Date of Award

Summer 8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development

Program/Concentration

Community College Leadership

Committee Director

Michelle Bartlett

Committee Member

James Bartlett, II

Committee Member

Chris Pearce

Abstract

Community colleges enroll students with diverse levels of academic preparation, yet placement into college-level coursework often relies heavily on high school grade point average (GPA), which may not fully reflect students' literacy preparedness. Although research has linked literacy proficiency to academic success, little is known about how first-year community college students experience literacy preparedness during the transition to college. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the literacy preparedness of first-year community college students and explore how their reading abilities aligned with their early academic experiences. Guided by the Reading Systems Framework (Perfetti & Stafura, 2014), the study included eight first-year students attending a rural community college in eastern North Carolina. Data were collected through the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI), participant interviews, and academic records and analyzed using within-case and cross-case analysis. Five themes emerged. Participants expressed confidence in their reading abilities despite demonstrating challenges with higher-order comprehension. They described literacy demands across disciplines, identified outside factors that influenced academic success, relied primarily on personal strategies and instructor support rather than formal institutional services, and viewed literacy as essential for academic and career success. The findings suggest that literacy preparedness is a multidimensional construct shaped by reading comprehension, academic behaviors, and institutional contexts. This study contributes to the literature by integrating formal literacy assessment with qualitative student perspectives and offers implications for literacy support, placement practices, and first-year student success in community colleges.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/q9n9-mj07

ISBN

9798193216940

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