we have links to online. In addition to these events, UTC also provides students human resources to assist with general transfer questions. Transfer human resources. The second form of physical implementation efforts includes providing students with administrators and staff to help with the transfer process. There are two types of human resources that assist in the transfer process at UTC, administrative and student services. The administrative transfer position is the only formal transfer-designated employee, where the word “transfer” appears in the formal title. The person in this position is charged with creating and maintaining all articulation agreements. The goal of this position is to “to centralize the transfer process, to work with colleges, [and] to really help develop a program for the college.” The student service positions are those that work with students directly in the transfer process. There are four types of practitioners that a student can seek out for advising (see Figure 19.) First, when students are admitted to the college they take a placement exam to determine their course level. Once they have the results of this exam they meet with a counselor. At UTC, counselors are frontline staff members that work with students to initially determine their course eligibility. Counselors also do program selection, career counseling, work with students on academic probation, and personal counseling. Most counselors are located in the Advising Center and represent the only support staff students are required to meet during their academic career at UTC. Once students are admitted to the college and select a program, they are assigned a faculty advisor that helps with program advising, career advising, and course selection. Another form of advisor is the student service specialist. These individuals are not counselors, instead provide students with basic college information and course selection. Although the 212 categories of guidance staff seem to have clearly defined boundaries, I learned from practitioners that in terms of their responsibilities, “the lines are blurred.” Staff Member 3 said, “there is a lot of overlap in what we do.” Finally, the last position is funded by the local public four-year institution and comes to the UTC campus two days a week to advise prospective transfer students. This person is the only counselor/advisor that holds a transfer-designated position. The order by which students speak with practitioners is nonlinear, as students are currently advised to speak to any one of these practitioners for transfer advice. Figure 19. UTC counseling and advising structure. Students can receive counseling or advising from UTC counselors, faculty advisors, or student service specialists. Students can receive specific transfer advising from the local public four-year institution advisor two days per week. Print materials. Finally, the policy is also implemented physically in the form of print materials. There are three printed documents UTC produces for transfer students. First, the most comprehensive print resource is the UTC Transfer Guide. This booklet is approximately 25 pages in length and Counselors) • Work)with)students)admi3ed)to)) the)college) • Assess)placement)exam)) scores)and)course)eligibility) • Advise)on)career)and)program)) selec<on) • Advise)students)on)academic)) proba<on) • Provide)personal)counseling) Student)Service)Specialists) • Provide)students)with)basic)college) informa<on) • Help)students)with)course)selec<on) • Work)only)with)students)in)good) academic)standing) Faculty)Advisors) • Conduct)program)and)career)advising) • Assist)students)in)course)selec<on) • Work)with)students)only)in)good)) academic)standing) UTC$Counseling$and$Advising$ FourBYear)Ins<tu<on)Advisor) • Conducts)transfer)advising)on)the)UTC) campus)two)<mes)per)week) • Assists)students)in)the)transfer)process)) from)UTC)to)specific)local)fourByear) ins<tu<on)only) Gray=)not)funded)by)UTC) 213 is produced in a magazine-style layout. Four-year institutions purchase ad space for either a full or half page. The ads are diverse with some advertising the specific bachelor’s degrees students can earn at the institution while others highlight the institutional mission or address the advantages of attending the college. In addition to the four-year institution ads, the contact information for a student service specialist at UTC and the specific four-year transfer specialist from the local four-year institution are listed. Administrator 5 said that the Transfer Guide is used “as a promotional piece to recruit high school students that would like to earn a bachelor’s degree.” The current Transfer Guide highlights 18 four-year institutions, five public, 11 non- profit private, and two for-profit private institutions. Transfer information is found in two other printed materials. First, there is one page of basic transfer information located in the main course catalog. Second, for each Transfer Day event, posters and flyers advertise the location and time of the event. It is important to note that UTC has other printed materials for prospective transfer students, but these are promotional brochures created and distributed by UTC campus partners and therefore not included. These printed materials are primarily located in the administrative assistant to the Provost’s Office. Documentation level. The negotiation, creation, and signing of articulation agreements is the primary transfer implementation effort at UTC. As previously mentioned, the sole individual that has “transfer” in the title of their position is the administrator charged with regulating and creating these agreements. Since 2000, UTC has focused most of their transfer implementing efforts into creating transfer agreements with other institutions. These efforts have resulted in over 400 articulation agreements. UTC takes pride in the number of articulation agreements that UTC has with other institutions. A high-level administrator said, 214 We currently have over 40 transfer partners and 435 + articulation agreements. Some of those are specific program-to-program, course-to-course [agreements], but others are more broad, all-inclusive kinds of things. The all-inclusive [agreements] tend to be more related to the applied associate of science degrees, and so the technical programs, where they can take a –whole program block, and then they do a capstone sort of experience at the four-year institution. We think this is a really positive thing for our students. All they have to do is follow the program. These really are great opportunities for students, because they provide…multiple opportunities. Whether students choose to go is another whole issue. According to Administrator 7, all of the articulation agreements “are online for students to see where they can go.” Two specific agreements, known as guaranteed transfer programs, were created under the former administration and provide students pathways to the two largest public four-year institutions in the state. To be considered for these pathways, students fill out a contract online. According to Staff Member 1, the entire agreement, contract, and guidance is all online and “there is no need for them to meet with anyone.” If followed correctly, a student enrolls and completes the first half of their bachelor’s degree at UTC and is then automatically accepted at the four-year institution. The eligibility for both programs is listed in Table 14. According to Staff Member 1, UTC does not exercise their capability to track the number of students that fill out the “Declaration of Intent to Participate” and then transfer. She said that the programs function “more as a flag for the receiving institution that X number of students plan or want to go to school there.” Both contracts make a note on the application that admission to the university does not necessarily mean admission to a specific degree program. 215 Table 14 Guaranteed Transfer Program Requirements Land-Grant Four-Year University Guaranteed Transfer Requirements Local Public Four-Year University Guaranteed Transfer Requirements • Enroll as a first-time college student at UTC • Fill out/submit the “Declaration of Intent to Participate” form online before earning 30 credits • Successfully complete 54 approved liberal arts and sciences courses • Maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA • Complete list of requirements within 5 years • Submit a transfer application when requirements are complete • Fill out/submit the “Declaration of Intent to Participate” form online before earning 30 credits • Successfully complete 54 approved liberal arts and sciences courses • Maintain a minimum 2.75 GPA • Complete list of requirements within 5 years • Submit transfer application when requirements are complete Also under the former administration, UTC created articulation agreements with nine Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs.) The goal behind these agreements is to create specific pathways for students of color to institutions that specifically support historically underrepresented students in pursuing a bachelor’s degree. When practitioners were asked about transfer resources for students of color, the majority of practitioners mentioned these agreements. Although most practitioners were aware that these agreements existed, their consensus was that they had “no idea how many students actually participated or transferred to those schools.” Well, you know in recent years, there has been a high profile given to historically black colleges and universities and so we have those transfer agreements and aside from having signing ceremonies and them being given a table when we have transfer days, I’m not sure what it amounts to. I mean, when they were here last year, I gave them all my program information and asked them to please send us their information so we could advise students because our currency is being able to tell students what courses to take here that will transfer as required courses, not as electives. And, so you know, it’s hard work. It involves…really working and negotiating. And, I never heard back from them. 216 Administrator 6 said, “continually adding and increasing the number of articulation agreements is seen as a transfer success here at UTC…The idea here is that if you create an agreement, students can just easily follow it and transfer.” Digital level. The third level of implementation is the digital level. Over time, UTC has made great progress in providing online resources to students and similar to many institutions of higher education, students at UTC have an online account. Staff Member 6 said, students can, Register through that account and they can go in there, click on program plan for whichever program they’re in and it’s printed out that shows what they’ve done and what they still must do to graduate. Similar to the program plan or degree check discussed by Staff Member 6, administrators have directed effort into creating an online resource of transfer materials. Administrator 6 said that the majority of transfer resources at UTC are “automated,” meaning students can use them without the help of a counselor or advisor. Table 15 lists the types of information made available to prospective transfer students on the UTC webpage. Table 15 Digital Transfer Resources Digital Transfer Resources • Transfer Website • Curricular requirements for the primary and new online accelerated transfer degrees • Transfer contacts at nearby four-year institutions • Articulation agreements • Guaranteed transfer contracts and information • Link to the Transfer Information System • Email blasts to liberal arts and sciences students • Other online transfer resources Note. Articulation agreements and the guaranteed transfer contract information are italicized because both are discussed as part of the documentation level of transfer. The agreements and contract are included on the Transfer Website list because students gain access to them via the website. 217 When practitioners were asked where a student can learn about transfer, the majority of practitioner responses included a reference to online resources. One high-level administrator said, “They could go to the website.” Another administrator responded similarly, “of course, it’s on the website.” One of the primary reasons that the UTC website is viewed as an important resource for prospective transfer students is because the website houses all UTC articulation agreements with other institutions. Although articulation agreements are implemented at the documentation level of implementation, students are referred to the website to access the agreements. Staff Member 2 said, In terms of transfer, I know a lot of times, it’s referring students to the website, because they have many, many articulation agreements within the state and out of state institutions. That’s, you know, how students are aware of transfer. In addition to articulation agreements, students can also access the website to see the transfer associate degree programs and contacts at four-year institutions. According to Administrator 6, focusing transfer resources online is not something specific to UTC, but is really a trend in the state. She said, The truth is that we don’t operate in a vacuum. I think in general the state was moving towards this type of digital transfer system that supposedly wanted to help students to know what courses they could take to transfer. The Wisconsin state-based transfer system was one of the online resources mentioned as being available for students. Students can check the Transfer Information System (TIS) online to understand how credits will or will not transfer to a four-year public institution in the state. The TIS was created and is maintained by UWS (see TIS discussion in Chapter IV). According to Administrator 9, the TIS is useful to students because they “can look at it and see what would transfer. Paid for by the UWS, it covers the UWS and the technical college system.” Faculty Member 1 said “there is something called the Transfer Information System, an individual student 218 could use that on their own.” Faculty Member 4 said, “students are really directed to the Transfer Wizard online, the UWS transfer wizard to see if their courses transfer.” Administrator 18 said that TIS helps students learn about transfer. Besides the catalog? There is a link on our webpage to the transfer information system, TIS. Students can go there and check the status of a class they’ve taken at any of the technical colleges and it will tell them where it transfers to the four years. I took this English class and I’m not sure that it transfers to UW… and then you can go on there and find out if it transfers. Although the TIS is a widely known resource for students, Faculty Member 4 expressed concerns regarding its accuracy and usefulness. It’s not the most up to date thing. It’d be nice if they put some money into it and really made sure that it was up to date. I don’t know who takes care of it on our end, or on their end. There are courses that aren’t listed. Nevertheless, I send students there. Another form of digital implementation includes email communication. Internal to UTC, each semester the Registrar’s Office sends all students enrolled in the liberal arts and sciences program an email. The email blasts that “have gone out previously to our students in liberal arts, lets them know about transfer.” Administrator 13 did not know if a similar email is also sent to technical program students. Finally, although not specifically a transfer implementing effort, UTC is in the process of transitioning their new student orientation online. The student orientation is one avenue by which students can learn about the transfer opportunities at UTC. Currently, student orientation is not mandatory and each academic program hosts its own student orientation. According to a student service specialist, at orientation students learn about the curriculum and transfer. The orientation is to be exclusively delivered online in the spring of 2013 and practitioners expressed their fears about the transition. Staff Member 3 said, We’re going to go from in-person to online and I have grave, grave—I hate to sound totally negative, but doubts about how that’s going to work because of our population. They are not going to go through it online. 219 Another practitioner said, Then, going back to this online orientation. The school thinks it’s great to make it all digitized. I have concerns because [if] we do not have students coming to the in-person orientation, how in the heck are we going to capture students with an online orientation? Students who have no computer, or are not computer savvy or just students who won’t do it. The wrinkle here is that we are going to touch less students and students are going to be more confused about everything. This is going to be huge, huge, huge, huge. According to Administrator 6, moving the student orientation online is an example of how UTC is “digitizing transfer, though indirectly.” The Shadow College As outlined in the previous section, the transfer policy is implemented structurally at the physical, documentation, and digital levels. However, in describing how the transfer function is implemented at UTC, select practitioners described it as a “shadow college,” “hidden college,” or “under the radar” within UTC. When practitioners were asked what led them to characterize the transfer function in this manner, one faculty member said, “it is because transfer is not embedded in what the college does on a daily basis.” Another faculty member said, “all [of] our transfer resources are online, there is nothing for students here at the college.” Similar comments were expressed by other practitioners, who said, “transfer happens in bursts, like the Transfer Days, but then goes away and is otherwise is not really talked about” or there is a “lack of transfer knowledge in our school and we don’t have the structures in place to teach students what to do.” Based on these conversations, I’m using the term shadow college to capture the invisibility and lack of presence of transfer at UTC. In this section, I describe aspects of UTC that have contributed to a shadow college characterization of the transfer function. This includes a lack of transfer visibility on campus, a community perception that transfer is not offered at the college, and the outsourcing of transfer resources. 220 A lack of transfer visibility. To understand how UTC students learn about transfer, I spent time at UTC observing student service offices, such as the Help Desk, the Welcome Center, and the Advising Center. Unlike when I conducted interviews, I went to campus dressed as a student for these observations. Instead of pressed slacks, a formal blouse, and dress shoes, I put on my jeans, a sweatshirt with a hoodie, and a pair of Nike tennis shoes. The following story is the summation of a conversation I had with two student workers at the UTC Help Desk regarding transfer resources. Situated to the right of the Job Shop, two student workers sat behind the Help Desk, a female and a male, both Hispanic and mid-to-late twenties. I approached the desk to ask for information. Both students greeted me and the female said, “How can I help you?” I said, “Where can I go to learn about transferring?” The female paused and said, “Well let me see…about transfer? Well, I think there are Transfer Days, I think maybe the 17 th of the month because I was interested in going to that.” She looked around her desk searching for something to provide me. I said, “Do you know where the Transfer Day is located?” She said, “no, but I will find out.” She left the desk to retrieve a student newspaper. “Here” she said, “lets look in here.” She flipped through the newspaper, scanning the pages for, what I assume was, an ad for more information on the Transfer Days event. Nothing. She said, “it probably does not come out in the paper until next week.” Then, she said, “I think you can look online for information.” “Okay,” I said. Then the male student worker said, “I heard that if a student is interested in going to [the local public four- year institution] there is a counselor you can talk to on campus.” “Oh,” I inquired. The male looked at his female coworker and said, “Isn’t there?” He mentioned that he thinks there is a 221 counselor, but is unsure as to her location. The female was desperate to find information. She said, “Are you in a hurry?” alluding to the idea that it might take time to figure this out. She grabbed a large three ring binder from underneath the desk. It appeared to hold a vast amount of information about the college; where offices were located, phone numbers, etc. She flipped through each page, scanning quickly and found nothing related to transfer. The female student called her supervisor, because her “supervisor would know.” I stood there waiting. She leaned against the counter on the telephone, but there was no answer. As I waited, the male student warned me, “don’t take the 100-level courses, only the 200-level courses count.” I thanked him for this important piece of information. The female student asked me to wait a couple of minutes and she would try her supervisor again. She dialed the extension again, but there was no answer. The female student volunteered to escort me to her supervisor’s office. The female student knocked on the door of her supervisor’s office, but there was no answer. I told her I had to go and thanked her for her help and persistence. She wrote down the campus website so I could look for the transfer information on my own. A location for transfer information and resources. One of the main findings of this study is that transfer is not visible on the UTC campus. In conversations with practitioners, one of the questions consistently asked was, “if I was a student and I wanted to learn about transfer options, would I know where to go if I was walking around campus?” The majority of responses were similar to Administrator 9’s, “I don’t think so.” Another administrator said, “Probably not. You would have to ask.” A student services specialist said, “on the day-to-day, I’m not too clear how visible transfer is.” Currently, there is not a central location dedicated to transfer. Another student service specialist expressed frustration over the lack of a transfer center. 