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The solution to Low Graduation Rates in Community Colleges

Community colleges are an integral part of American society. They provide students with the opportunity to pursue a cheaper alternative to acquiring an education, which paves the way for them to enroll in good-paying jobs. However, one major issue about community channels is that less than 40% of students who enroll in them graduate within six years (Bailey). There is an urgent need to address the low graduation rates among college students due to the level of reliance and importance that students and society place on them. The solutions for addressing low graduation rates in college students lie in increasing support for programs such as the ASAP program, creating equal opportunities for all students, and increasing college preparedness for students right before joining college.

One of the ways which can help to improve the community college graduation levels is through the support of programs associating colleges to improve graduation rates. Over the years, colleges, communities, and different organizations have made attempts to address the low graduation rates among students. One of the most promising programs that have helped to significantly raise the graduation rates among community college students is the Accelerated Study in Associate Program (ASAP) (Dynarski). The multipronged program, which is run by the City University of New York, provides extra services to students, which include access to a better student to adviser ratio, increased tutoring, and increased counseling hours. The ASAP program has been widely successful and led to an increase in the number of graduates, from 22% to 40% within three years (Dynarski). Dynarski also reports that the ASAP program has led to the improvement of share enrolling into 4-year college students from 17% to 25%. Tried and tested programs such as that the ASAP programs are an illustration that graduation rates can significantly improve. Therefore, there is a need for governments, organizations, and philanthropists to support and increase funding on such programs.

Another approach towards addressing the issue of low graduation rates among community college students is through creating equal opportunities among students in the community colleges. According to Eddy, changing demographics in the United States indicate that students of color, 52%, have overtaken white students, 48%, in the number of enrollments in community colleges. However, despite the rising figures among students of color, they still lag in comparison to their white counterparts. The graduation rates include;43.85 for Asian students, 25.8% for African Americans, 33% for Hispanics, while white graduates account for 45.1%. Unequal opportunities in American society is the cause of the widening rifts among graduates in community colleges. Therefore, the solutions lie in creating an equal mindset in the learning institutions through a shunning automatic deficit view among minority students and incorporating teaching pedagogies that encourage the active participation of students.

Improving the level of preparedness among students is also another method that can significantly improve the graduation rates among college students. One of the reasons which lead to poor graduation rates is due to the lack of motivation among students. Students often face a barrier in connecting their academic goals with their life goals. The inability to connect the two essentials issues leads to demotivation, which ultimately leads to truancy and school dropouts. Some of the promising interventions coined by Caspar (25), which can help to increase motivation and ultimately, graduation rates among students is through conducting a college preparedness program. Caspar asserts that there is an importance in preparing senior students in high schools for college. A study by Destin and Oyserman demonstrated that seventh-graders who are exposed to studies which illustrate that education-depend jobs offer better salaries compared to jobs that do not require education tend to be eight times more hardworking compared to students who were not exposed to the studies. Such studies indicate that school-based interventions can offer proper motivation and preparation for completion of college. The preparedness programs involve the change conducting of extensive systemic changes such as informing students about the importance of education in their future careers. Students who are informed about the importance of education in areas such as salary improvement tend to focus more on school work as well as improving their grades. The college preparedness programs, if instilled among students as early as in high schools, can help to improve their motivation and the link between their academic studies and future careers. Such efforts will help improve the graduation rates in community colleges by addressing the motivation deficits among students.

In conclusion, there is potential in the future of community colleges. However, the imminent threat posed by the low graduation rates hinders the role that the institutions play in society today. Addressing long-standing issues that hinder the increment of graduation rates through interventions and changes such as improving student’s preparedness for college, increasing funding, and support for special programs such as ASAP and creating equality among all students from different races can help to address the current programs. Implementing such changes and programs will go along way into significantly reducing school drop out rates, increase entry figures into colleges as well as increase the number of students who complete college studies.

Work Cited

Bailey, Thomas R. Redesigning America’s community colleges: A clearer path to student success. Harvard University Press, 2015.

Caspar, Emma. “A path to college completion for disadvantaged students.” Focus 31.2 (2015): 24-29.

Destin, Mesmin, and Daphna Oyserman. “Incentivizing education: Seeing schoolwork as an investment, not a chore.” Journal of experimental social psychology 46.5 (2010): 846-849.

Dynarski, Susan. “How to improve graduation rates at community colleges.” The New York Times, 11, March 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/upshot/how-to-improve-graduation-rates-at-community-colleges.htmlEddy, Pamela. “Community colleges need to evolve as students’ needs do.” Harvard Business Review 30 September 2019, https://hbr.org/2019/09/community-colleges-need-to-evolve-as-students-needs-do