Toby J Park-Gaghan
Biographic Data
| ID | 350296 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Toby J Park-Gaghan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Toby J |
| FAMILY NAME | Park-Gaghan |
| SIGNATURE | PARK-GAGHAN T J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Florida State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8788-7369 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Substantial Early College Credit: A Complex Systems Perspective
This qualitative study explores the intended and unintended consequences of entering college with 60+ credits earned through high school acceleration (e.g., AP, IB, dual enrollment). Drawing on student interview data and framed by complex systems theory, the research indicates that while acceleration offers benefits – such as cost savings, faster degree completion, and academic motivation – it also introduces challenges. These include variation i…
The Relationship Between Course Structure and Intensity, and Student Success in Developmental Education
Texas legislation mandated that colleges offer developmental education using a corequisite model, where students concurrently enroll in introductory college-level courses with supplemental developmental support. Using data from the population of Texas students in developmental education, we estimated regression models to investigate differential relationships between corequisite characteristics and outcomes, both overall and by student characteri…
Exploring teen well-being and social media use during the pandemic summer of 2020
Social media has become a ubiquitous activity for teens in the United States with most going online daily. Legitimate concerns about teen well-being and mental health have often pointed to social media as a negative influence, yet prior research finds that social media use for teens is complex and multifaceted. This study first explores the concept of well-being, and its connection to social media use prior and during the Covid-19 pandemic. We th…
Self-Placement in Math Courses at U.S. Community Colleges: Contributing Factors and Impacts on Student Success
Self-placement in math is becoming increasingly popular in community colleges in the U.S., where students will decide for themselves whether to enroll in non-credit developmental (or remedial) math courses. To fully understand the factors associated with students’ math enrollment choices and the long-term effects of initial math enrollment choices, we use data from all first-time-in-college students in the Florida College System to conduct a mult…
Has a U.S. Developmental Education Reform for Academically Underprepared Students Affected College Enrollment
State policymakers in the United States have in recent years experimented with new initiatives to change the procedures used by public institutions to assess and assign academically underprepared students to non-credit developmental education (or remedial) courses. This study explores whether the most recent developmental education reform in Floridas—Senate Bill 1720 has affected student enrollment in the Florida College System (FCS) institutions…
What Happens to Efficiency and Equity? The Cost Implications of Developmental Education Reform
Florida passed legislation in 2013 that exempted many students from developmental education, and required colleges to implement new instructional modalities for optional developmental education courses. This paper uses an economic model of remediation to examine how changes in college course taking before and after the reform altered costs to completing introductory college-level courses in math and English for students and institutions, and whet…
Does the Method of Acceleration Matter? Exploring the Likelihood of College Coursetaking Success Across Four Developmental Education Instructional Strategies
Background/Context: Accelerated instructional strategies for developmental education have been promoted as a way to help underprepared students to progress more quickly through college-level coursework. Yet, what remains unknown is whether certain accelerated strategies are more effective than others and whether this initial acceleration may lead to longer term success. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: We examine whether the li…
Do Rising Tides Lift All Boats? Exploring Heterogenous Effects of Florida’s Developmental Education Reform by High School Academic Preparation
Underprepared students at community colleges are often assigned to a sequence of developmental education (DE) courses that can substantially delay, or even halt, their progress to degree completion. In 2014, Florida took a drastic step forward when it implemented a comprehensive DE reform. Our findings show large, positive base effects of the reform for all students as well as heterogeneous effects by high school academic preparation. More specif…
Student Self-Determination following Developmental Education Reform in Florida's Community Colleges
Background This multiple case study explores the self-determination needs of academically underprepared students. The context for our study was a sweeping redesign of developmental education (DE) in Florida's community colleges, state-level legislation Senate Bill 1720 (SB 1720), which made DE optional for many students. Purpose of Study The research questions for this study are: (1) How did a policy change in Florida's state colleges influence u…
Accelerating to Success: The Impact of Florida's Developmental Education Reform on Credit Accumulation
