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CHAPTER ONE"Tarrant County Junior College"Understanding the successes and failures of an experimentalprogram is difficult unless specific features of the environmentin which it operates are understood. Therefore, the first chapterof this progress report will present the facts and figures whichdemographically illustrate the Tarrant County Junior College District in Fort Worth, Texas.HistoryTarrant County Junior College District was formed by thevoters of Tarrant County on July 31, 1965. By November 1, 1965, aseven member board of trustees had been appointed, and Dr. Joe B.Rushing assumtd the position of President of the District.Local revenue which supports this Junior College Districtcomes from ad valorem taxes levied on property assessed at 785,000,000 as of 1966 (estimated to be twenty-five percent of actualvalue).The Board of Trustees is authorized to levy a tax up totwenty cents on 100 for operation.For support and operationthe District will also receive 400 per full-time equated studentfrom state sources.1By September 1967, the doors of the South Campus, the firstof a proposed three campus county structure, opened.Through theforesight of the community, the board of trustees, and the administrative officers, the South Campus had all buildings in operationfor its first academic year.Unlike many junior colleges startingfrom scratch, Tarrant County Junior College opened with a studentcenter, learning resources center, and a gymnasium along withtwenty-three various classroom facilities.Such a thorough startwith the physical pli.nt is superceded only by the College's philosophy of education.The ChallengeThe College's "open door" philosophy demands that no admission1Overview and Guidelines: Planning Documents for TarrantCounty Junior College District, Fort Worth, Texas.

2criteria be enforced beyond a high school diploma or its equivalent.Thus, several immediate problems are at hand, for through theseopen doors enter students aspiring toward their educational dream.This presents the open door junior college with a student populationso heterogeneous that it becomes impossible to make all students"jump the same educational hoops." Assuming then that differentgroups of junior college students need different educational programs, the greatest challenge facing juni-r college educators isone of developing an academic progra' wh tL will meet the needs ofthose students who have experienced little academic success inhigh school and have scored very poorly on the college entranceexamination.These students are not new to the educational scene, for inthe past they have been accommodated in one of four ways:(1) Theywere not accepted by the institution; (2) They were placed in theconventional liberal arts or university parallel programs; (3) Theywere placed in remedial or developmental courses and received nocollege credit; (4) They were placed in the technical, occupational,or career programs which the institution offered.If one considers these four attempts at a solution to thisproblem, he becomes easily disenchanted with them. The very natureof the open door college has eliminated the first possibility, forall students are accepted by the college. The second method seemsequally inadequate, for it requires the academically unsuccessfulstudent to compete with the academically successful student atleast on the basis of high school performance. This makes it virtually impossible for the less capable student to complete thecourse satisfactorily, for generally he is ignored and the classis taught at a level beyond his comprehension.The third attempt at a solution is a good idea if one considersthat its initial purpose was to aid students who are deficient inone particular area, yet academically capable to succeed in otheruniversity parallel courses. However, the ideal degenerates to thereal, and these classes are filled with students for whom there islittle hope.It becomes, in reality, a "weeding out" process wherethe college eliminates the academically weak after one or two semesters.The fourth approach previously mentioned seems to functionon the premise that those students who are not qualified for thecollege parallel program can certainly function in a technical2The equivalent being successful completion of the G.E.D,score which will allow a student entrance the year of his classgraduation.

3capacity because "anyone can pass a technical course." Granted,some students may complete a technical program whereas they maynever complete an "academic" program. However, the attempt tologically conclude that all students, regardless of their lackof motivation or lack of skills, envy the same success in a technical program is fallacious.In short, the attempts at solvingthis curriculum program inherent in the open door philosophy arefar from satisfactory.In fact they are making the "open door"philosophy a "revo]ving door" reality.The administrators at Tarrant County Junior College realizedthat in order to develop a comprehensive curriculum at the SouthCampus an educational program must be devised to meet the needs ofthose students who had achieved little academic success in the past.The Basic Studies Program was developed to meet the needs of thisparticular group of students.However, before any program couldbe established and its goals, objectives, and curriculum developed,it was imperative to examine in greater detail the student populationto be served.

