Pathways in overcoming barriers to completion for community college students explored

As the nation faces a tight labor market and industries scramble to find employees with the right skills to fill open positions, community colleges that are closely connected to a region’s economy play a key role in helping to fill that pipeline. However, the challenges facing students at community colleges often result in many not completing a degree or certificate. A report released this month by The Brookings Institution noted that less than 40 percent of community college students earn a certificate or degree within six years of enrollment. The report’s author, Elizabeth Mann Levesque, explored ways to address both structural and motivational barriers in completing community college. The barriers are real, said two community college administrators SSTI spoke with about the problem, yet the successes they see and innovative efforts some community colleges are taking to help their students are beginning to pay off.

Angeline Godwin, president of Patrick Henry Community College in Virginia, said the barriers to completion of a degree or certificate can be significant for students at community colleges, which serve a higher percentage of first generation college students, minorities, and 100 percent Pell grant eligible individuals. “We can’t change the dynamics they encountered prior to becoming a student here,” Godwin said, “But we are laser focused on a 360 degree approach to completion issues.”

On the structural side, Godwin said Patrick Henry began a restructuring program years ago, that focuses on providing big umbrellas for majors and specific pathways for students to follow. The school also looked at all their programs to ensure that they are “stackable,” she said. Students earn career study certificates, which lead to the next level of certificates, which in turn lead to an associate’s degree. Along the way, advisors help ensure that students are not taking excessive courses that are not in their pathway.

Industry-recognized credentials are embedded into the programs as well, which Godwin said is significant because if a student has to drop out or “stop out,” they have completed a credential that will still have value in the workplace. Moreover, Godwin has found that many of those students — who face additional barriers due to family constraints, transportation issues, financial burdens, and other challenges — do eventually come back to school. Often students will attend community college to get a job, and if they find that job before completing a degree, they will take it because of financial needs.

“These folks come back,” Godwin said. “They get a credential and get into the workplace because it will provide that bridge in order for them to earn the money to come back and get a degree.” She noted that such motivations are often a missing piece from the studies on community college completion.

Godwin believes that industry and business play a large part in the success of students. The more than 120 representatives from the business community that Patrick Henry relies on give feedback on curriculum design and redesign, working with students, interviewing skills, apprenticeships and paid internships.

That interest, along with the wrap-around services available to students, has begun paying off at Patrick Henry. Godwin said that last year they saw a 17 percent increase in the number of credentials over their five-year average. They also saw the highest number of career studies certificates, the first level of their stackable certificates and degrees.

“We are seeing improvements in all those areas,” Godwin said. “It takes time and you have to be patient.”

Marisa Vernon White, associate provost at Lorain County Community College (LCCC) in Ohio, said that community colleges have shifted in the way they view themselves. Instead of focusing solely on enrollment numbers, they focus on outcomes and completion. Part of the shift comes from the importance on public accountability and alternative ways of funding higher education, where more emphasis is being placed on completion.

LCCC was recognized this year by the American Association of Community Colleges as the top community college in the country for Excellence in Student Success. Vernon White said the effort to increase the graduation rate is “very intentional” at LCCC, where they approach student success from a holistic standpoint.

“It is beyond academics,” Vernon White said. “We try to remove or address the structural barriers that take them out of college. Many are juggling work, school and family obligations. It is important not to just isolate the academics.” LCCC builds what Vernon White called their “culture of care” by connecting students with outside resources and accommodating their needs.

“There is a lot of talk about if students were more college ready,” Vernon White said. “The flip side of that is, what does it mean to be a student-ready college? We look at the whole individual, with their background, history and challenges. Then how do we look at the policies and procedures to ensure success?”

Working with the local business community is a symbiotic relationship for community colleges, Vernon White said, echoing Godwin’s emphasis on internships and experiential education for students.

Both women also agreed there is a role for better policy in ensuring the success of community college students. Vernon White noted that many students are receiving other government services and it is important to know how the systems can affect one another. She also believes policy makers should be engaged with and understand how their policies could impact students. Godwin hopes that policy makers will re-assess the whole financial cost of going to college, calling student debt a “national disgrace” and the process behind FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) a “nightmare.”

Godwin noted that as public funding for community colleges decreases, they must become more innovative, entrepreneurial and “savvy stewards of the resources we have.”

“The stakes are high for the type of work we do,” Vernon White said.

Godwin echoed that sentiment. She reflected on handing out the degrees and certificates at graduation, noting that as one of their students completes their degree, “they just walked into the middle class, and they bring their whole family with them. That’s powerful.”