The Social, Political, and Economic Factors Influencing Student Success: A Case Study of a Bay Area Community College

Abstract

As the largest higher education system in the nation, with 112 campuses serving 2.1 million students, California Community Colleges have a profound voice in influencing the success of students and the education system as a whole. The Student Success Task Force’s 22 recommendations seek to restructure the California Community College System to be better in advancing students through the system and achieving the students’ goal of transferring to a four year institution, graduating from an associate degree, and/or completing a certificate program. This study is a case study that seeks to, first, understand the nature of operation a college in the Bay Area, CA and the reciprocal relationship between faculty, administration, and students, and, second, to identify the unique factors that influence student success. By deconstructing the term student success by interviewing the 3 main groups of individuals and using a holistic approach to understand how the needs of students are realized. By examining recent literature surrounding the community college topic, this paper will illuminate the work that has been done by other scholars on student success and see if the conclusions of said articles can be applied more practically to a Bay Area Community College. This article also reports from the findings of 60 interviews of administrators, faculty, and students to identify the issues pertaining to student success. The assumption of this study is that a Bay Area community college can implement additional policies and programs to better prepare their students for their future plans. This study concludes with various conclusions drawn from the literature and interviews that will greatly increase the quality of education given to students and ultimately promote student success. Also, this study includes recommendations – offered by the student participants – that can be used by the constituency groups of colleges to better increase student success. This study serves as an in depth look into the factors that influence student success and seeks to bring forward the challenges that face such a diverse student population.