Only 25% Of Community College Students….

in the state of California graduate with a college degree or move onto a four year college in six years says research done by Cal State Sacramento University. The report does define a transfer to a four year college as completion, but they also say that many of those transfer students do not wind up with a college degree at all. One credit hour at a community college in California is only 20 bucks.

The report says that access is not enough to get them graduated or move onto a four year college even though 73% of college students in California go to a community college.

Non-Degree seekers make up 40% of the community college enrollment with most of them going for some extra job skills. Most of the degree-seekers are under the age of 30

They say that policy barriers do not promote completion. Policy Barriers include Enrollment-based funding which allows easy access to college, but also allows them to not be prepared for college. Restriction on hiring is another barrier they say because the state has a rule that forces 75% of college instructors to be full-time workers which can lead to colleges not being able to hire teachers for some skills. They say that low fees and low financial aid leaves more students going to school part time which help cause low completion rates.

The report says they would like to see college funded more on completion rates instead of population rates, give the colleges more flexibility in spending and hiring, allow colleges to benefit more from fee revenue, and revise assessment/placement policies.

I found this report to be a great read and certainly had some shocking stats in it. I like the idea that California wants 75% of college instructors to be full time, but they do need enough authority to hire as many part-time teachers for special classes as necessary. I hope some major changes come to the community college system because of this report.