Description
In an effort to improve academic outcomes for underrepresented populations California community colleges were provided millions of dollars to develop initiatives to close achievement gaps for these students. However, multiracial students are rarely included in these discussions. This study examined multiracial populations enrolled in a California Community College district by disaggregating data to identify ethnic sub-groups. The study compared the academic outcomes of GPA, course success and attrition rates of multiracial sub-groups to determine if the prevailing reporting system, which treated the population as a homogenous group, was detrimental to understanding the academic outcomes of these students. This quantitative study utilized analysis of variance and chi-square tests of independence to assess differences between sub-groups. The comparisons included 15 multiracial sub-groups and their monoracial counterparts. Analysis of variance indicated that 98 of 153 mean GPA pairwise comparisons were significantly different in comparisons between all monoracial and multiracial sub-groups included in the analysis. Twenty-three significant differences were found in comparisons within each race group with respect to course success rates, and eleven significant differences were found with respect to attrition rates within the race groups when comparing each monoracial group with its multiracial counterparts. The findings of this study suggest that there are significant differences between multiracial and monoracial students with respect to academic outcomes such as GPA, course success and attrition rates. Based on these findings, it was determined that the prevailing reporting system is detrimental to understanding the academic outcomes of multiracial students enrolled at a California community college.
