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Is Student Success Labeled Institutional Failure? Student Goals and Graduation Rates in the Accountability Debate at Community Colleges

By Thomas Bailey, Davis Jenkins & D. Timothy Leinbach
This paper explores the impact of students’ reasons for enrollment and educational expectations on their outcomes and, thus, on the performance of their college, showing that community college students with degree and transfer goals are more likely to graduate or transfer. Even among students who state that their goal is a degree, certificate, or transfer, fewer than 50% achieve that goal within six years. Moreover, large gaps in success rates for Black and Hispanic students cannot be explained by differences in either their reason for enrolling or their educational expectations. The authors also show that students’ educational expectations should not be treated as fixed, and that the experience of college has a role in shaping expectations. The authors conclude that educators and policymakers should be cautious in using student goals as benchmarks for success and that assumptions about student goals should not be used to discourage efforts to improve overall performance and reduce disparities between groups. Colleges need to recognize the dynamic nature of student intentions and expectations, the factors that shape these goals before entering college, and the institutional role in shaping them while at college. A brief of this paper, The Effect of Student Goals on Community College Performance Measures, is available for download.
Download CCRC Working Paper No. 1
September 2006
Download CCRC Brief No. 33
March 2007
  • Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count

Related Publications

March 2007

What Can Student Right-to-Know Graduation Rates Tell Us About Community College Performance?

October 2005

Is Student-Right-to-Know All You Should Know? An Analysis of Community College Graduation Rates

February 2005

The Effects of Institutional Factors on the Success of Community College Students

Additional Resources

For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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