Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
7-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
J. Scott Self
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Julie A. McElhany
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Kyle Butler
Abstract
The current and ongoing shortage of healthcare professionals in the United States challenges educators and institutions to produce graduates of health professions programs in ever-increasing numbers. However, the current process typically used in community colleges is a cafeteria-style system of open enrollment, a model in which students pick courses from many choices without guidance or counseling. As a result, students often enroll in more advanced courses before taking the fundamental science courses. This may lead to poor performance, dropout, or failure. One potentially important variable in student success at a community college in the southwestern United States is student performance in the prerequisite course sequence in the health science curriculum. In this study, a prerequisite course is a course in the health sciences curriculum required for application to one of the health professions programs at South Community College; prerequisite grade point average (PGPA) is a student’s grade point average in the health professions related science (HPRS) courses. PGPA is a commonly used criterion for admission to health professions programs. This study was therefore designed as a quantitative retrospective analysis of health professions related science prerequisite course sequence and PGPA. This study was designed to produce empirical data to support proposed curricular innovations and strategies at the study site. The study findings demonstrated statistically significant relationships between course sequence and PGPA. These data may be applied to formulate strategies directed at resolving issues that negatively affect enrollment, academic success, and graduation rates of students in the health sciences at South Community College.
Keywords: Prerequisite Grade Point Average (PGPA), Health Professions Related Science (HPRS), course sequence
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Dupont, Patrick Carl, "Academic Success and Curricular Structure: Exploring the Relationship Between Prerequisite Course Sequence and Grade Point Average in Community College Health Science Students" (2020). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 247.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/247