222 The other thing is requesting a transfer center. It really alarms me that with all the contact and all the articulation, all the share programs, all the transfer agreements that we have with all those universities and colleges, we don’t even have a transfer center where students could go sit down, do their research, talk to somebody that is knowledgeable. There is none. There is no transfer center. Staff Member 1 speculates that UTC does not have a center because it is not an administrative priority. One thing I know is that they [administrators] might not see the transfer center as important to the college for them not to have pursued it yet. Because every school has one. Even smaller schools have it and we have four campuses. We need to have one so students don’t get the runaround and we don’t receive any complaints from students saying the information they received was wrong. Staff Member 1 argues that a transfer center is not a priority because the administration is concentrated on other areas, like “enrollment and student retention.” She said that establishing a transfer center has always been “in the air.” That is all I know so far, it is talk in the air. It is in the air all the time, but then something else comes up and they choose the other new thing. They say, we’ll come back to transfer, but they never do. I really think that the people who make the decisions and delegate whoever to oversee that, are people who have never sat down or talked to a student. For me, for as long as I’ve been here, every year I hear the same thing. Yeah, we need to do that, yeah, let’s do this, but it’s not fruitful. Whenever we talk about a center the fruits never come. Another staff member had similar remarks. “I think the visibility of a transfer office would be something that UTC could improve on. Making sure students have a visible transfer resource.” To understand transfer visibility from a student’s perspective, I walked around the main campus looking for the word “transfer” or related words, like “four-year institution” or “articulation.” I observed that the student service or academic division offices are identified by large signs, approximately five feet wide, that hang on the hallway ceiling. For example, in front of the main entrance to the Advising Center is a sign that says, “ADVISING CENTER.” I did not find a sign for or related to transfer resources or information. The only place on the main campus that displayed the words “transfer” or “articulation” was a small placard on the wall 223 outside of the previous office of articulation. Currently, the person occupying this office is the administrative assistant to the Associate Provost. This is also where the transfer brochures provided by four-year institutions are stored. I attempted to enter this office three times during my observation and two of the three times the door was locked. On the third try, it was still locked, but I gained entrance because a staff member from inside the office recognized me. This observation is important for two reasons: if students walk around campus looking for transfer information, it is not easily located by the signage posted; and, if students did locate the transfer and articulation office placard, they would most likely find the door locked and the office void of an advisor to assist them. In addition to this observation, I also observed the Welcome Center and the Advising Center at the main campus. The purpose of these observations was to assess other offices that may contribute to the visibility of transfer. During both observations, I collected all the handouts and flyers available in the main lobby areas. The documents collected at both locations are listed in Table 16. Transfer was not made visible in either location, with the exception of the Program Plan handouts hanging on the wall outside of the Welcome Center. These handouts listed the curriculum offered at UTC and mentioned that transfer was an option. 224 Table 16 Documents Collected from the Advising Center and Welcome Center Advising Center Documents Welcome Center Documents • “Having Trouble Connecting with your Faculty Advisor?” handout • Campus directory • UTC Open House flyer • Program plan handouts for each degree or diploma program • Important dates form (including dates for admission and registration) • Program change form • Financial aid information In addition, it is not apparent whom to approach with transfer related questions. Similar to the students I spoke with at the Help Desk, practitioners report that students generally find it difficult to identify a practitioner to speak with regarding transfer. As previously mentioned, there is not a specific individual UTC staff position that has “transfer” in their title. Students with transfer questions can seek out one of four practitioners: a counselor, faculty advisor, student service specialist, or the transfer specialist from the local four-year institution. When practitioners were asked where to send students with transfer questions, they gave various responses. Practitioners send students to the student service specialist in the admissions office, the liberal arts and sciences counselor, or their faculty advisor. The most common response included referring the student to the receiving institution for advising. According to Administrator 7, the administration is aware that there is “confusion” in the area of advising and counseling. He said that there is a disconnect between the counselors and faculty advisors. For example, when students initially enroll they see a counselor and then they are assigned a faculty advisor. However, Administrator 7 said, if the student has transfer questions, the student needs to go back to the counselor because, “typically faculty advisors are 225 not knowledgeable about transfer.” Although there are some faculty members that are very knowledgeable about transfer, the general consensus is that there is “a big gap and weakness in that whole faculty advising thing.” Practitioners mentioned two reasons that faculty members do not advise students well in terms of transfer: faculty members are not trained in the area of transfer and many “faculty advisors don’t want to do that job.” A student service specialist argues that there is a real “deficit” in regards to faculty transfer advising. As far as faculty are concerned, the challenges are their load of teaching. They are not aware of what transfers to what school or even the tools available online to help them advise students. Staff Member 1 reports that faculty do not receive transfer or advising training. In addition, faculty members in the liberal arts and sciences are particularly hard for students to contact. Another student service specialist that I spoke with informally, said that “sometimes faculty in the liberal arts and sciences have over 100 advisees.” The liberal arts and sciences counselor said, “some [students] can never get a hold of their faculty advisor, so they come see the counselor.” A student service specialist said, There are faculty who are totally indifferent, don't respond to students' calls. Given all of that, here's where the conversation starts. Students end up in my office because they haven't been able to contact the faculty advisor. The faculty advisor hasn't gotten back to them. The faculty advisor is giving them misinformation. They found out about it later that they took a course that they didn't need. They end in my office. That's where the academic advising really becomes real. A typical conversation is, okay, have you seen your faculty advisor? No, I haven't. Okay. Some people will just say, you need to send them back to their faculty advisor, but I advise them and send them on their way. The unresponsive faculty advisor issue has resulted in the creation of a document that counselors distribute in the Advising Center. Found in three different locations on campus, the heading of the document says, “Having Trouble Connecting with your Faculty Advisor?” It reads, The name of your faculty advisor is printed on your program plan found [online system]. If you do not have an advisor assigned, have an incorrect advisor or have not been able to 226 connect with your advisor, please send an email to [address], with your name, student ID number, name of your program and advisor’s name and I will follow up with you. The “weakness” in faculty advising may be attributed to the union position on faculty advising. The union outlook on faculty advising is that “it does not make sense for those [faculty] in liberal arts and sciences.” The union position remains that faculty advising “makes sense” for students enrolled in technical programs, not the liberal arts and sciences. Students in specific technical programs create relationships with their faculty members because they have multiple classes with them, whereas the faculty members in the liberal arts and sciences may encounter a student for only one class. The reason I don’t have as much experience with that [advising] as others is because the students who take my class, there’s no program that they're in with me, whereas once you're in a program, let’s say you're in respiratory therapy, then you're constantly with the same faculty. They [the faculty] want to keep their programs vibrant, so they're working with the students and they're saying “Look, you got to take this next semester and this,” and of course the faculty are the ones connected to the employment as well. The liberal arts faculty are just out there, and that’s always been an issue, because they've said, “Well, all faculty should be advising.” The point I've made in the past is, there is an organic connection, like if you're in graphic arts and I’m a graphic arts instructor, you're in two or three or four of my classes—I know you, you know me. Whereas my students, I see them one semester, that’s it, unless they happen to, the handful of students who take both my courses because they like me, right? Faculty Member 5 said that he only advises students when he is approached. According to Staff Member 3, faculty advising was stronger in the past. Students were required to see their faculty advisors before they could register. He said this advising approach “fell by the wayside maybe ten years ago.” I asked him to speculate as to why it changed. He said, I think a lot of things that inform what people do and don't do around here is the union. Since this whole Act 10 reared it’s ugly head over a year ago, people are starting to put unions under the microscope. That is all over the place, all over the country. Because they invariably contribute to higher costs and wages and everything else. I've had this sort of shift in my head that it's like, yeah, unions aren't the best thing for students. This is a union shop. I had never worked with a union before and it's one of those unions you pay dues whether you agree with the union or want to be a union member or not. It's really interesting how some of my perceptions have changed and I see how people slack because of unions. I think part of it is that the language in the faculty contract is sort of 227 loosy-goosy. Listed in all the job requirements is faculty advising, but it's not enforced. There is nothing in the union contract that says, you will advise students. The deans, they want me to keep them abreast of faculty advisors who are not doing their job and it generally tends to be this usual cast of characters the students report to me. They will tell me who this person is by name and—so I think a lot of it had to do with the union. The union decided we don't need to do this. I think that is how it happened. In the faculty contract student advising is listed as a faculty responsibility, however it is not enforced. In the contract, faculty members are held responsible for number of hours teaching, scheduled office hours, and time allotted for departmental meetings (see Figure 20.) However, there is no amount of time mandated to spend advising. Faculty Member 1 would like to see more “accountability in advising.” She said “it would be nice for the administration to have faculty members report what they are doing for advising or what they are telling their students about transfer.” Figure 20. UTC faculty member responsibilities by contract. Although student advising is mentioned as a faculty member responsibility, faculty members are not required to spend a specified amount of time advising. When a student has trouble contacting their faculty advisor they can meet with a counselor or student service specialist. Practitioners at UTC acknowledge that advising is an issue that needs resolution, because counselors “do not feel it [advising] is their job” and student service specialists “are not transfer advisors.” Another individual that was mentioned in regards to advising was Administrative Staff Member 1. Students are referred to her to answer transfer 228 questions because often, faculty members are uncertain where to direct students. Faculty Member 7 offered the following solution. Maybe if we had one person designated to meet with students one-on-one, and that’s all they did was meet with students on transfer. Now, if there is such a person, I’m just not aware at this time. Throughout conversations with practitioners I learned that the “go to” person for transfer advising was Staff Member 1. She agreed that she is the person students should be referred to in regards to transferring in or out of UTC, although by her title a transfer expertise is not evident. She is also difficult for students to physically locate. Originally funded under a grant issued to the Registrar’s Office, she was initially located in the records room. She said, I was downtown before coming here and I was in the records department. My office was not even visible to students. Here I was suppose to advise students on transfer and I was in the records department? The door of my office said “Authorized Personnel Only,” so students can’t even come and see me unless I go out there and bring them back. Do I want to bring them into the records room? I don’t want them to see that. There are social security numbers all over, everything laying everywhere. My colleagues were just working with data entry and I was the only specialist, I didn’t want students to come back there, nor did they even know where I was. The grant-funded position has since ended and she was relocated to an outlying UTC campus. She explained that a woman had retired, so she “took her spot.” She said, I like where I am now, it is much easier for me to get in and everything, but I’m still not visible to my students. I am not as reachable as I should be. It’s hard for students because, when they are on another campus and they want to find me, they can’t. They don’t have transportation. How do they come? I say, well, lets do it over the phone. No, they want face to face. They ask me, “can you come to [the main campus]?” I don’t go, because I can’t. All my resources are here, I have no place there. The lack of transfer visibility is also illustrated on the campus website. While online resources are mentioned as the primary transfer resource for students, Staff Member 1’s contact information is not included on the website; rather the contact information for the administrator in charge of articulation is listed. She said that this disconnect often leads to confusion for students. “The articulation people receive student emails and then the student questions go unanswered 229 because they do not email them back.” And finally, Staff Member 1 mentioned that if you search “transfer” or “articulation” from the UTC home page, the liberal arts and sciences division is the first link that appears on the screen. She said that this is often confusing for students that want to transfer, but are not in the liberal arts and sciences program. When students see the liberal arts and sciences webpage “they automatically think they are in the wrong area of the website, when they’re not because all articulations are posted there.” As outlined, transfer resources at UTC remain largely hidden because there is not a central location with transfer information nor an easily located or identified UTC transfer staff member. The data presented here does not suggest UTC lacks transfer information, rather the resources are hidden from view or not readily apparent. To access transfer resources or guidance students must be proactive by seeking the information out on their own, knowing who to ask, and what to ask. As Faculty Member 1 said, “transfer is episodic,” at UTC. It’s certainly something that if you create an opportunity for someone to talk about it, they will talk about it with enthusiasm, but it almost never come ups otherwise. For example, in the graduation address—if it [transfer] gets mentioned, it’s in a very sort of cursory way. In the next section, I describe the community perception of UTC. An enduring technical perception. Although transfer is a function of the college, UTC’s history of “strong roots in vocational education” continues to be the dominant perception in the eyes of the community and students. According to practitioners, the Lanchester community is not aware UTC offers a transfer option. One of the contributing reasons the transfer function remains hidden is because the community continues to view UTC as solely a “trade school,” or an extension of high school, rather than an academic college. Administrator 5 believes this perception is a result of the UTC history of technical education. 230 Some people you talk to believe that we should only be a technical institution and deliver technical programs. That should be our focus. And those are the diehard, I want to say old-time people, but that’s probably not an accurate way to say it. That has strong roots in our community and Wisconsin’s foundation and in the roots of the technical college overall. Because that is where we came from and that is what they think we should continue to do. Administrator 7 said that the community continues to view UTC as a trade school because UTC does not market the transfer function efficiently. We haven’t done the best job in marketing the concept. We have a little bit of an uphill battle with our marketing campaign because of the history. UTC is viewed in the community through an older name, a trade school, and all kinds of connotation and denotation that come with that. UTC touches a tremendous number of people in the community, whether it be one class or an entire program. Having the view of the college as a trade school means that people look at it from the standpoint of I need a job, I go there to learn it, and I go to work. I don’t go there to do anything else. I don’t go there to start a bachelor’s degree with the intent to finish one, I don’t go there to get some skills, then get a job, circle back, and go get a bachelor’s degree. That is not the view that is out there in the community. According to Administrator 10, People think of the stereotypical UTC. “Well, my grandpa went there and he was a plumber.” “Well, my daughter couldn’t’ go there to transfer on.” I think for any number of reasons, it’s kind of that hidden subject almost. Administrator 15 believes that “most people would be very surprised to find out that you could do that [transfer].” Another high-level administrator believes that “it [transfer] would not be their [the community’s] first thought. If they knew us it might, but general probably not.” A student service specialist also noted the trade school perception held by the community. “I think that's an unfortunate perception— that we train people to be welders and we train people to do sort of this unfortunate grunt work when there's so much stuff that we do.” The consensus among practitioners was that the community largely views UTC as a trade school, but it “really depends on who you talk to.” The people in the community that have had contact with UTC know that the institution offers many educational options, however, those not affiliated refer to UTC as a “vocational school, or the slang reference of voc-ey-tech.” 231 Administrator 14 said, “I think that they [the community] would say that we were for job training more than anything else, but not everyone. However, I would have to say that the majority would think that.” And, Faculty Member 3 said, “I am sure that there are people in the community that have no idea the range of things that are available, most people understand that the main mission would be to provide technical training.” According to Faculty Member 4, the transfer program continues to be “over-shadowed” by a long-standing belief in the community that UTC “is more of a high school” than an academic college. Staff Member 2 said, Perception wise, and I even encountered this with Gear Up and working with students who I know academically weren’t prepared to attend a four-year institution, there’s a negative connotation with UTC, predominantly the main campus, because it does have a high school program component to it, so students don’t feel like they’re going to college. The perception, I don’t think they’re aware that transfer exists here. I think the general community needs to be made more aware of the options of beginning at UTC, and transferring to a four-year institution, wherever that may be. Staff Member 2 went on to say that the high school perception is not new, but is an enduring perception. Born and raised in the Lanchester area, Staff Member 2 went to high school near the main campus and reports that when she was in school UTC had the same reputation. According to Faculty Member 6, UTC perpetuates the high school perception by the language used and the physical arrangement of facilities. For example, he said “instead of calling the break in the semester a ‘spring break,’ UTC refers to it as a ‘recess.’ We aren’t called ‘professors,’ we are ‘teachers’ or ‘instructors.’” He also said that classrooms are arranged similar to high school classrooms. “The teacher’s desk is at the front of the room and we have lockers that line the halls.” The community perception that UTC is a trade school or extension of high school contributes to the notion that UTC is not a “real college” or a “place to start a bachelor’s degree.” Administrator 15 said, 232 There's interesting perceptions sometimes because one of my teachers and she was one who was a tenured faculty at [name of local four-year private institution], and I hired her here. She teaches X, is just an excellent teacher. She said a couple of students came up to her one time and said, "Dr. Jones you should teach at a real college." She said, "This is a real college." I mean these are people who are here, and they just some of them don't view UTC as a college. She went on to say that the community has “no idea about the range of things that are available.” UTC is viewed by the community as a “last choice” or a “bum’s college.” Faculty Member 3 said, We have a perception in the community that we are not the first choice. This came from families where college means going to a university. So, UTC was not seen as a first choice. Basically kids would end up at the University and they might come back to us if they did not do well, but they would not start here and transfer. According to practitioners, parents in the community view the technical colleges as “not the same quality or level as the four-year school and students may not get the same quality of education.” Students also show their negative perception of UTC when they meet with practitioners. You have students who are coming from high school and their first choice is not a technical college. Their first choice is the big school. But when they get denied admission they get referred to us and they verbalized to us that they never wanted to be here and that they were denied over there and they are not going to declare a major, they do not want to be liberal arts or sciences, they don’t want a technical major. They just want to take 12 credits that are transferable and transfer to the big school. So for them it is a reputation and the name. They want to go to a reputable school, where all their friends are, and where it is cool. UTC is not cool. To these students, if you go to UTC “you are a loser.” The students go to UTC and “are like ‘oh my God this is the last stop,’ UTC is the last stop, a technical college. It is a slap in the face.” According to a faculty member from a four-year public institution, students refer to UTC as an “alternative to college.” While the technical image continues to be pervasive in the community and with students, practitioners believe there is a division along socio-economic lines. Administrator 5 mentioned 233 that higher socioeconomic groups feel strongly about not sending their children to UTC, but the technical college is the “first choice and only choice” for racial-ethnic minorities due to tuition costs and academic preparation. The outsourcing of transfer resources. Another reason that the transfer function at UTC is described as “hidden” or “in the shadows” is because external constituents provide the majority of transfer services. Resources such as transfer counseling, events, and publications provided to students are either provided, created, or funded by other institutions, illustrating that the responsibility for educating UTC students on transfer primarily resides with external institutions. One of UTC’s primary transfer resources is a transfer specialist from the local public four-year institution. As mentioned, the specialist spends two days a week on the UTC campus counseling prospective transfer students. The idea for the position was created in 2010, when UTC and the local public four-year institution were engaged in the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study 28 . As part of the project, focus groups were conducted with UTC students to augment the delivery of transfer resources. They wanted to make sure the students who want to transfer from a two-year to a four- year are successful in doing it. It came about from different kinds of student focus groups and surveys and things like that. They discovered that they needed somebody, a real live person on hand, to kind of help students in the process. According to Administrator 5, one of the benefits of having this staff member on campus is that students can meet with her on campus instead of driving to the local four-year institution. “She is more knowledgeable about what courses will transfer than anyone would be here.” Staff Member 1 had similar comments. 28 The Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study was a collaboration between the UWS, WTCS, and the USC Center for Urban Education to increase transfer for minority students. The project was funded by the Ford Foundation and led by principal investigators, Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon and Dr. Alicia C. Dowd. For more information, please see http://cue.usc.edu/partners/university_of_wisconsin_system_uws.html. 234 She facilitates transferring out, because most of the time the students will transfer out to [the local four-year] and I do not have all the answers. I have a lot of answers when they bring back their credits to UTC and the credits to transfer over here, but to be precise we need the [local four-year] representative on campus. This person takes a look at student transcripts and can say yes these credits are admissible or they are not. Administrator 5 and Staff Member 1 both argue that the transfer specialist is a benefit to students and were happy to see “the position materialize.” Although the transfer specialist spends approximately half of her time at UTC, the transfer specialist position is entirely funded by the local four-year institution. One of the reasons that the transfer specialist position is a benefit to UTC students is because UTC counselors, faculty advisors, and student service specialists tend to lack the knowledge necessary to advise students on what they need to transfer. For the most part, if a student wants to transfer to a four-year institution other than the local university, the student is typically advised “to have conversations with those institutions.” “Students need to go to that campus and see what that campus is about and how their credits will transfer.” Advising students to seek transfer counseling at the receiving institution was a consistent finding across all UTC practitioners. For example, a faculty advisor in a technical program said, The other thing I do is if they know for a fact where they want to go, I always suggest - “You should talk to a counselor at that UW” or wherever it is, “tell them what you’re doing here so they can give you accurate feedback on how this is going to be handled over at the four-year school.” The convenient aspect to the transfer specialist position is that UTC practitioners can now send prospective transfer students to a counselor that is located on campus. As previously mentioned, UTC provides students transfer information is through the Transfer Days events. UTC brings four-year institutions on campus to speak with prospective transfer students. According to Administrator 5, the Transfer Days events offer students an opportunity to "walk around and shop for colleges,” as well as receive individualized advising 235 from possible receiving institutions. These events are important for students at UTC, as UTC staff “have a lot of the answers when students bring back their credits” to UTC, but lack the knowledge necessary to advise students transferring out. According to an admissions representative for the state land-grant university, during the Transfer Days, each four-year institution is invited to participate in the Transfer Guide publication created by UTC. He said, There is a cost to place an advertisement in the book. Usually, at the fall UTC Transfer Day, the college representatives have a brief meeting with some UTC folks. In that meeting they provide information on advertising in their transfer guide. My Office of Admissions and Recruitment has not participated in the transfer guide, but our College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has advertised. There is a cost associated with advertising, and there are options of full page, half page, front cover, back cover, etc. The Transfer Guide is an advertising tool for four-year institutions and similar to the transfer specialist position is funded by external sources. In addition to relying on external institutions to fund transfer resources, UTC also relies on their four-year partners to educate students on transfer. Four-year partners at the Transfer Days event report that UTC students tend to “lack the necessary information” regarding transfer and four-year staff view it as their job to “set the record straight.” For example, a high-level administrator at a nearby private school said, that one of the issues she encounters with UTC students is that they are not aware of the difference between a technical program and an academic program; “between what can be earned at a four-year and at a two-year.” I just spoke with a young Hispanic male. He wanted to discuss earning a bachelor’s degree in a dental technician program. I asked him what he wanted to do. He said that he wanted to make teeth. I told him that we have a dental school, but that is for people who want to become a dentist. He didn’t know that there is not a BA in dental tech. Another four-year representative, from a public four-year institution had similar comments. He said that most of the UTC students he works with do not understand that a “technical program does not go into a four-year program.” He provided the example of a student he recently spoke 236 with in an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) program. The student wished to transfer his HVAC program to the four-year university. He did not know the difference between a two-year vocational program and a liberal arts education. UTC does not provide this information to students. Students are not well educated on the difference between liberal arts and vocational degree programs or what will progress to a BA and what will not. When we come to UTC we tend to have to tell students this. In addition, the four-year representative also said that UTC students do not know the requirements to transfer. For example, he has encountered students that have a 4.0 grade point average, but they have never taken math. “They have the desire and ambition, but lack the right coursework to transfer.” UTC four-year institutional partners assume the role of information providers to UTC students. A representative from a local private institution said that she teaches students to advocate for themselves and know the right questions to ask. “UTC is a large place and students need to be proactive and know where to go, I try to help them with that.” A representative from the state land-grant institution said that he tries to provide students with correct information and to “debunk the myth that UTC students can’t go to [state land-grant institution].” He argues that UTC students do not think they can transfer to the institution, but in actuality the institution has capacity for them. One way that he attempts to inform UTC students is by attending the Transfer Days events both semesters, but also by coming to UTC several additional times a semester and “setting up a table in front of the Advising Center.” He said that UTC does not coordinate the additional trips, instead he arranges them through one of his informal UTC contacts. In this section, I described the structural level of implementation, which includes the physical, documentation, and digital implementation efforts. I also described how the transfer function operates as a “shadow college” at UTC. In the next section, I discuss how transfer is implemented informally through the work of individual practitioners. 237 Informal Implementation The transfer function at UTC was also implemented informally. Rather than implementation at the structural or institutional level, informal implementation takes into account the actions of individual practitioners in providing transfer resources or guidance. While the majority of interview participants view transfer advising as a “student services issue,” I found a select number of practitioners that are intentional in supporting or encouraging transfer. Of the 31 respondents at the UTC campus, four provided detailed accounts of individual actions they take to implement transfer and three of the four are associated with the liberal arts and sciences division. This finding does not suggest that practitioners in the technical fields do not take individual action for transfer, but rather the technical program practitioners interviewed did not mention individual transfer efforts. In addition, not all liberal arts and sciences practitioners interviewed demonstrated individual action to implement transfer. These select practitioners demonstrated four types of individual transfer implementing efforts: to prepare students socially, to prepare students through the curriculum, to generate student interest, and finally, to provide students information. In this section, I describe the individual implementation efforts of select practitioners that make transfer happen “under the radar” at UTC. Preparing students socially. Faculty Member 1 has been a faculty member at UTC for approximately 25 years. She has degrees in adult literacy and multicultural education, as well as various other post-graduate courses. In addition to her faculty member role, she is also the coordinator of the Teacher Education Track (TET). Her role as faculty member and track coordinator include the following responsibilities: My job involves coordinating faculty and curriculum within the institution in some cases including developing new courses, all the other duties that a department chair would 238 have, ordering textbooks, faculty meetings, etc. In addition to that, there is a lot of work that goes into developing cooperative relationships and partnerships with the four-year colleges where our students continue in their licensing track. Although not a part of her required job responsibilities, Faculty Member 1 regularly collects data. While students are enrolled at UTC she collects information on course enrollment and success, by race, from UTC’s institutional research office. In addition, after students transfer, she conducts interviews with former students to learn more about “their challenges or what I [she] can do better for them while they are here at UTC.” She is motivated to collect data because it helps her understand her student population and can be used as evidence for funding or other resources. “I’ve tried to make it my business to keep data so that we have a story to tell.” She also said, “I’m not a researcher, but, we have to plead our case, so it’s good when we have numbers.” To Faculty Member 1, the “data is gold. That’s how I treat this data, and I need to convince other people that it’s gold, that this is what we can trade on in establishing relationships or getting scholarships.” One of Faculty Member 1’s primary findings from the data collected is that many students, specifically students of color, experience “culture shock” once they enroll at the four- year university. The interview data she collects demonstrates that transfer students are not prepared for the four-year university social environment. Minority students in particular are at a disadvantage because they leave UTC, where they are in the majority (60%), go to the local four- year institution, where they are in much larger classes and are in the minority. She said, I don’t know how else to say this, but we need to prepare students for culture shock because when they transfer from here where it’s all good, where they don’t feel that they’re in the minority and then they enter [name of local public four-year university] where they really are, they go from being one of 15 in a class to one in a class and where their perspectives are - you know, they’re either put in that awkward role of representing their group or, they kind of maybe self-silence. 239 In addition, Faculty Member 1 has also discovered from her data that the transfer students of color in the TET tend to go into the community education program once they transfer, not the licensing track. The mission of the TET at UTC, although not stated, is to increase the number of teachers of color in the public school system. In order to accomplish their “urban mission,” the students of color that transfer to the local public four-year university need to continue into the licensing track. However, Faculty Member 1 found that students of color “feel more at home” in the community education track because the program enrolls higher numbers of students of color than the licensing track. Gary, African American, is at [name of local public four-year institution]. He’s got a work-study job. He’s incredibly disciplined. I mean, all of these students are bright. That goes without saying. He dropped out of the licensing track to go into community ed because he consistently felt marginalized in his classes. The community education track leads to “employment in non-profit organizations and so the implication for them is possibly that their salary is less” than if they were to become a teacher in the Lanchester area. Based on these findings, Faculty Member 1 created support mechanisms in her department to prepare students, particularly students of color, socially for transfer. First, Ava hired former students to mentor prospective transfer students. The goal of this collaboration is to provide UTC students an opportunity to ask questions about the four-year institution and learn from alumni. Second, Faculty Member 1 collaborated with the local four-year university to allow UTC students the opportunity to take one of the required licensure courses at the four-year institution at the UTC tuition price. “And so what that agreement says is that our students—20 seats will be reserved in those classes for our students at our tuition rate.” The goal of this agreement is to 240 allow UTC students to enroll in a course at the local four-year institution to “get a glimpse of what is to come.” She said, What we think we’re doing is equipping them so that…as I said before, when they arrive, they have fully arrived and they aren’t unprepared, cause there are these perceptions and they’re internalized also…, [Name of local four-year institution] used to be a much more urban school. So what our students are telling us is that they’re in class with a lot of blonde 18 year olds from other parts of the state who have no idea about what they’re talking about when it comes to urban education, can’t validate it, aren’t interested necessarily, think our students are just strange. So they walk into that and their ability to articulate their experience becomes even more important. And so in these classes, they hopefully are getting practice at that along with their white colleagues who hopefully are and can become part of the conversation with these other classmates who are really very new to the urban environment. Finally, approximately “5 or 6 years ago” Faculty Member 1 redesigned the manner that the TET conducts advising. She wanted student advising to be “intentional” and to “prepare students better for what was to come.” Before Faculty Member 1 altered the advising structure in the TET, all teacher education students were included in the general liberal arts and sciences advising. As previously mentioned, a faculty member in the liberal arts and sciences can have up to 100 advisees and not have a “clue where they’re looking to go or what they’re looking to be.” Another faculty member said, Faculty