RURAL LEARNER SUCCESS DATA NOTE SERIES - Landscape of Mentorship Programs at Rural Serving Community Colleges - Data Note 1 - December 2023

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle

This data note inaugurates the Rural Learner Data Note Series with findings from a multisite, three-stage mixed-methods study mapping effective mentorship for rural community college students. It reports the initial stage: analyzing how often, where, and what kinds of mentorship programs are described on public 2-year rural-serving institutions’ websites. Results show uneven program distribution and limited attention to underrepresented student groups, plus ambiguity in defining mentor types and practices. Future stages include interviews, focus groups, and a national survey.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Data Sources

Study cohort and RSI selection

Web scraping and program coding

Variables and data integration

Mentorship program landscape

COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESEARCH INITIATIVES RURAL LEARNER SUCCESS DATA NOTE SERIES Landscape of Mentorship Programs at Rural Serving Community Colleges Mayra Nu ñez Martinez, Leandra Cate, Lia Wetzstein, and Katie Kovacich DATA NOTE 1 | DECEMBER 2023 This document inaugurates the Rural Learner Data Note Series where we will present findings from our research on“Mapping Effective Mentorship for Rural Community College Students.” Using a mixed-methods approach, we are conducting a multisite, three-stage study of mentorship programs at public 2-year rural serving institutions (RSIs) across the nation. This date note focuses on the initial stage, analyzing the frequency, distribution, and characteristics of mentorship programs depicted on websites at public 2-year RSIs. Notably, our findings reveal an uneven distribution and a significant lack of focus on underrepresented student groups, indicating a potential gap in addressing their unique challenges. The research also highlights the ambiguity in defining types of mentors and practices, emphasizing a need for clearer descriptions and implementation strategies of mentorship. Subsequent stages ofthis research will involve indepth interviews, focus groups, and a national survey to comprehensively understand rural mentorship programs. INTRODUCTION Various scholars have highlighted the positive impact of mentorship on college students, underscoring its importance in fostering a sense of belonging and significantly impacting persistence and degree completion (Apriceno et al., 2020; Brooms & Davis, 2017; Estrada et al., 2018; Huerta & Fishman, 2014) . However, most research on mentorship has focused on 4-year institutions in urban and suburban contexts (e.g., Hamilton et al., 2019; Hillier et al., 2019; Zalaquett & Lopez, 2006). Therefore, mentorship models are often derived from research on 4-year and non-rural colleges and universities (Reynolds et al., 2022), leaving a significant gap in our understanding of mentorship for rural community college students. Recently, scholars have examined the impact of mentorship programs on rural Students of Color and found that the impact of mentorship programs was not homogenous and varied by type of mentor and race/ethnicity (Soria & White, 2023) . Given that mentorship has proven to be a pivotal factor in the success of community college students (Crisp, 2010) and more than half of public 2-year institutions are classified as rural-serving institutions (RSIs) (Koricich et al., 2022), it is important to understand how and where mentorship is happening in rural spaces and who those programs are serving. This data note, the first in a series, uses institutional website data to provide an overview of mentorship programs at public 2-year rural serving institutions (RSIs), including where they are located, the frequency of mentorship programs found, and who these programs serve. DATA SOURCES The focus on this work began when the Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) team observed a growing trend to support students through mentorship programs in other work with public 2-year RSIs. The data in this data note is part of a multisite, [uw. edu/cc ri](uw. edu/cc ri) 1 RURAL LEARNER SUCCESS DATA NOTE SERIES | Landscape of Mentorship Programs at Rural Serving Community Colleges three-stage study of mentorship programs at public 2-year RSIs across the United States. The first phase involves examining publicly available information about mentorship programs on institutional websites of public 2-year RSIs. We created a study cohort of rural public 2-year colleges from the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges’ (ARRC) database of rural postsecondary institutions. This database utilizes different metrics to identify RSIs, which include the percentage of the population that is classified as rural in the county and adjacent counties where the institution is located, the size of the population in the county where the institution i

FAQs

What is the purpose of this data note series?

It presents research findings from a study mapping effective mentorship for rural community college students, beginning with an analysis of mentorship information found on institutional websites.

How was the first-stage data collected?

Researchers used web scraping and search queries (e.g., “name of college” mentor*) to identify mentorship programs publicized on the websites of public 2-year rural-serving institutions.

What key findings emerge from the website analysis?

The programs appear unevenly distributed and descriptions show a significant lack of focus on underrepresented student groups. The note also highlights ambiguity in how mentorship mentor types and practices are defined.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle