UCLA Community College Review: Campus Environment: A Missing Link in Studies of Community College Attrition

Abstract

These are challenging times for community colleges. Enrollment is up, funding is unreliable, and colleges are increasingly held responsible for learning outcomes of an ever more diverse student population. Community colleges serve 53% of all first-time students enrolled in public higher education, including disproportionate numbers of working, first-generation, adult, and other traditionally underrepresented students (Snyder, Tan, & Hoffman, 2004). Nine of ten first-time community students intend to earn a certificate or associate's degree or to transfer and earn a bachelor's degree. However, only 36% achieve a formal credential within 6 years, although an additional 8% are still enrolled at that time. Of remaining, 11% never intended to earn a certificate or degree, and 45 % leave without achieving their original educational objectives (Hoachlander, Sikora, & Horn, 2003).High levels of first-year attrition are a longstanding problem. About half of all first-year community students leave higher education before beginning of their second year-a rate that has held steady for over 40 years. Although many scholars have examined forces that contribute to student attrition throughout experience, Tinto (1988) noted that the forces that shape departure during first year of college, especially during first six weeks of first semester, are qualitatively different than those that mold departure in latter years of college (p. 439).Community attrition-especially early attrition-deserves serious attention, since access to higher education and resulting private and public benefits are undermined when students do not achieve their educational objectives (Bowen & others, 1977; Cohen & Brawer, 2003). Attrition interferes with individual, institutional, and social well-being, depleting future pool of skilled workers and educated citizens needed to participate in an increasingly sophisticated economy and complex civic life (Merisotis, 2005). Children of students who drop out are less likely to complete high school or than are children of graduates, which suggests that harmful effects of attrition are intergenerational (Astone & McLanahan, 1991; Kojuku & Nunez, 1998). Moreover, institutional planning, budgeting, and economic stability become less manageable in colleges with excessive attrition (Ansalone, 2002).Economic, societal, psychological, organizational, and interactionalist perspectives have shaped most studies of student persistence (Braxton, 2000). Tinto's (1975, 1988, 1993) interactionalist model of student departure is probably best known, modeling attrition as a lack of fit between student characteristics and requirements of college. In this person-environment fit model, student characteristics such as poor academic preparation, part-time enrollment, full-time employment, and delay in beginning after high school graduation predict lower levels of academic and social involvement or integration and, therefore, higher levels of attrition (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1998; Tinto, 1975, 1988, 1993).Four-year models of attrition have been applied to community colleges with mixed results. The majority of these studies account for 8% to 25 % of total variance in attrition, suggesting that we do not yet understand why most students depart before completing their educational objectives. In addition, low predictive power of models suggests one or more of following problems: guiding conceptual framework may be distorting or limiting analysis, model may lack variables that are powerful predictors of attrition (such as those having to do with community environment), or variables may be improperly operationalized (Brower, 1992; Gates & Creamer, 1984). Although it has often been treated as a trivial component in attrition models, influence of community environment might be key to understanding student attrition. …