Policy makers should be focusing on student persistence as much as college access, according to a University of California report "Beyond Access: How the First Semester Matters for community College Students' Aspirations and Persistence." The report focuses on recent California high school graduates who are entering community college with the goal of transferring to a four-year institution in order to obtain a bachelor's degree. The majority of those students do not realize their goal of obtaining a bachelor's degree and the report argues that more should be done to increase student persistence while maintaining a focus on college access.

One in four high school graduates who enter California's community college system with the goal of going on to receive a bachelor's degree do not return for their second semester and also did not re-enroll in the subsequent year.

Those that did return for a second semester usually lowered their educational aspirations. More than 30 percent of students that did return for a second semester no longer wanted to transfer to a four-year school to earn a bachelor's degree. The report speculates that many times, students lowered their educational goals because they were under-prepared for the rigors of college coursework because they underestimated the effort it takes to attend college or overestimated their own level of preparedness.

Researchers found that students who enrolled in several transfer-eligible courses during their first semester were more likely to return with high aspirations in the following semester. Students who earned a least a ‘C' average in their transfer-eligible courses were also more likely to persist in their schooling than those with lower grades.

Those two findings seem to be self-reinforcing because the report also found that "the more transfer-eligible courses students took, the higher the grades they earned in those courses."

Given recent reports nationwide that more students are having to enroll in remedial coursework before enrolling in courses that count towards graduation, these findings could indicate trouble. Students who were required to take basic skills courses during their first semester were less likely to transfer into a four-year school to obtain a bachelor's degree than those who took no remedial courses.

These findings suggest that policy makers and advocates should begin exploring strategies that would encourage students in community colleges to take as many courses that would easily transfer to a four-year school as possible during their first semester. The report also suggests that schools improve access to remedial courses and improve the quality of those courses by offering tutoring and other similar support resources.

By Justin Draeger
NASFAA Assistant Director for Communications

Posted 08/23/07 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web Site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.