Oxnard College Transfer Students to CSU Average Better Grades, Study Says : Education: But they tend to drop out more than their counterparts from Moorpark and Ventura colleges, a district report concludes. Officials dispute the findings.

Oxnard College students who transfer to a California State University tend to get better grades than their counterparts from Moorpark and Ventura colleges, a new study shows.

However, overall, more Oxnard College students drop out of a CSU school during their first year than do transfers from the other two Ventura County colleges, according to the study released last month by the Ventura County Community College District.

Prepared by a district researcher from data released by the Cal State system, the study shows that 21% of Oxnard College students who entered a CSU school in the fall semester of 1991 dropped out by the end of the 1992 spring semester.

That compares to 12% of Moorpark College transfers, 10% of Ventura College transfers, and 11% of community college transfers statewide.

But those Oxnard College students who remained through the end of the 1992 spring semester had a combined grade-point average of 2.97--or nearly a B average. In contrast, Ventura College transfers averaged a 2.93 GPA and Moorpark College transfers and community college students statewide averaged a 2.85 GPA.

Oxnard College administrators and teachers--despite the college’s good showing in the GPA category--quickly criticized the study as superficial, incomplete and statistically skewed.

“The faculty at Oxnard College aren’t very pleased about it,” said Gary Morgan, head of the college’s Academic Senate. “Things are better at Oxnard College than the report shows, and certainly miles better than the report’s suggestion that our . . . retention rate is poor.”

Gilbert Ramirez, an Oxnard College counselor and the college’s transfer center coordinator, faulted the report for presenting statistics in a sociological vacuum. “There are so many reasons (for the college’s transfer retention rate), and the report doesn’t say any of them,” he said. “It’s incomplete.”

Some former Oxnard College students, however, say that while they personally don’t know any transfer students who dropped out of a CSU school, entering a Cal State University after two or more years at the more intimate Oxnard College campus proved quite a shock.

“My major problem is the classes are harder here,” said Danny Daft, 23, an Oxnard College transfer student now studying biology at San Diego State University. “Here, you really have to put in hours.”

Daft said he and his roommate, who transferred from a Northern California community college, initially found San Diego State intimidating because of its size and academic demands.

“It’s a lot easier at community colleges than it is at the Cal States,” he said.

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Mylene Amaba, 22, who transferred to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last fall from Oxnard College, said she felt Oxnard College did not prepare her for a Cal State University as well as another Ventura County college might have.

Amaba took some classes at Ventura College before she transferred to Cal Poly, though most of her transcript was from Oxnard College. “Ventura College seemed a lot more challenging to me,” she said. “The classes were harder. Oxnard College felt almost like high school, and I know high school didn’t prepare me that well for college.”

Carolyn Inouye, the district researcher who prepared the district’s transfer report, said the study was never meant to be a final statement on transfer students, but rather a jumping-off point for district staff.

“It doesn’t look at the entire transfer picture,” she said. She noted that the study, for instance, lacks data on transfers to other universities. “But at least it’s one more piece of the picture.”

Ventura College officials said they were pleased with the report and said it reflected their hard work and that of other community college staff statewide.

Moorpark College officials said the study only had value in a general sense, dismissing yearly data swings as statistical vagaries of limited importance.

“I don’t really worry too much about it,” said Steven Pollack, president of the Moorpark College Academic Senate. “The state community college system is clearly preparing students for a transfer, and that’s what I take away from this.”

Though the Cal State University system regularly releases transfer data, this is the first time in recent years the district has had a researcher available to crunch the numbers and present local data in a readable form.

Inouye, the coordinator of institutional research at Ventura College, is on loan to the district office for the academic year to work on this and other projects. Inouye said she used figures from the 1991-92 school year because they were the most recent available when she began to analyze the data in early fall.

Among other findings, the study shows that:

* Moorpark College students make up 47% of the district’s transfer population, although they account for only 38% of the approximately 27,000 students enrolled in the district. Oxnard College students make up 11% of transfers and 21% of district enrollment, while Ventura College students represent 42% of the transfers and 41% of the district enrollment.

* The Ventura County district sent 736 students to CSU campuses in 1991-92. Of those, 306 were from Ventura College, 84 were from Oxnard College, and 346 were from Moorpark College.

* The majority of local community college students transferring to the CSU system chose Cal State Northridge: 48% of Moorpark College transfers, 66% of Oxnard College transfers, and 43% of Ventura College transfers.

But despite the myriad of statistics and charts the report contains, the controversy, at least at Oxnard College, has revolved around retention and transfer rates.

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Opened in 1975, Oxnard College is the newest and has by far the smallest enrollment of all three colleges in the district.

Faculty and administrators at the college until recently complained that the 5,900-student campus received too little district funding.

A new funding formula adopted by the district in recent years allocates more funding to Oxnard College than it had previously received.

Old complaints, however, still flare up occasionally. Oxnard College faculty members this month argued that the transfer study was another example of the district’s anti-Oxnard bias.

“A lot of faculty have that feeling, and something like this further justifies their position,” said Alan Hayashi, a math instructor. “We look at this study and we think, ‘We’re not bad, but the district has to do something to make us look bad.’ ”

Inouye said she was surprised at the Oxnard College reaction, though she knows that research results can often make people upset.

“I’m really very much aware of people’s apprehension to research information, so I tried to be particularly careful to present the facts and not editorialize at all,” she said. “I really didn’t think this was negative to Oxnard College.”