5'CHAPTER TWO"Student Characteristics"The student population to be served by the Basic Studies Program is not unique to Tarrant County Junior College. In fact thevery nature of the open door philosophy encourages the entrance ofjunior college students with the following characteristics:1.The student is a first semester applicant to TarrantCounty Junior College.2.The student desires a full-time, day schedule.3.The student is between seventeen and twenty-one years ofage.This criterion was added because the program isexperimental and designed to accommodate approximately300 students.Since there were many more students whomet all criteria, the decision was made to work with theyounger students.4.The student scores below the 25th percentile on theThe 25th percenAmerican College Test composite score.tile is the maximum score for the Basic Studies ProgramHowever,and was arrived at through educated guessing.it is now being more thoroughly researched.5.The student indicates that his level of aspiration is anAssociate of Arts Degree or beyond. The level of student aspiration is determined through the profile sheetof the American College Test. This criterion eliminatesthe student who desires a technical or vocational program and scores below the 25th percentile on the ACTcomposite. As this report indicates later on, this isnot necessarily the best approach; but it was the approachused during our first three years.6.The student achieved little academic success in highGenerally this indicates that the studentschool.achieved a "C" average or below while in high school.The majority of the students had an accumulated highschool grade point average of 1.9 or below based on aIt was also determined that ten perfour point scale.cent of the students enrolled in the Basic Studies Program did not receive a high school diploma but insteadpassed the G. E. D. equivalency examination.

6The two key factors in the selection of Basic Studies students are their ACT composite score and their level of aspiration.The ACT composite score considers the last semester of high schoolgrades, which generally would refer to the first or second semesterof the junior year; the student's standard score achievement onthe test itself; and the local norms which have been establishedin the Texas junior college system. However, one would always beable to generalize this student population by converting the ACT01-12 standard score or the college bound percentile score toanother national entrance test.The level of aspiration is a key factor because it generallyindicates unrealistic educational goals.The students served bythe program are weak in the basic skills as evidenced by their pastacademic performance and a battery of academic skill testsgiven during orientation.Yet they are in no way interested in atechnical or occupational field. Burton Clark explains that thistype of student is found in all open door junior colleges. It ishis belief that many students who matriculated in. September at ajunior college declare themselves to be transfer students; yet theynever transfer, but neither do they finish a terminal program. Inthe following statement Clark labels these students "latent terminal" and stresses the need to develop new and exciting programsfor them.The basic problem in the Junior College isthe processing of the student who falls between the transfer and terminal groups.Students with transfer intentions for themost part do not transfer, but neither dothey complete the terminal curricula. Mostterminate their education while in collegebut do so as drop-outs while pursuing transfer workthe administration of curriculum and instruction is centrally concernedwith the processing of this in-between.The battle of the production line in thejunior college is to hold on to a good shareof these students long enough to train themfor an occupation or to add to their generaleducation.3.In further support of the need of special programs for thisgroup of students, Dr. Leland Medsker reports that nationally only3Burton R. Clark, The Open Door College (New York:Hill Book Co., Inc., 1960), p. 84.McGraw-

7about 1/3 of the students who enroll in transfer curricula dotransfer. In other words, the junior college system is failingto provide meaningful educational programs geared to affect theperson.4Since Tarrant County Junior College is a new institution without tradition and red tape, an excellent opportunity is at hand.By recognizing the existence of this particular group of studentsand through a commitment to an experimental program, a very significant st.tu:t was made.Yet, even with the amount of national research available, all showing this common weakness in curricula,an experimental program must be evaluated in light of the localstudent population which it services.Attempts were made to not fcrce any student into the BasicStudies program against his will. Admittedly, the choices open tothe student if he did not choose Basic Studies were rather limited,for he had to select one of the following three educational plans:He would register for remedial or non-credit courses. (2) He(1)would enroll in a technical program which according to his levelof aspiration on the ACT did not interest him. (3) He couldbecome a part time student and select courses from the schedule atSince the Basic Studies program assists the student inrandom.earning 32 hours of college credit, the advantages of selecting thisprogram are obvious.The remainder of this chapter consist:: of data concerning thestudents in the Basic Studies program during the 1969-70 academicThis data should enable the junior college administrator toyear.compare student groups at Tarrant County with his own student population.TABLE 1SEX DISTRIBUTIONTotal 309MaleFemale22089As expected the male population was almost three times greaterthan the female. This is somewhat indicative of the total JuniorCollege enrollment pattern at Tarrant County and across the nation.4Leland M. Medsker, The Junior College: Progress and Prospect (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1960), p. 112.

8TABLE 2RACEMaleFemaleWhite15543Negro603957Latin AmericanThere was a larger percentage of black students in Basic Studiesthan the total college (33% to 10%) allowing for much discussion andThere was at timesstudy of problems relating to race relations.some discussion among black students on campus about Basic Studiesbeing a program where "all the blacks were placed." Statistics showthis to be untrue, but attempts are made in Basic Studies to studymany aspects of the black man's contributions to our society and wayof life.For many Jtudents, both black and white, it was the firsttime they had been in class together, but after a few weeks of classes,Also a largerthe group members intermingled regardless of race.Latin American population was expected; however, there have beenrelatively few students of Latin American background in the entirecollege.A study is now under way to try to determine the reasonsfor this situation.TABLE 3LEVEL OF ASPIRATIONNumberVocational orTechnical ProgramJunior CollegeDegreeB. A. Degree orEquivalentM. A., Ph.D.,LLB., DDS., etc.Undecided951141690INo Data38