Background/Context Underprepared students at community colleges are often assigned to a sequence of developmental education courses that can substantially delay, or even halt, their progress to degree completion. In 2014, Florida implemented a comprehensive reform under Senate Bill (SB) 1720 that allowed the majority of incoming students to enroll directly into college-level courses, while remaining developmental education courses were offered in…
What Happened Following Comprehensive Developmental Education Reform in the Sunshine State? The Impact of Florida’s Developmental Education Reform on Introductory College-Level Course Completion
Florida’s Senate Bill 1720 allowed many students to bypass developmental education and enroll directly in introductory college-level courses. We use an interrupted time series design to introductory college-level courses enrollment and passing rates in English and math for three cohorts of college students prereform and three cohorts postreform. Based on a cohort-by-cohort comparative analysis, we find that cohorts after the reform are more likel…
Shining the Spotlight on Those outside Florida’s Reform Limelight: The Impact of Developmental Education Reform for Nonexempt Students
Since the 2000s, states have experimented with reforms to improve success among underprepared students traditionally assigned to developmental education (DE). Florida’s reform under Senate Bill 1720 has been among the most comprehensive and wide-reaching. Recent public high school graduates and military personnel became exempt from DE, but nearly one-third of students, including those without a Florida standard high school diploma, were still req…
Big Qual: Defining and Debating Qualitative Inquiry for Large Data Sets
Big qualitative data (Big Qual), or research involving large qualitative data sets, has introduced many newly evolving conventions that have begun to change the fundamental nature of some qualitative research. In this methodological essay, we first distinguish big data from big qual. We define big qual as data sets containing either primary or secondary qualitative data from at least 100 participants analyzed by teams of researchers, often funded…
The Racial College Completion Gap: Evidence From Texas
This analysis focuses on the college completion gap between underrepresented minority students and White students, or the Hispanic -White and Black -White racial college completion gaps, given the unprecedented demographic growth of these populations in the United States as well as the nation's public K -12 schools and postsecondary institutions. Using a variance decomposition method, we find that precollege characteristics (a combination of indi…
State Policy and the Educational Outcomes of English Learner and Immigrant Students: Three Administrative Data Stories
Recent years have seen a shift to individual states as the battlegrounds for ensuring the educational rights of the rapidly growing populations of immigrant and English-learning students enrolled at all stages in the educational pipeline. It is, therefore, essential that state policy makers understand how the educational trajectories of immigrant and English learner students can be dramatically influenced by decisions that are made by state legis…
Race, Ethnicity, and College Success: Examining the Continued Significance of the Minority-Serving Institution
The minority-serving institution (MSI) sector has grown considerably since the 1980s, yet we have less empirical information about what currently influences students to enroll in and complete college at these institutions in comparison to their non-MSI counterparts. We evaluate student postsecondary outcomes by race and ethnicity in Texas’s large MSI sector utilizing state administrative data from 1997 to 2008. At the enrollment stage, we find th…
Delineating Scholarly Types of College and University Faculty Members
This study was conducted using cluster analysis as well as discriminant analysis to empirically identify types of faculty based on their patterns of performance of scholarship reflective of one or more of Boyer's four domains of scholarship
Big Qual: Defining and Debating Qualitative Inquiry for Large Data Sets
Big qualitative data (Big Qual), or research involving large qualitative data sets, has introduced many newly evolving conventions that have begun to change the fundamental nature of some qualitative research. In this methodological essay, we first distinguish big data from big qual. We define big qual as data sets containing either primary or secondary qualitative data from at least 100 participants analyzed by teams of researchers, often funded…
Race, Ethnicity, and College Success: Examining the Continued Significance of the Minority-Serving Institution
The minority-serving institution (MSI) sector has grown considerably since the 1980s, yet we have less empirical information about what currently influences students to enroll in and complete college at these institutions in comparison to their non-MSI counterparts. We evaluate student postsecondary outcomes by race and ethnicity in Texas’s large MSI sector utilizing state administrative data from 1997 to 2008. At the enrollment stage, we find th…
The Racial College Completion Gap: Evidence From Texas
This analysis focuses on the college completion gap between underrepresented minority students and White students, or the Hispanic -White and Black -White racial college completion gaps, given the unprecedented demographic growth of these populations in the United States as well as the nation's public K -12 schools and postsecondary institutions. Using a variance decomposition method, we find that precollege characteristics (a combination of indi…
