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Abstract
While increasing enrollment projections may prompt colleges and universities to seek creative ways of expanding classroom usage, potential concerns should be investigated. The present study examined the effects of an Enrollment Growth Incentive (EGI) program that was put into place at a Southern California community college. Specifically, faculty members could earn extra money if they allowed enrollment beyond class baselines. The study examined the impact of class size and EGI participation levels on the average class grade point average (GPA) and the average student ratings of instructors. The study examined two datasets retrieved from a large community college in southern California. The first dataset included 1,452 course sections and the other dataset included 295 course sections. While the former data set was used to compute GPA analyses, the latter was used for analyses involving instructor ratings.
The study hypothesized that class size and EGI participation would have a negative impact on faculty performance. Further, the dependent variables were expected to be influenced by an interaction between class size and EGI participation.
Replicating previous research, results indicated class size was related to class GPA, but not instructor ratings. Contrary to expectations, EGI participation was unrelated to either GPA or instructor ratings. Also, contrary to expectations, one of the exploratory analyses found that tenured faculty participated at a higher rate in the EGI program compared to the non-tenured faculty.
As a whole, these findings suggest EGI programs may have few drawbacks. However, study results must be interpreted with caution due to limited participation in the EGI program. Practical implications and limitations of study results are discussed.