Member 1 kind of got a group together and said, “Hey, would you guys mind just being Teacher Ed Advisors?” So all we have now are teacher ed students. The rest of liberal arts is nothing like that. I know that all my students have the same goal, they want to be teachers. Faculty Member 1 also organizes a faculty advisor training. Each semester there is a training session for teacher education faculty advisors so “they know the latest ins and outs. It’s always changing and I want to make sure they contact the students on their list.” Faculty Member 1 advises her faculty members to initiate conversations with students regarding challenges they might face once they transfer. She encourages them to have “conversations about race, ethnicity, class, and how it affects school achievement.” She said, 241 This is intentional. Not just for the sake of students of color, but for what the students will encounter at the four-year and then when they are urban teachers, we need to get their brains and souls and then they can become good advocates and allies. I asked Faculty Member 1 how her level of transfer support is different from other faculty members. She said that the support she has created was done by “thoughtful design. It was thoughtfully designed based on data, based on what works for the transfer students.” “We are doing that because we want our students to arrive at the four-year college fully prepared to fully engage at the school and I think that’s happening.” Preparing students through the curriculum. Faculty Member 4 views his role “more on the curriculum side.” Faculty Member 4 implements transfer in two ways: ensuring course alignment and turning his transfer expertise into tangible resources for students. Over time, Faculty Member 4 has become more involved in creating articulation agreements for math courses. According to Faculty Member 4, “typically these agreements are created by faculty and then they are eventually signed off by the president.” However, Faculty Member 4’s level of commitment regarding articulation agreements is more than creating an agreement and having it signed off by upper administration. For example, he told the following story. We work with the faculty members at [name of local public four-year institution.] We developed two new math courses, Math for Elementary School Teachers 1 and 2. It’s a course that everybody takes that wants to be an elementary school teacher. I actually went, and I sat in on lectures over there one day a week for a whole semester. No one except the teacher knew I was doing it, I wanted to make sure that what was being taught to students was actually what was discussed in the agreement and also aligned exactly with what I was teaching in the same course at UTC. Faculty Member 4 acknowledged that sitting in on a class for an entire semester was a time commitment, but believes “there’s ways to fit it in the day.” There’s always time in the day. If it helps, if it makes it better, I don’t know. Like I said for one day a week I did that. Now did it wreck my week? Not really. I mean I still lived. I think most faculty would do the same if they thought about it. 242 I asked him why he thought it was important to spend extra time evaluating the course after the agreement was signed. He said that he is motivated by the students and knowing that most of them want to transfer. The students, otherwise I wouldn’t’ do it. I mean, if I lived in a bubble I would care less what they’re doing. My ultimate goal-and that’s what’s neat with the teaching thing, I mean you know they’re transferring to a four-year school. You can’t get a teaching degree here. I mean every student that’s in that area, every student that’s in my Calc 3, my Differential Equations, you don’t go anywhere with that except a four-year school. Ultimately, everything about those classes is making sure that everything is right at the next place. I mean ultimately transferability is my number one thing. During his time at UTC, Faculty Member 4 has developed an extensive knowledge base regarding what transfers, and more importantly, what is the best course to enroll in given a student’s program. He attributes his transfer expertise to working with students and four-year institutions “for years regarding what transfers.” “This is not something you learn over night.” He provided the following example, Like with the teacher ed students, there’s a course over at [name of local public four-year institution], History 218. When we start getting into registration time, which is going to happen in a few weeks, I’ll make sure to discuss with them that History 218 at [name of local public four-year institution] covers three categories within their curriculum. It’s the ethnic diversity course, their history course, their Act 34. I’ll have discussions with them, “Are you thinking of taking a history class, which one are you thinking of taking? I really suggest you take History 218 because, it works for you in multiple ways, whereas another history would just count as your history only.” When it comes to Differential Equations that I teach, it transfers for math majors, but it’s not a good engineering course. In Calc 3 when we’re getting ready for registration, I mean I’m up front. I tell them if you’re an engineering student, our Differential Equations probably isn’t the one. You need to take X if you go to this four-year or Y if you go to this four-year. For example, at [name of local private four-year institution] it counts as linear algebra. It’s another course, which you have to take if you want to get a minor in mathematics, so it wouldn’t be the worse thing to take, but it’s not going to count for Differential Equations. At [name of local public four-year institution] it doesn’t transfer that well. If you’re something else, if you’re going to be an actuary or a math teacher or something like that, it’s a great class to take here. Faculty Member 4 developed his transfer knowledge over time. He says, “he tries to make it grow.” 243 I remember things. If I have a bad experience like a student comes back and says, “Well I tried to do this and it didn’t work.” Then I keep that bad experience and I make sure that I give it to the next student to tell them this didn’t work for somebody else. Just like if something good works. It’s not one of those things that’s written anywhere, well I tried to write some of it down. Faculty Member 4 turned his acquired transfer expertise into tangible resources for students. For example, he obtained a program description of the local four-year public institution’s teacher education program. Included in the program description handout is a curricular guide to graduation for students that begin their education at the four-year institution. He requested the digital copy of the curricular plan from the four-year institution and imposed in red ink the courses students should take at UTC to match the curriculum laid out for students that begin at the four-year institution. The purpose of this document is to provide students an example of how their classes articulate with those at the local four-year institution. Generating transfer interests. Where Faculty Member 4 implements transfer by monitoring the curriculum and creating tangible transfer resources, a faculty member in the biological sciences, Faculty Member 2, implements transfer by generating student interest in four-year opportunities. I think that we play a bigger role in generating student interest in transfer than actually helping out with the process. Sometimes students come in and they only think technical college, that’s it, and they don’t look beyond that and I think as faculty our role is to make them see what lies beyond a technical college. I would say that we are pushing the students to transfer and we are not technically doing a direct transfer for them but helping students realize that four-year colleges do exist and that they can transfer. We are generating interest, pushing them in a way, pushing them in a way to go beyond a two- year degree. Opening their eyes. When Faculty Member 2 first started at UTC she hoped to generate interest in transfer and the field of biotechnology by creating a biology transfer track. In addition to developing the transfer curricula, she also writes grants and incorporates transfer related assignments in her classes. 244 Shortly after finishing a post-doc at the state land grant institution in molecular biology, Faculty Member 2 joined the faculty at UTC. Almost immediately after she was hired Faculty Member 2 created the biotechnology degree program. She said that creating the program provides students that wish to pursue careers in biology or biotechnology a starting point. Before she created the program, UTC “did not have a biotech program. So students with an interest in biotechnology, they could transfer, but they wouldn’t get any exposure here. They might take biology here, but there was no plan.” She said that there were two advantages to developing the program. First, it provided students that wished to pursue this line of study a curricular pathway and second, it provided students that “may not know what they want to do, exposure into an interesting career field that is not typically offered at a two-year technical college.” She provided the following example, We are doing really well in exposing students to new things. I had a student who came to UTC to do an automotive, you know, technician degree. He was Latino. He saw the biotech poster somewhere and said, "Okay. I’m going to take one class." He came into my class, finished the program. Now he is at {name of local public four-year institution.] He was only thinking of a two-year degree in automotive tech, getting a technician job somewhere. After the program was created, Faculty Member 2 wished to provide additional opportunities to generate interests in earning a bachelor’s degree. Although her program cohorts are small, “maybe 8-10 students, the majority are minorities.” She wrote a grant which concentrated on exposing minority students to four-year institutions, research opportunities, and internships. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the grant for five years, where the majority of funds paid student stipends for conducting research internships with four-year institutions. The opportunity is a big help, because you know it’s helping the students earn, get some job experience while in the program. It also helps students say, “Oh, this is all research is about? I’m going to transfer and do more of this. Get a bachelor’s degree.” 245 In addition to being in the lab with faculty members, the grant provided funds to travel to a national conference. This opportunity provided students a chance to present their research and be introduced to practitioners in their field. Faculty Member 2 also generates student interest in transfer through in-class activities. At the end of the semester she gives students a project aimed at exposing them to future educational possibilities. I ask them to go to the website of any four-year college in the Lanchester area and look for a lab that they are interested in. So for example, a student might be interested in forensic science. I would ask them to research a similar lab at a four-year college and see what research they do at that campus. Then they write a paper. This way they are learning what a four-year college does that they might be of interest to them in the future. I think that helps a lot in having them start thinking about the future and transfer. I asked her if she is aware of other faculty members that create similar assignments. She said that she “wasn’t sure.” Providing process information. Finally, Staff Member 1, a student service specialist, implements transfer by creating useful tools to aid students in the transfer process. In her student service role, she works with students who desire to transfer credits in or out of the institution. She has found that “students do not know the process of transfer, like what to do and in what order.” She noticed that during student appointments she would reiterate the same transfer discussion with each student. Based on this experience, Staff Member 1 created a transfer checklist that could be used during appointments and given to students as they leave the advising session. She said, Every time I meet with a student I don’t have anything to show them or give them, except for my words. I was a student myself. I guess that makes a difference maybe, that I was student here and I wanted and needed something to leave with. Because a lot of our students, believe it or not, because of the population, they are visual learners. When they have something on paper and they can check it off, it is helpful to them. Why didn’t I think of this earlier? I put myself in their shoes. What do they need when they leave here? I don’t want them to leave here empty handed. I want them to leave with 246 something that they can fall back on and refer back to. “Okay, step one, I did that. Now step two, what do I need to do? Until I complete step four and I’m ready to go.” The checklist contains important information, such as, what to do before applying to a four-year institution, how to apply, and when to request official transcripts. Staff Member 1 gives the checklist to students during appointments and transfer workshops at the Transfer Days events. At this point, other advisors and faculty members are not aware the checklist exists. Summary In this chapter, I described how the transfer policy is implemented structurally and informally. The majority of institutional effort is at the documentation level of implementation, where administrators are concentrated on creating articulation agreements. Aspects at the physical level of implementation, such as an allocated transfer space or advisor were not easily identifiable. The transfer function at UTC operates “under the radar” as a “shadow college,” largely invisible on campus and to the Lanchester community, and primarily provided by external constituents. I found that transfer occurs by accident or informally, in the work of individual practitioners. The final chapter of this dissertation highlights how the findings relate to and inform the theory and literature presented in Chapter II. Chapter VII also offers policy implications and suggestions for improved practice. It concludes with a discussion on areas for future research. 258 CHAPTER VII: Concluding Thoughts and Lessons Learned As described in Chapter I, despite increased research on student transfer and transfer policy, little is known about the transfer function in a technical college or how transfer policy is interpreted or implemented by practitioners. Using theory and research from the sensemaking and critical policy literature, Chapter II outlined factors that influence policy interpretation and implementation. Although already well-documented in previous research, this study provides further evidence that institutional context plays a critical role in how a policy is interpreted, and that interpretation has implications for implementation (Coburn, 2001, 2005; Datnow, 2006; Kezar & Eckel, 2002; Resnick, 1991; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002). This case study is unique in that previous studies fail to acknowledge race in the sensemaking of policy. Prior research has examined the importance of social context (that is, history, physical space, structure, and culture) on policy interpretation and implementation, but missing from the literature is a close attentiveness to race as part of the social context. Approaching the research from this perspective allowed for an examination of how a policy’s target or intended population may influence practitioner interpretation and subsequent implementation of a policy. As a result, this study extends policy research framed by sensemaking by suggesting that how a policy is implemented has to do with how policy actors perceive the beneficiaries of the policy. This chapter is divided into four sections. First, I provide a summary of the major findings of the study. The second section draws connections between these findings and the three bodies of literature that informed this study: a) sensemaking and policy interpretation, b) critical policy analysis, and c) transfer within a technical college environment. Then, I delineate 259 implications for practice and policy, and finally conclude with a discussion of study limitations and suggested areas for future research. Summary of Major Findings This study sought to answer two research questions; what are the factors that influence policy interpretation? And, second, in what ways are these factors reflected in how the policy is implemented? In this section, I provide a brief overview of the findings. I found that context does not simply provide a backdrop for how practitioners interpret a policy; rather context is a defining element of the interpretation itself. The data collected did not point to one factor in how policy is interpreted; instead, the findings depicted a far more nuanced understanding of policy interpretation. Six primary factors were identified that influence practitioner policy interpretation. Practitioners were most influenced by the identity and history of the institution, followed by a lesser degree, a fear of a loss of power, the actions and priorities of campus leadership, the perception of a policy’s target population, the influence of new narratives, and finally a concern for equity. In the following section, each factor is discussed at greater length as it pertains to previous research and how it informs theory. The research on policy implementation indicates that how practitioners interpret policy mediates how they enact them (Coburn, 2001). The transfer policy at UTC was implemented at two levels: structural and informal. The structural level of implementation includes the physical, documentation, and digital implementation efforts. The data collected shows that the primary implementing effort was at the documentation level, where the institution and practitioners were primarily focused on the creation of articulation agreements. The physical level of implementation, such as transfer informational events, a designated UTC transfer space or advisor, and print materials, were not clearly identifiable. Investigation into the implementation 260 of the transfer policy showed that the transfer function largely operates as a “shadow college,” invisible on campus and within the local community, along with being primarily provided through the work of the four-year institution. I found that transfer occurs at UTC informally, in the work of individual practitioners. Central to this research is the notion that policy interpretation influences what practitioners do and do not do in implementing the policy (Yanow, 1996). Moreover, although this study does not demonstrate a causal link between interpretation and implementation, the preponderant interpretation that transfer policy is tertiary is congruent with the lack of policy visibility and implementation, which has implications for students of color. Connecting Findings to Research and Theory This dissertation draws on three bodies of theory and literature: sensemaking and policy interpretation, critical policy analysis, and transfer. In this section, the findings from the study inform and advance each area. Advancing sensemaking and policy interpretation theory. Sensemaking theory was used to frame this study of policy interpretation and implementation and extends the theory in several important ways. The results confirm previous findings that institutional history and the actions of leadership play an important role in policy interpretation (Coburn, 2005; Datnow, 2006; Dorner, 2012; Kezar & Eckel, 2002; Lin, 2000; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002; Vaughan, 1996). The following factors emerged that have not been found in prior research: a fear of a loss of power, the perception of the target population, the influence of new narratives, and a concern for equity. 261 The influence of institutional identity and history. Prior research suggests that once practitioners interpret policy and then act on those interpretations, they create new methods of thinking and practices that become institutionalized over time and resistant to change (Lin, 2000; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002; S. J. Stein, 2004; Vaughan, 1996). This finding was confirmed at UTC, where the importance of institutional identity and history underscored the interpretation of transfer policy. The original purpose of the technical colleges is central to the embedded culture of the institution and demonstrated that the history of the institution made it difficult for practitioners to accommodate transfer policy. This was observed in practitioner reluctance to change the name of the institution, as well as their strong allegiance to technical education. The findings suggest that the identity of the college is not only institutionalized, but is embodied by practitioners. A strong allegiance to technical education was also observed in the traditions and routines carried by the institution over time. In the last century there have been multiple attempts by different individuals to establish a community college system in Wisconsin. This idea was obstructed each time, as noted in Chapter IV, with opponents from Labor that argued the introduction of academic courses would deemphasize the vocational mission of the technical colleges. The Labor representatives at UTC continue to hold this position, which provides a lens to comprehend their environment and transfer policy. This final point emphasizes the notion that the history and traditions of an institution provide a means to interpret policy, but also serve as a barrier to opportunity. This is not to suggest that practitioners do not wish to offer students further opportunity, rather that the institutional identity leads practitioners to align each program or policy to the values that are most salient to the institution. 