A Comparison of Transfer and Native Students' Academic Performance in a Teacher Education Program.

The purpose of this study was to compare the academic performance of three student groups within the University of Missouri-Columbia's (MU) undergraduate teacher education program for two cohorts of students. The first cohort totaled 132 students who graduated in 2002. One hundred eight of these students were native/first-time freshmen, 5 were community college transfer students, and 19 were four-year college transfer students. The second set consisted of 112 students who graduated by May 2003. Eighty-seven of this cohort were native students, 7 were community college transfer students, and 18 were four-year college transfers. Sixty-four percent of the native students in the first cohort, and 76% of those in the second cohort had taken dual credit courses at a community college while in high school. The study demonstrated that in each of the two student sets, community college transfer students performed at approximately the same level academically as did the native students. This is useful evidence for those seeking to develop teacher education articulation agreements with individual community colleges in Missouri. Scrutiny of community college students' records gave no indication as to why they did so well. The authors recommend conducting similar studies over several years. (Contains 13 references.) (NB)