What Happened Following Comprehensive Developmental Education Reform in the Sunshine State? The Impact of Florida’s Developmental Education Reform on Introductory College-Level Course Completion
Florida’s Senate Bill 1720 allowed many students to bypass developmental education and enroll directly in introductory college-level courses. We use an interrupted time series design to introductory college-level courses enrollment and passing rates in English and math for three cohorts of college students prereform and three cohorts postreform. Based on a cohort-by-cohort comparative analysis, we find that cohorts after the reform are more likel…
Shining the Spotlight on Those outside Florida’s Reform Limelight: The Impact of Developmental Education Reform for Nonexempt Students
Since the 2000s, states have experimented with reforms to improve success among underprepared students traditionally assigned to developmental education (DE). Florida’s reform under Senate Bill 1720 has been among the most comprehensive and wide-reaching. Recent public high school graduates and military personnel became exempt from DE, but nearly one-third of students, including those without a Florida standard high school diploma, were still req…
State Policy and the Educational Outcomes of English Learner and Immigrant Students: Three Administrative Data Stories
Recent years have seen a shift to individual states as the battlegrounds for ensuring the educational rights of the rapidly growing populations of immigrant and English-learning students enrolled at all stages in the educational pipeline. It is, therefore, essential that state policy makers understand how the educational trajectories of immigrant and English learner students can be dramatically influenced by decisions that are made by state legis…
Race, Ethnicity, and College Success: Examining the Continued Significance of the Minority-Serving Institution
The minority-serving institution (MSI) sector has grown considerably since the 1980s, yet we have less empirical information about what currently influences students to enroll in and complete college at these institutions in comparison to their non-MSI counterparts. We evaluate student postsecondary outcomes by race and ethnicity in Texas’s large MSI sector utilizing state administrative data from 1997 to 2008. At the enrollment stage, we find th…
Delineating Scholarly Types of College and University Faculty Members
This study was conducted using cluster analysis as well as discriminant analysis to empirically identify types of faculty based on their patterns of performance of scholarship reflective of one or more of Boyer's four domains of scholarship
The Racial College Completion Gap: Evidence From Texas
This analysis focuses on the college completion gap between underrepresented minority students and White students, or the Hispanic -White and Black -White racial college completion gaps, given the unprecedented demographic growth of these populations in the United States as well as the nation's public K -12 schools and postsecondary institutions. Using a variance decomposition method, we find that precollege characteristics (a combination of indi…
State Policy and the Educational Outcomes of English Learner and Immigrant Students: Three Administrative Data Stories
Recent years have seen a shift to individual states as the battlegrounds for ensuring the educational rights of the rapidly growing populations of immigrant and English-learning students enrolled at all stages in the educational pipeline. It is, therefore, essential that state policy makers understand how the educational trajectories of immigrant and English learner students can be dramatically influenced by decisions that are made by state legis…
Big Qual: Defining and Debating Qualitative Inquiry for Large Data Sets
Big qualitative data (Big Qual), or research involving large qualitative data sets, has introduced many newly evolving conventions that have begun to change the fundamental nature of some qualitative research. In this methodological essay, we first distinguish big data from big qual. We define big qual as data sets containing either primary or secondary qualitative data from at least 100 participants analyzed by teams of researchers, often funded…
Student Self-Determination following Developmental Education Reform in Florida's Community Colleges
Background This multiple case study explores the self-determination needs of academically underprepared students. The context for our study was a sweeping redesign of developmental education (DE) in Florida's community colleges, state-level legislation Senate Bill 1720 (SB 1720), which made DE optional for many students. Purpose of Study The research questions for this study are: (1) How did a policy change in Florida's state colleges influence u…
Accelerating to Success: The Impact of Florida's Developmental Education Reform on Credit Accumulation
Background/Context Underprepared students at community colleges are often assigned to a sequence of developmental education courses that can substantially delay, or even halt, their progress to degree completion. In 2014, Florida implemented a comprehensive reform under Senate Bill (SB) 1720 that allowed the majority of incoming students to enroll directly into college-level courses, while remaining developmental education courses were offered in…
What Happened Following Comprehensive Developmental Education Reform in the Sunshine State? The Impact of Florida’s Developmental Education Reform on Introductory College-Level Course Completion