262 The influence of leadership. This study confirms previous findings that campus leadership influences how practitioners interpret policy (Coburn, 2005; Datnow, 2006; Kezar & Eckel, 2002; Spillane, Diamond, et al., 2002; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002). Campus leaders signal what policies are important to the board. Previous researchers have found that institutional values and needs are continually being reinterpreted (Lin, 2000; Vaughan, 1996). In this study, the values and needs of an institution were found to be reinterpreted based on leadership priorities. For example, the level of importance attributed to transfer by practitioners waned as campus leadership changed. As campus priorities shifted from expanding transfer opportunities to retention and completion, practitioners assigned less importance to the transfer policy. Currently, practitioners are encouraged to focus on retention and completion. The administration’s major actions have been signing onto the Completion Challenge, the creation of an Early Warning Alert system to aid in retention efforts, and a push for more green energy programs. Practitioners noted that transfer is not as important as it was a decade ago, drawing attention to the influence campus leaders have on placing value on specific initiatives or policies. The president emphasizes the vision of the board, which is to pursue the vocational mission of the college and “to globally stand out amongst everyone else that educates students with the latest and greatest technology.” Brint and Karabel (1991) found that the vocational agenda can enhance administrator status and set an institution apart from more academically oriented colleges. The lack of attention to the transfer function may be an attempt to distance the institution from the work of the UWS and achieve prominent status as a leader in vocational education. A vocational agenda is inline with the goals of the Obama administration and major foundations. In this environment, focusing on vocational education can possibly be a way for leaders to maximize institutional and personal prestige. The current president does not attend to the transfer function for three reasons. First, he believes that there are more pressing concerns. He maintains transfer should be offered to 263 students that are academically ready, but since nearly half of UTC students begin their education in the basic skills curriculum he has decided to focus his efforts in completion and retention. Notwithstanding this emphasis, there is evidence that transfer and more specifically transfer equity is becoming more important to the institution. For example, transfer equity for African Americans is noted as a goal on the UTC 2013 Strategic Plan. Their strategy to increase the number of students of color that transfer has been the development of a pilot program to increase transfer equity for African American students. While the pilot program has yet to be implemented, adding the goal to the strategic plan and developing the program are signs that the administration desires to see students succeed in their chosen path. The second justification for not focusing on transfer is that the President is fulfilling his role to translate the board’s vision into action. The board’s vision is to implement a vocationally centered mission and pursuing another priority would be in opposition to the board. As discussed previously, the president is employed by the board and it is his primary role to manage the institution under the direction of the board. Finally, the political context does not support implementing transfer opportunities. Currently, UTC is being provided funding nationally and at the state-level to develop, implement, and enhance technical education. Within this political context it does not make sense for the president to concentrate on transfer. This also demonstrates that context shapes leadership priorities. This study also draws attention to board-level leadership in policy interpretation and implementation. According to participants in this study, the UTC Board of Trustees is a firm supporter of the occupational mission and members of the board have said publically that transfer is not the goal of the institution. Schein (1991) argues that organizational leaders have a “major impact” in embedding culture in the institution (p. 228). Leaders embed culture in the communication of assumptions and values and one avenue by which this is accomplished is through deliberate action. The current actions of the president focusing on retention and 264 completion initiatives, as well as the Board’s public denouncement of transfer send strong messages to practitioners that transfer policy is insignificant. Although not studied empirically, Handel (Fall 2006) suggests that the Board of Trustees of two-year colleges could play a more extensive role in creating a transfer culture. “By virtue of their position and the skills they bring to the job, community college trustees are in an excellent position to advance the conversation around transfer” (Handel, Fall 2006, p. 2). While this was written with community colleges in mind, the idea expressed here argues that Boards of Trustees could advance transfer opportunities for students. However, the results of this study reveal that just as Boards of Trustees have the potential to initiate a transfer culture, in the case of UTC, they can also foreclose on those opportunities. The influence of politics. In the past, scholars have argued that sensemaking by itself fails to consider how power influences the interpretation process (Helms Mills, et al., 2010). Weick’s sensemaking model only went so far in “addressing how processes are interpreted and enacted and there was an assumption that sensemaking was a democratic process, whereby all voices were more or less equally important” (Helms Mills, et al., 2010, p. 187). This study contributes to this gap in the literature. Where Coburn (2001) found that current practices, worldviews, and shared understandings influence policy interpretation, the results of this study show the inherent politics involved in the interpretation of policy. Issues of power were observed in how self-interest played a role in interpretation and in the tensions found within ideology. Self-interest and policy interpretation. The results demonstrate that power or perceived loss of power influences how practitioners interpret policy. For example, select practitioners perceive the transfer function at UTC as a threat to their livelihood. In the late 1990s, faculty were required to return to school to earn higher credentials to maintain their teaching positions at UTC. The enforcement of higher 265 credentials was an internal struggle at UTC, causing some practitioners to advocate for abrogating the transfer curriculum. Today, the transfer function is still viewed apprehensively by practitioners since it is perceived as a possible catalyst to a drop in technical enrollments, along with movement towards hiring and course assignment processes based on merit or performance. This interpretation has led to a lack of support for the policy, specifically by the union, who campaigned against the credential change ten years ago. Lin (2000) found similar results, showing that staff are more likely to implement a policy if it is perceived as beneficial to them, however the findings in this study are slightly different. These results demonstrate that practitioners not only assess whether the policy is a benefit to them, but act against it when the policy is a threat to their self-interest. These results suggest two ideas: first, if practitioners interpret policy as a potential threat to their livelihood they will be less likely to support it; and second, powerful groups and individuals, such as those representing the union, play a role in how a policy is interpreted. Tensions in ideology on how to best serve students. The politics of the policy were also observed in the tensions in ideology on how to best serve students. For example, select practitioners perceived the policy as not the best option for their students. This is an important argument and demonstrates that these practitioners were not opposed to transfer, rather they were opposed to what transfer symbolized They believed that given the academic preparation of their students and the state of the economy that transfer is not the answer, rather the institution should concentrate on educating students at the sub- baccalaureate level and placing them into a specific occupation or a trade. These practitioners argued that bringing transfer into the institution was not in the best interests of their students and anyone advocating for transfer was an “elitist outsider that looks down on my [their] students and the technical education they are pursuing.” This perception and view of transfer and transfer 266 policy led to the staunch opposition of transfer, and as a result, some practitioners assumed a protective role over their students and technical education. These practitioners assume an ideology that transfer is not the answer for their students. However, to date, there is not evidence supporting their position, therefore a judgment can not be made. UTC does not have the data to show job placement by race into specific trades. In addition, prominent leaders in the community argue that placing students of color into the trades, which are associated with the trade unions in the region, is not the best option, as trade unions are “stuck in the past and continue to be racist against their own.” First, this suggests that there is a level of political complexity embedded in how practitioners interpret the policy. Second, it demonstrates that the manner in which the policy is interpreted is not unitary in nature, but rather multiple interpretations exist that are often fragmented and can be contested. Finally, I argue that a tension exists, something I call the paradox of protection in this interpretation of the policy. Practitioners believe they need to protect their students and technical education from elitist outsiders. However, in protecting their students they are foreclosing on opportunities for their students to further their education. The influence of the perception of the target population. The major finding of this study is that how a policy is implemented has to do with how policy implementers perceive who benefits from the policy. Practitioners demonstrated what Mike Rose (2012) refers to as a “culture of resignation,” defined as an institution where poverty or other societal influences provide a rationale for practitioners to “to avoid challenging curricula and programs, to not push either themselves or their students toward excellence” (Rose, 2012, p. 188). Practitioners cited student poverty, academic ability, and student personal issues as justification for focusing student effort on lower aspirations than transfer, such as earning a technical associate’s degree or a diploma. When practitioners describe their students they placed them in a separate category from themselves. For example, practitioners referred to UTC as 267 “their Harvard” or commented that earning a degree in cosmetology “for our students, that’s a step up.” Such descriptions provide evidence that there is a ceiling to what their students can achieve when compared to students that attend a four-year institution. Sentiments like these motivated practitioners to focus on the areas of basic skills or preparing students for a career in a two-year vocational field rather than a four-year degree. Many practitioners interviewed did not view the student population as transfer material. Implementation is about who is likely to benefit and in this case, the student population is not perceived as a group of students that could benefit from the policy’s implementation. The perception of students led practitioners to deemphasize the transfer policy. The majority of the UTC student population is poor, academically unprepared, and African American. The overwhelming perception was that for this population a two-year degree was considered sufficient. I speculate that if UTC served a predominately white, middle to upper class student body with the same level of academic preparedness, the importance assigned to the transfer policy would be elevated and more deliberate. This speaks to the role that perception has in recreating inequities in our society. For example, Marable (2000) says that “race is historically and socially constructed, created (and recreated) by how people are perceived and treated in the normal actions of everyday life” (Marable, 2002, p. 22). Although unsaid in the context of policy implementation, this quote provides insight for sensemaking in policy interpretation and implementation. In essence, how people perceive each other serves to recreate or perpetuate the unequal relationships between social groups in our society. This suggests that the perception that a sub-baccalaureate degree is “good enough” for their students cyclically remanufactures racial inequity. This finding not only points to a factor that influences policy interpretation, but also provides continued evidence that status distinctions among types of work continue to be present. Hundreds of years ago, Plato and Aristotle argued that lower classes should pursue work in the 268 trades because they were incapable of the intellect necessary to pursue higher levels of education (Barker, 1952; England, 1921; Guthrie, 1956). While not this blunt, practitioners at UTC argue that their students would “be lucky to earn an associate degree” and might be better suited for technical rather than academic coursework. According to Dewey (1916a), this is how vocational education becomes “dangerous.” When a technical degree or two-year vocational program is perceived as the highest level an individual can achieve, it is evidence that education acts as an instrument of stratification. The influence of new narratives. A national emphasis on technical education and the widespread discussion of the skills gap have contributed to a storyline that the bachelor’s degree is not as valuable as a more technical skill set. This environment has led practitioners to devalue transfer policy, where the policy is interpreted as unimportant given the country’s economic position and the demand for more individuals vocationally trained. This finding suggests that practitioners are influenced by national discourse, which they use to make sense of policy. The heavy reliance on the skills gap by practitioners is evidence that the skills gap is becoming the new education gospel prevalent in technical institutions (Rose, 2012). It provides practitioners validation for their work at the technical college and contributes to the devaluation of the transfer policy and bachelor’s degree completion. Although not highlighted in the discussion I had with practitioners, there are arguments against a skills gap. Skeptics of the skills gap argue that the inability of employers to recruit skilled workers, specifically in the manufacturing industry, is not a result of a mismatch between the type of education being obtained by students and the skills required by industry, but rather a consequence of low wages being offered by employers. Companies can not employ the workers they need because they do not offer high enough wages (Belz, 2012; Davidson, 2012; Mistler, 2013). Regardless of whether the skills gap exists, the national discourse has penetrated UTC 269 and influenced how practitioners interpret the value of a bachelor’s degree and subsequently the importance they place on the transfer policy. This finding demonstrates the power of language, as none of the interviewees questioned the narrative around a need for skilled workers. The new narrative has mobilized two-year colleges toward vocational goals, and in consequence, vocational education has assumed a more elite and valuable status. This finding suggests that new narratives can influence the type of curriculum students are offered and encouraged to pursue. The current administration touts the importance of the two-year college as “career centers” and to provide students with the technical skills necessary for employment. Coupled with the dialogue of the skills gap, there is a strong national voice supporting sub-baccalaureate education. This level of emphasis is not placed on transfer and thus provides insufficient rationale to focus on transitioning students from a two-year college to a four-year institution. In line with what Booker T. Washington advocated in the early 1900s, low- income students are being encouraged to pursue more vocationally-oriented paths, many of which are short- or long-term certificates. The concept behind this drive is the idea that more technically certificated or degreed individuals will not only help the American economy, but will also elevate lower income communities through some form of education. However, in response to this position, Dubois would likely argue as he did in the early 1900s that it is not through sub- baccalaureate work that individuals are elevated or “become men of power,” but rather through traditional college degrees (DuBois, 1973, pp. 13-14). With our national leadership encouraging the pursuit of sub-baccalaureate certificates and degrees for students concentrated in two-year colleges, I believe it is important to ask the question—who is advocating for lower income and racial-minorities to pursue traditional college degrees like Dubois did over a century ago? I also argue that those targeting the two-year college to increase the number of students with sub- baccalaureate degrees or certificates tread with caution, as the groups situated in these college are also the ones that have been historically discriminated against in the educational system. 270 The influence of a concern for equity. Finally, this study found that a concern for equity can be a factor in the interpretation of policy. Although few in number, here were practitioners that voiced support for the transfer policy and believed it specifically offered students of color an opportunity to earn a four-year degree. However, the majority of practitioners showed a concern for equity when discussing other initiatives focused on basic skills or retention. For example, when the majority of practitioners described rationales behind basic skills programs or retention driven initiatives, they noted the importance these programs have for their students of color. This demonstrates that practitioners tended to show a concern for equity for policies and programs more oriented at aiding students of color to achieve at the two-year level or below. While having a concern for equity in basic skills and retention initiatives is an important step in educational equity, expanding this concern to transfer programs could contribute to increasing the number of minoritized students that transfer and eventually earn a bachelor’s degree. Informing the critical policy analysis of implementation. Consistent with the literature on critical policy analysis, this study highlights the complicated nature of the policy process (Allan, et al., 2010, p. 22). To analyze policy involves consideration of a broad range of actors, as well as an understanding that policy implementation is a value-laden endeavor (Allan, et al., 2010; Ball, 1990; Bowe, et al., 1992; Weatherly & Lipsky, 1977; Weick, 1976). Critical policy studies in the past have focused on how a policy is developed or written and how the policy itself may marginalize racialized populations (Marshall, 1997b; Spillane, Reiser, et al., 2002; S. J. Stein, 2004). This study is unique in that the focus is not on the policy alone, but how implementing it may marginalize racialized students. The findings suggest that a policy can act as a tool of equity, but only if implemented in a manner that enhances the opportunities for the success of minority students. More importantly, however 271 the non-implementing efforts of the institution and practitioners are interconnected to broader issues of power and prestige. “Colorblind transfer” implementation. The findings of this study demonstrate a mismatch of implementing efforts and the population served. Currently, the implementing efforts at UTC support the ideology of hyper- individualism, where the primary transfer resources of articulation agreements are located in the digital realm and require proactive student engagement. Since it is not immediately clear where to learn about transfer or who is appointed to this role, students are charged with the responsibility of seeking out transfer resources and then knowing the right questions to ask. This is inherently troubling because an implementation strategy focused on an ideology of hyper- individualism or one that lacks the relational element is at odds with effective support strategies identified for students of color (Rendón, 1994, 2002; Swail, Cabrera, Lee, & Williams, 2004). As mentioned previously, UTC enrolls more students of color than all public institutions in the state combined (Office of Policy Analysis and Research, 2012; Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012b). Aligning with the literature on students of color and first generation students, the UTC student population was recently identified as having a general lack of college knowledge, where students, parents, and the general public report having little understanding about college requirements. Researchers have found that the success of students of color and first generation students in completing a course of study and transferring to a four-year college is supported when relationships with faculty, counselors, and other staff are established (Bensimon & Dowd, 2012; Dowd & Pak, 2013). Interactions with practitioners can help first generation students navigate complicated academic procedures, such as the transfer or application processes, as well as validate students’ education aspirations and alleviate fears of isolation. 