Transcript analysis as a tool to understand community college student academic behaviors
d e b a t e r e m a i n s s t r o n g not only about
ments matched on particular qualities, which
the overall success of community college students,
provides the means of organizing an overwhelming
but also about how to measure student progress
amount of data into meaningful and homogeneous
and outcomes. Transcript analysis is a blanket term
segments, understandable within the context of
for a group of procedures that collectively uses
the demographics of the particular group. Lastly,
student records to document and understand the
this study provides comparisons between the
complex academic behaviors of community college
groups to better understand the differences and
students. Transcripts—the records of student
similarities in types of community college students
activities that include enrollments, course drops,
in the study’s district.
and grades—are important, yet often ignored,
Findings indicate a need to monitor and
documents that tell of student successes as well
respond to patterns of student behaviors that may
as instances of non-success.
be less likely to produce positive outcomes. This
This study, divided into three parts, begins by
paper provides aspects of transcript analysis, each
presenting “transcript stories,” qualitative individ-
with a differing purpose and level of complexity,
ual cases that provide the equivalent of the voices
that assert the importance and usefulness of tran-
of individual students. Each transcript snippet
script analysis as a powerful medium to study and
provides a glimpse of patterns found in many stu-
isolate student academic behaviors.
dent course-taking patterns and provides material for further discussion. The second part of the analysis introduces the method of “group parsing,” the grouping of students into manageable seg-
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