Title: VALIDATION EXPERIENCES AND PERSISTENCE AMONG URBAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
        STUDENTS

Abstract

The purpose of this correlational research was to examine the extent to which urban community college students' experiences with validation predicted their sense of integration and whether this, in turn, predicted their intent to persist. This study focused on urban community college students' validation by members of the faculty as described by Rendon (1994, 2002) and others, who suggested that nontraditional and underserved students were more likely to persist in college if actively validated. Integration was defined as students' sense of competent membership in the college community. The research was designed as an elaboration of constructs within Tinto's (1993) Longitudinal Model of Institutional Departure.

Because of a lack of existing instruments or scales related to faculty validation, a multi-stage process was used to develop a scale that involved: 1) the creation of items based on the literature, 2) review of the items by national experts, 3) selection of items, and 4) the use of measures to assess their performance. This scale became part of a survey instrument that was administered to 333 students enrolled in college-level, introductory English courses at a diverse, urban, Midwestern community college. Exploratory principle components analysis was used to identify sub-constructs of faculty validation. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the extent to which: 1) faculty validation predicted integration and intent to persist, 2) faculty validation sub-constructs predicted integration and intent to persist, 3) integration predicted intent to persist, and 4) faculty validation influenced intent to persist indirectly, via integration.

Sub-constructs of faculty validation emerged, with items loading onto four components: students known and valued, good instruction, appreciation for diversity, and mentoring . Faculty validation was found to strongly predict students' sense of integration; each of the sub-constructs of faculty validation predicted student integration at a moderate to strong level, with good instruction the strongest predictor. Faculty validation modestly predicted students' intent to persist; two sub-constructs of faculty validation modestly predicted intent to persist- students known and valued and mentoring. Student integration modestly predicted intent to persist. Faculty validation's effect upon intent to persist was indirect, mediated through students' sense of integration.