272 Low income and racially diverse students are unlikely to possess a clear understanding of how to negotiate the college environment. As a result, when students encounter multiple academic options, they are often confused by the process (Alfonso, 2004; Person, Rosenbaum, & Deli- Amen, 2006). According to Rendón (2002), students from low-income backgrounds or who are first generation often do not know what questions to ask and are often reluctant due to a fear that they will appear “stupid or lazy” (p. 645). According to a faculty member, UTC has “colorblind transfer,” meaning that the manner in which the transfer policy is implemented at UTC is at odds with what the literature says supports students of color and first generation students. First, students at UTC that want to learn more about transfer have to know where to go and what questions to ask. If the student happens to find someone to speak with regarding transfer, he or she is then told to contact or visit the four-year institution they wish to attend for counseling. A practitioner from the local public four-year institution summarized the challenge that students at UTC encounter. I will say the first thing is we are working with a lot of first-generation low-income students, the students are confused about college anyway. They have no idea that a course would not transfer from one to another, it doesn’t ever enter their thinking. There is not enough information, it is not well known, it doesn’t pop into their minds. They are not going to think when they are registering about transfer— they are thinking about what their current interests are, what fits into their schedules, not whether a course is going to transfer to the college of their dreams. They need someone to help with that. Second, the online medium by which the majority of transfer resources are delivered is not conducive to promoting relationships. When students visit the UTC website they are confronted with a proliferation of articulation agreements. Although articulation agreements are an approach by UTC to provide pathways for students to transfer, they have been found by researchers to “hamper” rather than assist student transfer due to a host of political issues and to cause more confusion than clarity (CollegeBoard, July 2011). Transfer policies are created in a complex environment that includes inter-institutional mistrust, faculty disputes over the 273 curriculum, and “the intellectual provincialism of the four-year institution” (CollegeBoard, July 2011, p. 20). These factors lead to the creation of policies that provide ambiguous transfer knowledge to students and suggest that current practices and policies in higher education do not facilitate the equitable flow of students between institutions (D. S. Bailey, 2003; Goldrick-Rab, 2007; McCormick, 2003; Prager, 2001). In addition to these issues, articulation agreements by themselves are not as useful as having a person-to-person conversation. According to Rose (2012) “information doesn’t just flow and get processed in a vacuum. Information flow is embedded in human interaction and social networks” (p.156). When students are provided opportunities to talk about information, it gets “elaborated, or legitimized’ (Rose, 2012, p. 157). This is not to say that transfer advising does not take place at UTC. As discussed in the last section of Chapter VI, there are individual practitioners that take it upon themselves to implement transfer with their students, some specifically in regards to students of color. This finding shows that transfer happens at UTC by chance rather than by formal structural efforts. These findings echo previous research that select practitioners can act as “transfer agents” or individuals that work to facilitate the transfer of low income or racially diverse students (Bensimon & Dowd, 2009; Gabbard, et al., 2006). Borrowing from Dowd et al. (2006), I argue that transfer implementation at UTC has a “haphazard, or accidental quality” to it. If a student is lucky, they will encounter a proactive practitioner and be provided with comprehensive transfer guidance. However, if they do not happen upon this type of individual transfer related issues may never be addressed with the student. The findings of this work do not proclaim that UTC does not provide transfer resources, but rather how the policy is implemented is not the best strategy given their student population. The results of this work demonstrate that a policy can be implemented, but in this case, is done so without a strong consciousness to serving a 274 predominately African American student body. This research highlights the notion that policy can serve as a tool of equity, but only when implementation efforts are thoughtfully designed to meet specific student needs. The non-implementation of policy. The observations described in Chapter VI provide insight into the non-implementation of the transfer policy and add to the literature on the critical policy analysis of implementation. I told two stories, the first centered on the Welcome Center, where student workers were unaware of transfer resources, and the second, a tour around campus, revealed it was almost impossible to find any signage regarding transfer. Both observations suggest a lack of information and visibility of transfer at UTC. Though these stories directly concern information and signage, they are representative of much larger issues. I argue that this non-implementation of transfer policy is a form of unintentional institutionalized racism, where institutionalized racism is defined as racism that occurs in structures and operations at the organizational level (Jones, 2000). This notion emphasizes how large scale institutional structures and policies “operate to pass on and reinforce historic patterns of privilege and disadvantage,” such as deciding which groups gain access to the baccalaureate and which do not (Chesler & Crowfoot, 1989, p. 441). In this light, racism does not have to be an individual act, but is found in the “structures that determine and cyclically remanufacture racial inequity; and the institutional norms that sustain White privilege and permit the ongoing subordination of minoritized persons” (Harper, 2012, p. 10). It is important to note that institutionalized racism in the form of policy is most often unintentional. Referred to as indirect institutionalized discrimination, this form of racism occurs with no prejudice or intent to harm, despite its negative and differential impacts on minoritized populations (Chesler & Crowfoot, 1989). Chesler and Crowfoot (1989) note that, 275 Organizational procedures can have discriminatory impact even if individual actors are unaware of such impacts or are non-discriminatory in their personal beliefs, and even if their behavior appears to be a fair-minded application of ‘race-neutral’ or ‘color-blind’ rules (p.442). Institutional racism does not suggest that individuals are racist, but rather that the organizational polices, rules, or in this case implementing efforts, can have an indirect discriminatory impact. Indirect and unintentional institutional racism occurs in acts of omission, such as failing to have a transfer center, a designated person for transfer advising, and omitting required courses, such as math from degree programs. Another example of omission is the resistance to including the word “community” in the name of the college. As observed at UTC and argued by Marshall (1997b), “policies will create arenas of struggle—sometimes just over resources or turf, but more often over ideology, over what is and what is not valuable and useful” (p.7). Practitioners resisted the name change because it threatened the type of education they deliver and their livelihood, but also the ideology that UTC is first a vocational college. Although this is not overtly connected to opening opportunities to students of color, the omission of “community” has implications for the large number of students of color that UTC serves. The resistance and omission of “community” symbolizes a singular commitment to a culture that advocates vocational education. However, given the college demographics, excluding or diminishing the transfer function serves to foreclose opportunities that lead to higher levels of education. According to Dubois (1973), offering only a vocational education to the black community is a method for the continued subordination of the black community. This analysis provides an example that helps us identify the ways in which everyday practices (or non-practices in this case) could indirectly contribute to the perpetuation of racial inequality. It also sheds light on the idea that, generally, there is an inattentiveness in higher education that practitioners audit their own practices. For example, it is uncommon for 276 practitioners or institutions of higher education to ask the question—“Who is or is not likely to benefit from our actions or implementing efforts?” Understanding transfer and the technical college environment. The transfer literature can be categorized into four broad groups: (a) studies that explore definitions of transfer and determine characteristics of transfer students; (b) studies that examine patterns of student mobility between institutions of higher education; (c) studies that compare educational outcomes of transfer students to students that started at four-year institutions; and (d) studies that examine whether there are state policies that positively affect the likelihood of student transfer. Rather than focusing exclusively on technical colleges, the majority of the transfer literature examines comprehensive community colleges. This study expands the literature by noting where the results align with and add to previous findings. Similar to studies on the community college, the results demonstrate that institutions with multiple, often conflicting, missions find it difficult to excel at any particular mission. UTC has many goals, including providing education concentrated on occupational needs, basic skills, recreation, and the first two-years of a bachelor’s degree. (A. Cohen & Brawer, 2003; Dougherty, 1994; Grubb & Lazerson, 2005). Also paralleling prior literature, I found that technical colleges deemphasize the transfer function due to their focus on occupational education (Godfrey & Holmstrom, 1970; Grubb & Lazerson, 2005; Wilkinson, 1992), The term “transfer” at the technical college assumed a broader definition than the typically referred to definitions used by researchers of vertical, lateral, or reverse transfer found in community college settings (Adelman, 2005; Dougherty & Kienzl, 2006; Goldrick-Rab & Pfeffer, 2009; McCormick, 2003). To practitioners at UTC, transfer also refers to “transferring out” into jobs and is not necessarily limited to movement between institutions of higher 277 education. Practitioners also preferred to reference transfer as one of the many career pathways students could pursue. For example, when discussing transfer options at UTC, practitioners mentioned “career pathways to the baccalaureate” rather than transfer pathways. These examples highlight the technical college concentration on careers, along with a continued distancing from the academic use of language. Implications for Practice and Policy This research provides evidence that a) how a policy is interpreted and implemented is influenced by how practitioners perceive the beneficiaries of the policy and b) how an institution implements a policy may be disadvantageous for the population served. These findings provide policymakers, practitioners, and researchers broader conclusions that can help educators understand the ways in which perception and the everyday practices (or non-practices) of practitioners can indirectly contribute to the perpetuation of racial inequality. Based on these findings, I provide implications for practice and policy. The first two subsections offer a discussion regarding encouraging transfer, including creating an institutional environment where transfer is a mindset and a priority. Finally, the concluding section offers implementation strategies that take race and culture into consideration when implementing a policy. Transfer as an expectation and a mindset. Too often, practitioners make judgments about students that can limit their development. When practitioners judge students and their abilities based on their first generation status, poverty levels, race, or struggles outside of school, they serve to shut down rather open possible educational opportunities. As indicated by Rose (2012), poverty and other social issues can provide a rationale for practitioners to avoid offering challenging programs and instead not push themselves or their students to higher levels of excellence due to a belief that it is a wasted effort. 278 The belief that the urban poor, underprepared, and minoritized students will not be successful in college, nor benefit from a four-year degree, was challenged by Attewell and Lavin (2007). These researchers found that students from disadvantaged backgrounds that go on to earn degrees experience financial payoffs and their children are more likely as well to experience educational success. This research offers support for the argument that practitioners should not underestimate the potential transfer success of their students based on their race or lack of financial resources or academic preparation. Instilling transfer as an expectation requires that colleges convey a “college for all” mindset. As illustrated by the findings of this study, practitioners exude a strong counter-culture to the notion that all students should pursue higher levels of education. In part due to a national discourse that advocates for educating individuals at the sub-baccalaureate level, many students are being channeled into technical or vocational programs. While I acknowledge that as part of the economic recovery the U.S. requires individuals educated at all levels, when bachelor’s degree opportunities are not being provided or encouraged to populations that have been historically underrepresented in higher education educators and policymakers are perpetuating economic and social inequity. Part of implementing transfer as an expectation involves creating a “transfer-going culture.” Based on the literature showing the importance of high schools developing a “college- going culture” to increase the rates of their students that go on to attend college (see, for example, McDonough, 1997), it is argued that two-year colleges that advocate transfer tend to see increases in transfer rates (Handel & Herrera, 2003). Improving student awareness of transfer requirements can encourage students to transfer, as this increases interaction and relationship-building with practitioners, effective advising for students, and well-resourced 279 transfer centers. It can also involve the creation of professional development opportunities for practitioners that demonstrate the value of a bachelor’s degree. Also important to a vocationally- oriented campus are conversations surrounding how technical programs can coexist with academic ones. Finally, to increase transfer opportunities for students, practitioners have to perceive it as an institutional priority. Transfer as an administrative priority. Leadership among the president and the Board of Trustees is important in setting the atmosphere for the college. As discussed, the results of this study show that leaders of an institution send messages to the rest of campus about what is important. In terms of the president, Rhodes (2012) and others have cautioned that the focus on completion is advanced at the expense of other college missions, such as transfer. In order to have practitioners perceive the transfer policy as a priority, the board needs to establish an agenda that includes transfer. Prioritizing transfer requires reviewing practices to observe if they support transfer, building leadership-level (or presidential-level) relationships with four-year institutions, providing incentives for faculty to collaborate, and providing funding for resources such as a transfer center (Serban, et al., 2008). Importantly within the UTC context, leaders need to ensure that the college transfer program and resources are visible to faculty, staff, and students and that data is used to assess the transfer program. The tracking of transfer data could protect against flawed assumptions that the transfer program is working or the majority of students do not wish to transfer. The Board of Trustees must assist the president in setting a transfer agenda intra- and inter-institutionally. Trustees can engage their peers about the transfer goals at the institution. They can seek out other trustees at four-year institutions to discuss transfer and the shared 280 advantages of strong partnerships (Handel, Fall 2006). In the context of UTC, the board should emphasize how transfer can help the institution meet larger goals. Culturally relevant policy implementation. Two-year colleges that serve a majority minority population should consider a culturally- relevant strategy to policy implementation. Research has suggested that faculty alter their practices in the classroom to meet the needs of racially diverse students through what is called culturally-relevant or responsive pedagogy (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995). This approach to teaching argues that teachers in diverse settings can be more effective if they understand the experiences and perspectives students bring to the classroom and then respond to the backgrounds of various groups when designing curriculum, learning activities, assessment procedures, and instructional materials. Gay (2000) argues that culturally-responsive teaching empowers racially diverse students by “cultivating their cultural integrity” and validates students’ background by enacting deliberate teaching strategies tailored to the group of students (p. 43). I suggest that this idea expands to policy implementation. Institutions that serve a majority minority population should address the needs of that population. For instance, a culturally-relevant strategy to policy implementation would consider the student population when developing structures for counseling and advising, curriculum, and other student services. By this type of thoughtful and intentional design, the institution would meet students where they are, help them towards fulfilling their goals, and possibly illuminate prospects for new opportunities. Culturally-relevant policy implementation may provide a strategy for institutions to allow a policy to act as a tool for equity. This approach to policy implementation would require institutional leaders and practitioners to regularly assess their own implementing efforts. 281 For example, leaders and practitioners should ask themselves the question, “Who are or are not the beneficiaries from our policy implementation?” Limitations and Recommendations for Future Critical Researchers Limitations. There are three primary limitations of this study. First, although I have a large sample of respondents from both the state- and campus-level, the study could have been further informed by conducting interviews or surveys of current UTC students. In this study, I learned about transfer resources and how the policy is implemented from practitioners within the institution. Although I received a variety of responses highlighting the positive and negative perspectives on implementation, students could have been questioned regarding their level of transfer knowledge and how they learn about transfer. Second, another limitation to this study is my physical distance from the research site. To answer the research questions of this study required a deep understanding of the culture of the technical college campus. To temper this limitation, I spent six months before traveling to the research site learning about the state and local historical and political context via telephone interviews and documents. Then, I spent a month at the research site collecting data. During this time, I allowed for a significant number of hours conducting on-campus observations. Finally, all research is subject to the analysis and interpretation of the researcher. My subjectivity was present in the development of interview and observation protocols, in my interactions with practitioners, and when I analyzed the data. To mitigate this limitation I took the following precautions: I discussed my findings with two state-level practitioners to check the accuracy of the historical timeline I completed and had a colleague review the codes I created for consistency. 