Community College Journal - February/March 2010

a challenge for any institution of higher learning, she says, the problem is especially acute for two-year colleges, largely because of the vast array of learners such colleges attract.

“It’s no secret that students who are
college-prepared are more likely to be
retained. But the economic situation is
attracting more students whose prepa-
ration might be questionable. Many
of these students are older. They’ve
been out of academia for some time.
And they bring unique challenges that
stretch budgets and are not easily ac-
commodated.”
Given the budget crunch, is there
anything community colleges can do?
Not everything costs money, says Hage-
dorn, who sums up her advice in three
words: time, effort, and care.

Know Your Students

The first step toward retention is to know your students and identify their needs, says Elizabeth Cox, assistant director of the California Community College Collaborative.

Cox, whose work focuses on retention strategies targeted at students 25 and older, suggests that colleges conduct surveys to understand students’ goals. Are these learners enrolled for retraining, a skills upgrade, or a certificate or degree?

“We need to know the students that
we are serving and how to serve them
well,” says Cox. “Instead of doing a sort
of autopsy report once students have
left, we need to talk to them beforehand
and find out what it is that they need.”
Older students, Cox says, “don’t
necessarily see themselves as students
first.” Many of these learners are family
men and women who have spent years
in the workforce and view their contin-
ued education as one more in a long line
of responsibilities.

“These learners come to the com-
munity college, especially if they are
coming for retraining, for a specific
purpose,” explains Cox. “They know ex-
actly what that purpose is. And they are
very driven for that. Because they don’t
have time to waste.”
Unlike younger students, many of
whom have an interest in theory and
concept, older students “have a greater
concern for practical applications for
what they are learning,” says Cox. She
suggests community colleges take advan-
tage of this by getting these students to
their goals quickly. Some colleges offer
experiential credits, or life skills credits;
others offer extended, 24-hour learning,
or flexible schedules that allow students
to enter mid-semester for quicker fulfill-
ment—whatever it takes to retain them
until they meet their academic goals.

A Better Measuring Stick

In the long run, though, improving community college retention is more complicated than that.

“There are no silver bullets here,”
suggests Hagedorn. Though time, effort,
and care are good starting points, they
are not a panacea; the real challenge lies
in finding a better way to measure com-
munity college success. This includes
better professional development pro-
grams and new accountability systems
created solely for community colleges—
both of which require serious financial
support.

“We need to
know the students
that we are serving
and how to serve
them well.”

Community college students some-
times step out for a week, a month, a
year, even more. But they often come
back. Some go to another college or
transfer to another system, she says.
“We can’t look at fall-to-fall retention.
We need data that can follow students
from system to system. It’s like strug-
gling with a monster in the dark.”
It’s likely a more sophisticated
tracking system could help. But develop-
ment costs money. And that’s something
community colleges have very little of—
at least in this current climate.

“We need to recognize that this type of success doesn’t come cheaply,” says Hagedorn. “In times of economic crunch, if community colleges are going to be ignored or are going to be denied additional funds, we are not going to see additional success. Money is an issue.”