AN ANALYSIS OF VIRGINIA TRANSFER POLICY AND ARTICULATION AGREEMENTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRANSFER AND NATIVE STUDENTS--ENROLLMENTS AND OUTCOMES IN A TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM

Transfer articulation is an important policy issue in Virginia. With increasing economic strains on federal and state budgets, pressure on key actors in higher education, and critical teacher shortages, an opportunity presented itself to investigate state transfer policy and articulation agreements designed to facilitate student transfer. Articulation agreements are policy instruments designed to facilitate a seamless transfer of both students and credits from the community college system into senior institutions. Over the last decade increased articulation activity has taken place in the Commonwealth of Virginia driven by higher education costs and articulation specific to teacher preparation due to teacher shortages. This study is an effort to add to the literature by linking the presence of one articulation agreement to increased enrollments of Virginia Community College System (VCCS) associate degree holders into a 5-year teacher preparation program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Select academic outcomes of associate degree holders, students who took coursework in the VCCS, and native students were also examined for comparative purposes. The study engaged a quantitative, nonexperimental, cross-sectional research methodology using existing data related to the 5-year teacher preparation program at VCU. The data collected for the study originated from the initial teacher licensure Master of Teaching (M.T.) programs which include early/elementary, and secondary (6-12) programs in English, foreign languages, history/social studies, mathematics, sciences, and special education. A master file containing 2,349 observations was created from which samples were then drawn for hypotheses testing. Ordinary Least Square regression, multiple regression, and binary logistic regression were used and the results indicated the presence of the 2004 VCU/VCCS Teacher Education Provision Admission (TEPA) articulation agreement had no impact on enrollment likelihood. Earning an associate degree was a strong predictor of graduation likelihood in the teacher preparation program and associate degree holders could also expect to earn fewer cumulative hours in the program—a potential savings of time and money. Total community college credits earned was a strong predictor of teacher licensure likelihood. Race had no impact on elapsed time spent in the teacher preparation program. The findings of this study suggest the mere presence of an articulation agreement does not guarantee increased enrollments into an academic program, in this case, a 5-year teacher preparation program. Student outcomes also suggest earning the associate degree had significant effects post transfer, almost doubling graduation likelihood. Licensing likelihood is positively affected by total community college credits earned. Results of the models testing common measures of student academic success—cumulative GPA, Praxis I performance, and GRE performance had no impact on graduation likelihood. Since the extant research is not robust on 5-year teacher preparation programs, further research is recommended specifically on 5-year programs related to the effectiveness of articulation agreements on enrollments—in addition to post transfer student outcomes