282 Areas for future research. This section highlights several unanswered questions and identifies areas for future research and investigation. First, while select practitioners demonstrated a concern for equity as a factor in how they interpreted policy, this area was not thoroughly explored. For example, why did some practitioners use a concern for equity in interpreting policy, while others did not? What made them view the policy in this manner and how can it be fostered among other practitioners? An entire study could be conducted to investigate this factor. Additionally, the findings presented here could be explored further to examine whether some factors in the policy interpretation process are more salient than others. Research on high schools (Siskin, 1994) and sensemaking processes (Coburn, 2004) suggest that academic discipline and practitioner subculture also shape practitioner approaches to policy interpretation. However, the findings of this study conflict with these assumptions. For example, academic departments or disciplines were not found to be factors in how practitioners interpreted the transfer policy. Two prominent faculty members from the liberal arts and sciences exhibited strong opposition to the transfer function and allegiance to the institution’s historical identity, whereas I found individuals from technical programs that were proponents of transfer and heavily involved in the creation of articulation agreements. These findings suggests that some factors may be more influential in the process of policy interpretation than others. More examination is needed, but this research suggests that while academic discipline or departmental affiliation could be important factors in the interpretation of policy, the history of the institution or practitioner self-interest might be more influential. Goldrick-Rab and Shaw (2007) argue that more research is needed on higher education policy implementation. I argue that in addition to this idea, more higher education studies should 283 emphasize policy implementation from a critical stance. Harper et al. (2009) argue that utilizing a critical approach to policy analysis is useful as it helps us observe how everyday practices or non-practices contribute to the perpetuation of racial inequality. This is important for multiple reasons, but most notably due to the population two-year colleges serve. The majority of students in two-year colleges are from low- to modest-income backgrounds, work part or fulltime, and did not benefit from high-performing high schools. Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be found at two-year public college campuses than at four-year public universities when compared to White and Asian undergraduate students, who enroll in two-year and four-year institutions in nearly equal numbers (Knapp, Kelly-Reid, & Ginder, 2012). These students depend on two-year colleges for providing opportunities and designing implementation strategies that will work for them. The first step for researchers is to select research designs that emphasize the relationships between educational policies and historical, cultural, political, economic, and racial contexts. This approach will help reveal patterns in how power operates across time and space, regardless of the good actions of select practitioners. The second step is for researchers to examine policy implementation through the lens of sensemaking while explicitly considering race as a central part of the social context. Finally, more researchers should examine two-year college policy implementation critically by considering the student perspective on implementation. Researchers may ask questions such as: 1. How does the institution make students aware of the policy? 2. How does the institution teach students about the policy? 3. What physical signs on campus are there that the policy exists? 4. How are frontline staff and student staff educated about the policy? 5. Do the implementing efforts encourage interaction and relationship building? 6. How are the beneficiaries of the policy perceived? And, how does this perception influence interpretation and implementation? 7. How does the institution tailor policy implementation to the specific context or population served? 284 Finally, expanded critical research is necessary, but it may not ensure that implementation is improved. The prospect that such research be utilized is contingent upon a political environment willing to allow policy sufficient time to become established. Controversial policy implementation is difficult to obtain if programs and policies are continually ignored due to political beliefs. A focus on policy implementation requires a prior political condition: that the organization be willing to accommodate change. I add this caveat because of the current state and local political context discussed in Chapter IV. Over the last few years, state law 29 has threatened the power of the UTC faculty union. Although on a much smaller scale, the transfer policy has commonalities with these larger pieces of legislation. These pieces of legislation, that have since turned into law, and the transfer policy represent a threat to the union way of life; one that is dedicated to vocational education and the ideals of seniority. UTC may be able to achieve an amicable political environment for change once Act 10 takes effect in January of 2014 30 . Although questions remain, these findings have affirmed that policy interpretation and implementation occur within a complex web of historical, political, perceptual, and racial legacies. Without full consideration of the social context, including attentiveness to race, policy implementation or non-implementation can not be fully understood. It was the aim of this study to explore how the political and cultural aspects of an institution and its implementing efforts unintentionally serve to maintain the social order that constrains opportunities. 29 For more discussion on the state law referenced please see Chapter IV, Part III. 30 At the time that this dissertation was written, a Federal Court had upheld Act 10 as constitutional. 284 Bibliography Adelman, C. (2003). A Growing Plurality: The "Traditional Age Community College Dominant" Student. 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AAS programs require a minimum of 60 semester credits. The technical coursework within an AAS does not typically transfer to a four-year institution, unless an articulation agreement exists (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008a). 79 Technical Diploma/Certificate Technical diplomas/certificates are based on local needs of business and industry and are designed to assist persons preparing for entry into, remaining in, or advancing in an occupation. Technical diploma/certificate programs have a minimum of two (2) technical credits and a maximum of 70 technical credits. Technical diplomas/certificates can be completed in less than a year, a year, or two years. The technical coursework taken as part of the diploma/certificate does not typically transfer to a four-year institution (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008a). 126 Collegiate Transfer Program The Associate of Arts (AA) or the Associate of Science (AS) degrees are two-year programs in which the liberal arts credits earned by students may be transferred to a four-year university and applied towards a bachelor’s degree (Merrifield, 2011). 2 Post-Secondary Registered Apprenticeships The apprenticeship programs are approved by the Department of Workforce Development and aimed at providing for the employment and training of apprentices in a specific trade, craft, or business. Coursework required for apprenticeships does not typically transfer to a four-year institution (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008a). 23 Vocational-Adult Vocational-adult courses are educational offerings with a specific occupational objective which are designed to provide either future employment, upgrade individuals in their present occupations, or 302 Vocational-Adult promote citizenship and community safety for the general public (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008a). N/A Basic Skills Basic skills education courses are those courses below the postsecondary level designed to meet the instructional needs of adults (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008a). N/A Continuing Education Community Services Community service courses are offerings that are leisure-time self-enrichment courses including arts, crafts, games, hobbies, sport, recreation, foreign language conversation or other activities offered with or for community groups (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2008a). N/A 303 Appendix B: Telephone Interview Topic List Respondent (Title, Gender, Race): _____________________________________________ Date: ___________________________ Documents Obtained: ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Post Interview Comments or Leads: _________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ List of Potential Topics Description of Wisconsin higher education History of higher education in the state History of transfer in the state Relations between systems of higher education surrounding transfer Role that education/transfer plays in equity at the state level Transfer opportunities or programs offered at state level Mission/priorities of UTC/WTCS/or UWS Role of transfer in a technical college Critics/supporters of transfer from technical colleges Benefits/drawbacks of having a transfer curriculum at a technical college Perception of the role of transfer on a technical college campus Important agenda higher education agenda items at state level Supports/constraints to implementing the transfer policy within a technical college (internal/external) Importance of transfer in achieving equity Other 304 Appendix C: Sample Interview Protocol for Administrators and Board Members Respondent (Title, Name, Gender, Race): _____________________________________________ Date: ___________________________ Documents Obtained: ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Post Interview Comments or Leads: _________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Introduction First, I want to thank you for taking time to speak with me. Before we get started I wanted to provide you with a little background as to why I am at UTC and how I think you can help with my study. My name is Megan and I am a doctoral student. A couple of years ago I worked on a research project in Wisconsin that focused on increasing pathways to the baccalaureate for students and specifically minority students from the UW Colleges and technical colleges to the UW-four year institutions. During the project I became interested in transfer or career advancement opportunities from the technical colleges. To date, most of the research done on career advancement beyond the two-year degree is focused on traditional community colleges and I believe that studying transfer at UTC represents a rare opportunity to study pathways from a technical college perspective. I understand that UTC already does a good job providing students with middle skilled jobs, which are needed by the state and getting students out into the workforce, I am interested in learning how UTC also provides opportunities for advancement beyond the two-year training. I hope to learn how UTC supports advancement to the baccalaureate and at the end of this study provide your campus a composite of how transfer contributes to your goal of student success. In essence, where does transfer fit and how does it work? Do you have any questions about anything I have said so far? In terms of logistics, this interview will last approximately one hour-1.5 hour. Please feel free to stop me at anytime to ask questions. To facilitate note taking, I would like to audio tape our conversations today. Would that be okay? Before we get started I’ll need your signature on the consent form to meet my human subject requirements. Please check the box allowing us to audiotape. Essentially, this document states 305 that: (1) I will keep confidential any information that you share with me, (2) your participation is voluntary and you may stop the interview at any time if you feel uncomfortable, and (3) I do not intend to inflict any harm. Thank you for your participation. If you have any questions or concerns about this interview or the study, you can discuss them with me at anytime. I will leave you my contact information (have respondent sign informed consent form). 1) Introduction questions a) Can you tell me a little bit about yourself (rapport building) 1. How long have you been in your present position? 2. How long have you been at this institution? 3. Educational background? b) Before coming to UTC, what did you do? (If at a comprehensive community college ask the following question): How is the comprehensive community college different from UTC? 2) About the College/Organizational Culture a) What are the major initiatives at UTC right now? What is seen as important? b) In your mind, is there a common mission or purpose that unites everyone in this institution? If so, how is the mission communicated? 1. If not, ask the interviewee to explain the divided mission(s) c) Where does advancement to a four-year institution fit in on the institutional agenda? For example, would you say that the institution ranks pathways to the baccalaureate high or low? Why? Examples? How do you know? d) How are campus priorities communicated to the faculty and staff? e) What messages do you receive from the system level about transfer? Does the system level have any involvement in how transfer happens at UTC? f) How often is career advancement beyond the two-year degree mentioned in conversations with colleagues? If you can, can you give me an example of one of those conversations? g) When people talk about UTC, what would they say the mission is? For example, do you think the community knows that UTC has programs and opportunities that can get them to a four-year institution? h) What reasons would you give for transfer being an important function at UTC? 306 3) Transfer Implementation a) I understand that occupational education is your first goal, but now want to focus on how UTC approaches creating advancement opportunities for students. What is your role as an administrator in promoting career/academic pathways beyond the two-year education? 1. How do you fulfill this role? 2. Is transfer mentioned in meetings? b) How does the campus make students aware of say the liberal arts and sciences curriculum or other opportunities for career advancement to the four-year? 1. How visible is transfer at UTC? If I were a student in a technical program, would I know that advancing to a four-year degree is an option for me? 2. If I was a student that wanted to learn about career pathways to the baccalaureate, what would you tell me and where would you send me? c) I have learned that all the occupational programs have advisory committees. Does the LAS program have an advisory committee? If so, what is their goal? How often do they meet? Who is on that committee? 4) Career/Academic advancement resources a) Can you tell me about resources at UTC that further students career opportunities, particularly pathways that offer a bachelor’s degree? 5) SOC Resources a) Please describe any specific programs or practices at this institution that are aimed at recruiting, enrolling, and supporting students of color in transferring to a four-year institution 1. If no transfer resources, what academic services or supports does UTC offer minority students? 2. Do you know of specific programs or services that have been tailored for specific populations? b) Based on your observations, what is the level of participation of students of color in utilizing available resources that might help them transfer? c) If you or your colleagues wanted to put together a program that would specifically help students of color transfer, how would others react? 6) Data practices a) How do you know that the liberal arts and sciences curriculum is working? How do you know you are effective in transferring students to four-year institutions? b) Who benefits from this program? What kind of data is collected on the liberal arts and sciences program? 307 7) Challenges to the liberal arts and sciences curriculum a) What UTC challenges do you think students encounter in completing the transfer requirements? What UTC challenges do you think students encounter in the transfer process? b) Generally, how would the campus react to the idea of increasing efforts to enable transfer or to enroll more students in the liberal arts and sciences program? c) I was told that UTC almost changed their name to Lanchester Community and Technical College in the last 10 years, but it did not come to fruition. I know that many technical colleges have merged with CC in other states. Can you speculate as to why the name change didn’t happen at UTC? d) Are there obstacles to creating advancement pathways for students to four-year institutions? Ask them to elaborate. e) Based on your knowledge of the transfer program, how well do you think it works? Examples f) What do you think needs to happen at UTC to increase the number students that go from UTC to a four-year institution to earn a bachelor’s degree? 1. Transfer students of color? 8) Conclusion a) What do you think UTC does well in terms of transfer, what do you think that UTC can do better? b) Finally, what do you think is the single most important thing that they think I should know about what we discussed today? c) We've completed our list of questions. I’ve heard a number of ideas today, including (XYZ). Is there any thing else that you would like to add? fgn 308 Appendix D: Sample Interview Protocol for Faculty Members Respondent (Title, Name, Gender, Race): ____________________________________ Date: ___________________________ Documents Obtained: ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Post Interview Comments or Leads: _________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Introduction First, I want to thank you for taking time to speak with me. Before we get started I wanted to provide you with a little background as to why I am at UTC and how I think you can help with my study. My name is Megan and I am a doctoral student. A couple of years ago I worked on a research project in Wisconsin that focused on increasing pathways to the baccalaureate for students and specifically minority students from the UW Colleges and technical colleges to the UW-four year institutions. During the project I became interested in transfer or career advancement opportunities from the technical colleges. To date, most of the research done on this topic is focused on traditional community colleges and I believe that studying transfer at UTC represents a rare opportunity to study pathways from a technical college perspective. I understand that UTC already does a good job providing students with middle skilled jobs, which are needed by the state and also getting students into the workforce, I am interested in learning how UTC also provides opportunities for advancement beyond a two-year training. I hope to learn how UTC supports advancement to the baccalaureate and at the end of this study provide your campus a composite of how transfer contributes to your goal of student success. In essence, where does transfer fit and how does it work? Do you have any questions about anything I have said so far? In terms of logistics, this interview will last approximately one hour-1.5 hours. Please feel free to stop me at anytime to ask questions. To facilitate note taking, I would like to audio tape our conversations today. Would that be okay? Before we get started I’ll need your signature on the consent form to meet my human subject requirements. Please check the box allowing us to audiotape. Essentially, this document states that: (1) I will keep confidential any information that you share with me, (2) your participation is 309 voluntary and you may stop the interview at any time if you feel uncomfortable, and (3) I do not intend to inflict any harm. Thank you for your participation. If you have any questions or concerns about this interview or the study, you can discuss them with me at anytime. I will leave you my contact information (have respondent sign informed consent form). 1) Introduction questions a) Can you tell me a little bit about yourself (rapport building) 1. How long have you been in your present position? 2. How long have you been at this institution? 