Community college student retention: Determining the effects of a comprehensive support and access intervention program targeting low-income and working poor at a large urban minority-serving institution.

摘要

A quasi-experiment using quantitative methods was conducted to examine the effects on academic student outcomes when a cohort of employed low-SES community college commuter students (the treatment group, N=198) participated in a comprehensive support and access intervention program, compared with similar students (the matched comparison group, N=297) not participating in the program. This study was confined to one large, urban community college designated as both a Minority-Serving Institution and Hispanic-Serving Institution. The study was conducted ex post facto, using data collected over a period of six consecutive semesters. This study focused on a subgroup classified as low-income and working poor, terms used to describe individuals who are economically-disadvantaged despite being partially or fully employed.;The program that was studied provided a new-student seminar and orientation, learning communities, supplemental instruction, mentoring and advisement, career counseling, job development and job placement services, and financial assistance. The program was pro-active in nature and was designed to provide consistent and sustained intervention over the entire course of enrollment, from matriculation to graduation.;Students in the comparison group were matched to the treatment group through propensity score matching, using such covariates as age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income and financial aid awarded, previous academic preparation, enrollment load, and academic major. Student outcomes included measures of retention, graduation, early transfer, GPA, credits earned, and pass-rates for college-level gateway courses. The relationship between the treatment and student outcomes was determined using descriptive methods (Pearson's Chi Square for categorical outcomes, Independent Samples T-test for continuous outcomes) and multivariate analysis (logistic regression to analyze categorical outcomes, linear regression to analyze continuous outcomes).;Results demonstrate that participation in a comprehensive support and access intervention program for low-income and working-poor is associated with a significant positive effect on community college semester-to-semester retention rates and graduation rates. Furthermore, over the study period participants in the program maintained a higher cumulative GPA, attempted and earned more college credits, and had higher pass-rates for college-level gateway courses. Correlation between the treatment and early-student-transfer was statistically insignificant although early-student-transfer among students in the treatment group was less frequent compared to students in the matched comparison group.