Florida’s Senate Bill 1720 allowed many students to bypass developmental education and enroll directly in introductory college-level courses. We use an interrupted time series design to introductory college-level courses enrollment and passing rates in English and math for three cohorts of college students prereform and three cohorts postreform. Based on a cohort-by-cohort comparative analysis, we find that cohorts after the reform are more likel…
Shining the Spotlight on Those outside Florida’s Reform Limelight: The Impact of Developmental Education Reform for Nonexempt Students
Since the 2000s, states have experimented with reforms to improve success among underprepared students traditionally assigned to developmental education (DE). Florida’s reform under Senate Bill 1720 has been among the most comprehensive and wide-reaching. Recent public high school graduates and military personnel became exempt from DE, but nearly one-third of students, including those without a Florida standard high school diploma, were still req…
What Happens to Efficiency and Equity? The Cost Implications of Developmental Education Reform
Florida passed legislation in 2013 that exempted many students from developmental education, and required colleges to implement new instructional modalities for optional developmental education courses. This paper uses an economic model of remediation to examine how changes in college course taking before and after the reform altered costs to completing introductory college-level courses in math and English for students and institutions, and whet…
Does the Method of Acceleration Matter? Exploring the Likelihood of College Coursetaking Success Across Four Developmental Education Instructional Strategies
Background/Context: Accelerated instructional strategies for developmental education have been promoted as a way to help underprepared students to progress more quickly through college-level coursework. Yet, what remains unknown is whether certain accelerated strategies are more effective than others and whether this initial acceleration may lead to longer term success. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: We examine whether the li…
Do Rising Tides Lift All Boats? Exploring Heterogenous Effects of Florida’s Developmental Education Reform by High School Academic Preparation
Underprepared students at community colleges are often assigned to a sequence of developmental education (DE) courses that can substantially delay, or even halt, their progress to degree completion. In 2014, Florida took a drastic step forward when it implemented a comprehensive DE reform. Our findings show large, positive base effects of the reform for all students as well as heterogeneous effects by high school academic preparation. More specif…
Self-Placement in Math Courses at U.S. Community Colleges: Contributing Factors and Impacts on Student Success
Self-placement in math is becoming increasingly popular in community colleges in the U.S., where students will decide for themselves whether to enroll in non-credit developmental (or remedial) math courses. To fully understand the factors associated with students’ math enrollment choices and the long-term effects of initial math enrollment choices, we use data from all first-time-in-college students in the Florida College System to conduct a mult…
Has a U.S. Developmental Education Reform for Academically Underprepared Students Affected College Enrollment
State policymakers in the United States have in recent years experimented with new initiatives to change the procedures used by public institutions to assess and assign academically underprepared students to non-credit developmental education (or remedial) courses. This study explores whether the most recent developmental education reform in Floridas—Senate Bill 1720 has affected student enrollment in the Florida College System (FCS) institutions…
The Relationship Between Course Structure and Intensity, and Student Success in Developmental Education
Texas legislation mandated that colleges offer developmental education using a corequisite model, where students concurrently enroll in introductory college-level courses with supplemental developmental support. Using data from the population of Texas students in developmental education, we estimated regression models to investigate differential relationships between corequisite characteristics and outcomes, both overall and by student characteri…
Exploring teen well-being and social media use during the pandemic summer of 2020
Social media has become a ubiquitous activity for teens in the United States with most going online daily. Legitimate concerns about teen well-being and mental health have often pointed to social media as a negative influence, yet prior research finds that social media use for teens is complex and multifaceted. This study first explores the concept of well-being, and its connection to social media use prior and during the Covid-19 pandemic. We th…
Substantial Early College Credit: A Complex Systems Perspective
This qualitative study explores the intended and unintended consequences of entering college with 60+ credits earned through high school acceleration (e.g., AP, IB, dual enrollment). Drawing on student interview data and framed by complex systems theory, the research indicates that while acceleration offers benefits – such as cost savings, faster degree completion, and academic motivation – it also introduces challenges. These include variation i…
Higher Education Research Studies (14 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Political science (12 works) · Mathematics education (10 works) · Medicine (10 works) · School Choice and Performance (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Higher education (9 works) · Medical education (9 works) · Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities (6 works)