Abstract:
The cohort study described on the following pages represents a central component of the
assessment plan developed by the Student Outcomes Assessment Committee of Oakland
Community College's Academic Senate. By using a longitudinal model to track students'
experience at OCC over a number of years, the study is intended to provide better understanding
of student progression through the college, beginning with admission and continuing through
departure, transfer, graduation, or return. In order to determine whether students in the cohort
have met intended outcomes, progress is measured at the start of each fall term. This report
constitutes the third such measurement for the first cohort. This group entered the college as first
time students in the fall of 1994.
At this data collection point, members of the original cohort had split into three subgroups: those
who have been enrolled each fall semester since 1994 (continuing) those who have left the
college since the last measurement in fall 1995 (departed), and those who were not enrolled in
fall 1995 but have returned to the college and are registered for classes in fall 1996 (returning).
Those students who had left the college at the last measurement point (Fall 1995) and have not
returned were not included as a subgroup, as they were surveyed last year. These groups were
surveyed separately in order to determine not only progress toward college outcomes as well as
educational and career goals, but also to identify reasons for departure and factors influencing the
return to the college.