9This information on level of aspiration wa3 taken from counseling information cards filled out by the students prior to theirentrance into the Basic Studies program. Regardless of the students'past experience in education or their ability level, many stillrecord an extremely high level of aspiration. For many, this is notan indication of what the student really wants to accomplish butrather what he thinks we as educators want him to accomplish.The real importance of this aspect of the stlidy is to measurethe vocational choice at the end of one year of education to determine whether or not the student has changed his vocational selectionto one which is more academically realistic. Approximately 125students in the Basic Studies program this past year (69-70) indicateda vocational choice at the end of the year that showed a definiteThie group had aspired toward achange in level of aspiration.B. A. degree or beyond before the program, but indicated they nowplanned to work toward a two year degree or one year certificateFor most this was a much more realistic vocational choiceprogram.after extensive counseling in Basic Studies than before.Other students also made definite vocational choices afterbeing undecided upon entering the program. Table 4 gives a summaryof vocational choices made by students in Basic Studies this pastyear.TABLE 4VOCATIONAL CHOICEAssociate in Arts Degree79Associate in Applied Science81 (total)DraftingAuto MechanicsCom. TransportationTeacher AideMid ManagementFashion MerchandisingMedical TechnologyRefrig. - Air Cond.Auto TechnologyAerospace TechnologyOffice OccupationsChild CareElectronicsBroadcast Communications121121113525337133

10TABLE 4 (continued)VOCATIONAL CHOICEMilitaryOne Year CertificateClericalBusinessData Processing725 (total)1285Transfer10Training Programs Outside TCJC21 (total)NursingCivil ServiceAirlinesTV RepairTech. DraftingCarpentryDept. of AgricultureSecretarialTelephone ServiceBusinessBarber CollegeWelding521111111511Undecided15No Data at Present55More will be said about our success in vocational redirectionPrein the later chapters on program evaluation and team reports.liminary reports indicate, however, that we were more successful inour counseling this past year than we were in 1968-69 when we feltthat too many students with very little academic potential chose togo into the university parallel program.

11TABLE 5HIGH SCHOOL Social Science552150687Natural Science631142747*These letter grades are the student's report on the ACT ofhis most recent high school term grades prior to his senior year inEnglish, mathematics, social studies, and natural sciences.The data indicates that the majority of the students in BasicStudies earned C and D averages in most of their courses in high school.There were those who earned B's and even a few A's, but for the mostpart there was a general lack of success academically. This lack ofsuccess in high school places an added challenge on the instructorsand curriculum developers.TABLE 6ACT STANDARD SCORES(Composite)Scores0 - 5No. of Students28- 108711 - 1513016 - 204521 - 2526Not Available17

12The ACT testing program requires the student to take four testain the areas of English, math, social science, and natural science.On each of these four tests the total number of correct responsesyields a raw score.This raw score is converted into a standardscore ranging from one to thirty-six, which is the maximum. In addition to the four areas of testing, ACT also has a composite scorewhich is derived through averaging the scores of the four tests.Table 6 illustrates the composite standard scores of students in theBasic Studies program in 1969-70. About 79% of the students in ourprogram scored below fifteen on this aspect of the ACT, indicatingdefinite weaknesses in their academic preparation for college.TABLE 7ACT COMPOSITE PREDICTOT SCORESPredictor Bands0 - 5No. of Students1296 - 104411 - 153016 - 20221 - 252925 or aboveNot available669The ACT composite predictor score is derived from a student'shigh school grades as reported on the ACT Profile Analysis and thestandard score which represents the student's achievement on the ACTThe students in Basic Studies, with very few exceptions, falltest.below the 25th percentile on this score which indicates their predicted chances for success in a traditional liberal arts or universith parallel curriculum are very low.In selecting candidates for Basic Studies, we examine both theACT standard composite scores and the predictor scores. If a studentscores thirteen or below on the composite, he is eligible for the program; or if a student scores below the 25th percentile on the predictorportion, he is also a candidate. Should a student fall into both ofthese categories, he is strongly advised to enter the Basic Studiesprogram.

13Once the initial problem has been identified and the characteristics of the students have been determined, it is then time for the program developer to establish the goals and objectives that his programis to accomplish. The goals and objectives of the Basic Studies program will be explained in Chapter Three.

15CHAPTER THREE"Philosophy:Goals and Objectives"IntroductionQuite often one of the weakes

DOCUMENT RESUME ED 044 104 JC 700 247 AUTHOR Johnson, Charles N.; And Others TITLE Basic Studies: A Description and Progress Report. INSTITUTION Tarrant County Junior Coll. District, Ft. Worth, Tex. PUB DATE Sep 70 NOTE 296p. EDRS PRICE. EDRS Price MF- 1.25 HC- 14.90. DESCRIPTORS *Basic Skills, *College Environment, General