3. Educational background? b) Before coming to UTC, what did you do? (If at a comprehensive community college ask the following question): How is the comprehensive community college different from UTC? 2) About the College/Organizational Culture a) What are the major initiatives at UTC right now? What is seen as important? b) In your mind, is there a common mission or purpose that unites everyone in this institution? If so, how is the mission communicated? 1. If not, ask the interviewee to explain the divided mission(s) c) When people talk about UTC, what would they say the mission is? For example, do you think the community knows that UTC has programs and opportunities that can get them to a four-year degree? d) Where does advancement to a four-year institution fit in on the institutional agenda? For example, would you say that the institution ranks pathways to the baccalaureate high or low? Why? Examples? How do you know? What reasons would you give for advancement to a four-year institution being an important function at UTC? e) Who are the important leaders on campus. What are they focused on? f) How often is transfer mentioned in curriculum or departmental meetings? If you can, can you give me an example of one of those conversations? 3) Faculty Role in Transfer Program Implementation a) Can you tell me how faculty are involved in transfer at UTC? 1. How do you fulfill this role? Examples (does the faculty work with the four-year faculty to make sure the curriculum is aligned?) 2. How do other faculty members promote advancement to the four-year? Are there faculty members that do not promote transfer? 3. Whose job is it to inform students about transfer at UTC? What role do you think 310 should faculty play in informing students? 4. Can you think of the last time you spoke with a student about going to a four-year institution? What did you discuss? Tell me about the student. What happened? 5. Do you find yourself talking about advancement to the four-year often with students? 6. Do you discuss attending a four-year institution or earning a BA in your classroom? If so, what do you discuss and why? 4) IF THEY SAY THEY KNOW LITTLE ABOUT TRANSFER…. a) I know you might not know that much about transfer or how the institution provides advancement opportunities to the four-year, can you talk a little bit about how the campus integrates the technical and LAS curriculum? b) How do you interact with technical faculty? c) Can you tell me what your students are like? d) Why are they here, what are their aspirations? e) Can you think of a student that you made a difference for? Tell me about this/them? 5) General transfer resources a) If a student came to you and was really interested in earning a BA. What would you do? What would you tell them? Would you feel compfortable advising them? When working with a student who wants to learn more about advancement to a four-year, where do you send them? 6) DATA transition a) Please describe any specific programs or practices at this institution that are aimed at recruiting, enrolling, and supporting students of color in transferring to a four-year institution 1. If no transfer resources, what academic services or supports does UTC offer minority students? 2. Do you know of specific programs or services or supports that have been tailored for minority students? b) Based on your observations, what is the level of participation of students of color in utilizing available resources that might help them transfer? c) So, if you or your colleagues wanted to put together a program that would specifically help students of color advance to the four-year, how would the administration react? d) Can you tell me about ethnically focused courses that you have in the LAS curriculum? 1. How do these benefit students of color? 7) Challenges to the liberal arts and sciences curriculum a) What UTC challenges do you think students encounter in completing the transfer requirements? What UTC challenges do you think students encounter in the transfer process? 1. Students of color? 311 b) Generally, how would the campus (whether it be the board, admin, faculty or staff) react to the idea of increasing efforts to advance students to the four-year? c) Are there obstacles to creating career advancement pathways for students to four-year institutions? Ask them to elaborate. d) What do you think needs to happen at UTC to increase the number of students that go from UTC to a four-year institution to earn a bachelor’s degree? 1. Transfer students of color? 8) Conclusion a) What do you think UTC does well in terms of transfer, what do you think that UTC can do better? b) Finally, what do you think is the single most important thing that they think I should know about what we discussed today? c) We've completed our list of questions. I’ve heard a number of ideas today, including (XYZ). Is there any thing else that you would like to add? 312 Appendix E: Sample Interview Protocol for Support Staff Members Respondent (Title, Name, Gender, Race): _____________________________________ Date: ___________________________ Documents Obtained: ____________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Post Interview Comments or Leads: _________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Introduction First, I want to thank you for taking time to speak with me. Before we get started I wanted to provide you with a little background as to why I am at UTC and how I think you can help with my study. My name is Megan and I am a doctoral student. A couple of years ago I worked on a research project in Wisconsin that focused on increasing pathways to the four-year for students and specifically minority students from the UW Colleges and technical colleges to the UW-four year institutions. During the project I became interested in transfer or career advancement opportunities from the technical colleges. To date, most of the research done in this area is focused on traditional community colleges and I believe that studying transfer at UTC represents a rare opportunity to study pathways from a technical college perspective. I understand that UTC already does a good job providing students with middle skilled jobs, which are needed by the state, and getting students out into the workforce, I am interested in learning how UTC also provides opportunities for advancement beyond the two-year training. I hope to learn how UTC supports advancement to the baccalaureate and at the end of this study provide your campus a composite of how transfer contributes to your goal of student success. In essence, where does transfer fit and how does it work? Do you have any questions about anything I have said so far? In terms of logistics, this interview will last approximately one hour-1.5 hours. Please feel free to stop me at anytime to ask questions. To facilitate note taking, I would like to audio tape our conversations today. Would that be okay? Before we get started I’ll need your signature on the consent form to meet my human subject requirements. Please check the box allowing us to audiotape. Essentially, this document states that: (1) I will keep confidential any information that you share with me, (2) your participation is 313 voluntary and you may stop the interview at any time if you feel uncomfortable, and (3) I do not intend to inflict any harm. Thank you for your participation. If you have any questions or concerns about this interview or the study, you can discuss them with me at anytime. I will leave you my contact information (have respondent sign informed consent form). 1) Introduction questions a) Can you tell me a little bit about yourself (rapport building) 1. How long have you been in your present position? 2. How long have you been at this institution? b) Before coming to UTC, what did you do? (If at a comprehensive community college ask the following question): How is the comprehensive community college different from UTC? 2) About the College/Organizational Culture a) What are the major initiatives at UTC right now? What is seen as important? b) In your mind, is there a common mission or purpose that unites everyone in this institution? If so, how is the mission communicated? 1. If not, ask the interviewee to explain the divided mission(s) c) When people talk about UTC, what would they say the mission is? For example, do you think the community knows that UTC has programs and opportunities that can get them to a four-year institution? d) Where does advancement to a four-year institution fit in on the institutional agenda? For example, would you say that the institution ranks pathways to the baccalaureate high or low? Why? Examples? How do you know? What reasons would you give for transfer being an important function at UTC? e) What messages do you receive from campus leadership about transfer? Where does the campus leadership rank the importance of creating pathways to the baccalaureate? How do you know? f) How often are career/academic pathways to the baccalaureate mentioned in conversations with colleagues? If you can, can you give me an example of one of those conversations? g) Who at UTC cares about transfer, for example, who are the transfer advocates? 3) Role in Transfer Program Implementation 314 a) What is your role in promoting advancement to the baccalaureate? 1. How do you fulfill this role? 2. How do you spend the most of your time? 3. Can you tell me about a time that you had a conversation about attending a four- year with a student or where you referred that student to on campus to find out more information? What did you discuss? 4. Do you talk about transfer often? 5. When working with a student who wants to learn more about attending a four-year institution, where do you send them? 6. Do you work with counselors or faculty from the four-year on issues of transfer? 7. If not, who works with the four-year? 4) COLLEGE KNOWLEDGE transition----Liberal arts and sciences curriculum a) What does the institution do to help students learn about transfer? b) What do you do? c) I want to now discuss how the campus supports the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science curriculum 1. How does the campus make students aware of the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science curriculum? If I were a new student, how would I learn about the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science curriculum? How would I know that one existed? When new students enroll at UTC, what do they do? What does the process look like? 2. How visible is transfer at UTC? If I was a student in a technical program, would I know that UTC offers career advancement opportunities to a four-year institution? 3. Is there a specific counselor for transfer students? 4. How do you teach students about transfer? 5. Is advising mandatory? 6. Is there an orientation? How is transfer discussed? 7. How do students decide to enter a technical program versus the liberal arts program? d) What support services are available for students to learn about transfer? Campus events? 5) DATA transition a) Please describe any specific programs or practices at this institution that are aimed at recruiting, enrolling, and supporting students of color in transferring to a four-year institution 1. If no transfer resources, what academic services or supports does UTC offer minority students? 2. Do you know of specific programs or services that have been tailored for specific populations? b) Based on your observations, what is the level of participation of students of color in utilizing available resources that might help them advance to a four-year institution? 315 c) So, if you or your colleagues wanted to put together a program that would specifically help students of color advance to the four-year, how would the administration react? 6) Challenges to the liberal arts and sciences curriculum a) What UTC challenges do you think students encounter in completing the transfer requirements? What institutional challenges do you think students encounter in the transfer process? 1. Students of color? b) Generally, how would the campus (whether it be the board, admin, faculty or staff) react to the idea of increasing efforts get students to advance to a four-year institution? c) What are three obstacles to creating career advancement opportunities for students to four-year institutions? d) What do you think needs to happen at UTC to increase the number of students that go from UTC to a four-year institution to earn a bachelor’s degree? 1. Transfer students of color? e) From the interviews I’ve conducted so far, Ive learned or been told that technical colleges are to focus on occupational education and there seems to be a tug of war between specifically the UW Colleges and the tech colleges regarding this issue. Does this issue appear in your daily work or is it an issue only at the higher level? 7) Conclusion a) What do you think UTC does well in terms of transfer, what do you think that UTC can do better? b) Finally, what do you think is the single most important thing that they think I should know about what we discussed today? c) We've completed our list of questions. I’ve heard a number of ideas today, including (XYZ). Is there any thing else that you would like to add? 316 Appendix F: Student Services Observation Protocol 31 Date: Time of Observation: Office/Resource under Observation: Location: Guiding questions: How do the actions of individuals (or lack of action) provide evidence to the importance of transfer? What do the actions of individuals show about their beliefs about transfer in a tech college environment? What do they use to make sense of this? What does the environment show about the saliency of transfer? What do the actions of individuals show regarding the implementation of transfer and specifically the transfer of students of color? Physical Environment What is the physical nature of the space? What is present? What is its age and condition? Is the space large enough to accommodate the participants in the setting? Does the space seem centrally located? 31 Protocol adapted from observation protocol utilized in the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study. Room set up: 317 Are entrances clearly marked so that new visitors can easily find the office? Are there places to wait? Are there are places to talk in private? Does the office have culturally relevant material on display? Is it welcoming to students of color? Does the office have transfer information for students to have? What is the primary goal of the office? Staff What are the various titles/jobs of the people who work in the office? How can you tell what positions people hold? What is the racial/ethnic gender 318 make-up of the staff? Was there a sufficient number of staff to meet the needs of the students? How can you tell? Were students working in the roles of staff members? If so, in what capacity? What was the racial/gender make- up of the student workers? Are there advisors/counselors in the office specific to transfer? Usage of Office or Resources by Students Counts of students who visited the office and/or used resources: African American Latino/a Asian White American Indian 319 How long, on average, do students spend in the office? African American Latino/a Asian White American Indian What resources seem to be the most popular, or used the most by students of color? Are there resources that target students of color? What issues do students express? Why are students coming into the office? How do you know? Communication and Interaction with Students How long do participants have to wait? How do staff members 320 greet/welcome students? Who approaches whom? What is the tone of voice used by staff members and to whom? Who speaks and who listens? What is the balance of conversation? 321 Appendix G: Transfer Day Observation Protocol 32 Date: Time of Observation: Location: Guiding questions: How do the actions of individuals (or lack of action) provide evidence to the importance of transfer? What do the actions of individuals show about their beliefs about transfer in a technical college environment? What do they use to make sense of this? What does the environment show about the saliency of transfer? What do the actions of individuals show regarding the implementation of transfer and specifically the transfer of students of color? Physical Environment What is the physical nature of the space? What is present? What is its age and condition? Is the space large enough to accommodate the participants in the setting? Does the space seem centrally located? 32 Protocol adapted from observation protocol utilized in the Wisconsin Transfer Equity Study. Set up: 322 Are there signs so students can find the event? How many colleges/universities are present? Does the event have culturally relevant material on display? Is it welcoming to students of color? What types of information did the colleges bring? Are there more private universities or UW institution representatives? Staff What are the various titles/jobs of the people who came to the fair? How can you tell what positions people hold? What is the racial/ethnic gender make-up of the university 323 representatives? What staff did UTC send to the event? What was the racial/gender make- up of the student workers? What resources did UTC bring to the fair? Usage of Students What are typical questions students have for the university/college reps? How long, on average, do students spend at the fair? 324 What colleges/universities seem to be most popular? Did students know about the fair before coming to campus? Communication and Interaction with Students Do staff interact with students or is the event only to pick up information? How do staff members greet/welcome students? Who approaches whom? 325 What is the tone of voice used by staff members and to whom? Who speaks and who listens? What is the balance of conversation? 326 Appendix H: Meeting Observation Protocol Date: Time spent: Location: Questions to consider: Was transfer or the transfer curriculum discussed at the meeting? How many times? Where was it listed on the agenda? Describe the discussion surrounding transfer in the meeting. Were students of color discussed in the meeting? Describe the discussion. Guiding questions: How do the actions of individuals (or lack of action) provide evidence to the importance of transfer? What do the actions of individuals show about their beliefs about transfer in a tech college environment? What do they use to make sense of this? What does the environment show about the saliency of transfer? What do the actions of individuals show regarding the implementation of transfer and specifically the transfer of students of color? Room set up: 327 Physical Environment Questions to Consider: What is the nature of the physical space? What is available? What is its age and condition? Is the space large enough to accommodate the participants in the setting? Where were individuals seated? Physical Environment Descriptive notes: Reflective Notes: 328 Administrator/Faculty Questions to Consider: What are the various titles/jobs of people at the meeting? How can you tell what positions people hold? What is the racial/gender makeup of the administrators/faculty at the meeting? Administrators/Faculty Reflective Notes 329 Communication and Interactions Questions to Consider: What is the physical demeanor of those at the meeting? Is there evidence of culture (artifacts, basic assumptions, values, traditions, history)? Who speaks and who listens? What is the balance of conversation? Does this vary by the race or ethnicity of the staff and participants? How do participants address each other? What topics are discussed at the meeting? Are some topics more important than others? What is the tone of the meeting? Is there evidence of power dynamics in the group? How is the topic of transfer from the technical colleges considered? Are students of color mentioned? Communication and Interactions Reflective Notes 330 Additional questions to consider: • How may the conversation influence how UTC carries out transfer? • What were the goals of the meeting? • What resources/programs were highlighted for students to transfer? Were any specific to students of color? • What are the priorities of the systems in regards to transfer? Notes: ** Reflections/themes are noted by text in Italitcs

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Asset Metadata

Creator Chase, Megan M. (author)

Core Title Culture, politics, and policy implementation: how practitioners interpret and implement the transfer policy in a technical college environment

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publication Date 07/23/2015

Defense Date 05/01/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag critical policy analysis,OAI-PMH Harvest,policy implementation,sensemaking,transfer policy

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Bensimon, Estela Mara (committee chair), Dowd, Alicia C. (committee member), Frank, Gelya (committee member), Goldrick-Rab, Sara (committee member)

Creator Email megan.chase@usc.edu,megan.chase12@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-296592

Unique identifier UC11295337

Identifier etd-ChaseMegan-1820.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-296592 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-ChaseMegan-1820.pdf

Dmrecord 296592

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Chase, Megan M.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA