Student support services within private career colleges in Texas

Abstract

This research focused on describing the current status of student support services offered in private career colleges in Texas. Eight major conclusions included: four instrumental categories of student support services were identified (welfare/support; control/administrative; activities; and teaching/educative); each encompassed numerous component services; there exists variation among researchers and among practitioners regarding placement of services within categories; responding schools identifed themselves to the researcher even though this was optional; little change is anticipated between services currently offered and those planned; respondents perceived as important several services not offered and not planned; many schools offered only required services, not necessarily services they considered most important; some services were judged peripheral, even unimportant, for private career college students; the private career college industry shares, to some limited extent, innovative ideas and practices. Six practice recommendations addressed increased networking with similar types of schools, engaging in grant and other fund procurement to provide services, increasingly sharing innovative ideas between schools, strenthening professional memberships and associations and empowering them to provide channels to funding for services, and conducting support service needs assessments and consolidating efforts among accreditation and regulatory authorities to provide services. Research recommendations included conducting exploratory studies on establishing and managing service programs, comparing services in private career colleges outside the study's population, researching services in similar schools in other states, involving constituients such as current and former students and employers in formulating needs assessments and policies, and evaluation of effectiveness of support services against some preestablished criteria. A preliminary framework for categorizing services was constructed by the researcher with guidance and input from two advisory groups: one comprised of prominent individuals within or associated with accrediting or regulatory agencies for the private career college industry; the other included professionals in student service administration. Survey methodology was utilized in gathering and reporting data. The research population was the 160 private career colleges that were members of the Texas Association of Private Schools when the study was conducted. A usable response rate of 40% (n=65) was achieved.