Factors that influence adult success at community college

Community College Enterprise, The, Spring 2005 by Dayton, Elizabeth

Increasingly, less educated Americans are struggling with self-sufficiency. Low-end jobs are diminishing, and adults who left high school with education adequate to support themselves now find their marketable skills limited. Recent welfare reforms restrict assistance, leaving struggling workers with dwindling aid. Changing family structures result in rising numbers of families reliant upon a single parent. As a result, many adults are returning to academia out of necessity rather than choice. The article discusses circumstances common to many adult students, their challenges and supports.

Introduction

Many low-end workers need to enhance their skills to earn a living wage. Re-entry educational programs are likely to play a substantial role in promoting the self-sufficiency of such workers, but little research has been conducted on the experience of returning to school. The work of Lisa Matus-Groosman et al., "Opening Doors: Students' Perspectives on Juggling Work, Family, and College" (2002), is research that the present study builds upon. What motivates adults to return to school? What challenges weigh most heavily? What supports are most vital? The author interviews the most knowledgeable sources-returning community college students, and the instructors, counselors, and administrators who work with them-revealing trends and insights which may help colleges better serve the countless adults who will require additional education in order to support themselves and their families.

The need for increased education

Changing job market

Over the past few decades the value of a high school diploma has dropped dramatically as companies turn to cheaper overseas labor and effective technological advances and immigrants have contributed to the population competing for low-end work. Jobs are available in mid-skilled sectors, but high school educated workers lack the training to fill them.

Concurrently, low-end wages have dropped. Between 1973 and 1995 real wage earnings dropped by nearly 20% for high-school educated men. Twenty percent of the American workforce earns at the poverty level while "fully 29 percent of working families with children earn less than the amount needed to maintain a basic standard of living" (Appelbaum et al., 2004, p. 27). In 1990 the National Center on Education and the Economy concluded that "America is headed toward an economic cliff, and we will no longer be able to generate economic growth because the education and training levels of our people are non-competitive" (Zeiss, 1994, p. 509).

Welfare reform

Recent welfare reforms intend to make recipients less reliant on assistance while promoting responsibility and independence (Bauer et al., 2000). In 1996 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) replaced Aid to Families with Dependant Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). PRWORA requires welfare recipients to be and remain employed, even if the wage is not enough to live on (Bauer et al., 2000). In fact, with costs of transportation, childcare, and work-appropriate clothing, people often find themselves poorer working than they were on welfare (Edin &. Lein, 1997). PRWORA also increases work obligations for welfare recipients (Berlin, 2001) and restricts the "amount of time a welfare recipient can engage in vocational education to a maximum of twelve months" (Szelenyi, 2001, p. 95). Cash-assistance is limited to sixty months over a lifetime.

Changing family structures

The past thirty years have seen more out-of-wedlock births, divorce, cohabitation, remarriage, and single-parent families in America than ever before. From 1970 to 1995 the number of American children living with only one parent increased by over 50% (Amato, 2000). People with less education more often have children outside of marriage; the majority of single-parents have a high school degree or less (Amato, 2000). Significantly, nearly half of all single parents live in poverty (Amato, 2000), and families headed by women endure greater poverty over longer spans of time than any other family form (Taylor, 2002).

Response by community colleges

Community colleges use a variety of strategies to make education accessible to adults returning to school, from sequenced certificate programs and contextualized learning1 to connections with local businesses and links with college and community support services.

Almost two-thirds of community college students attend only part-time due to work or family demands, which makes quick, relevant education a necessity (Kazis &. Liebowitz, 2003). In response, colleges have developed shortterm certificate programs that "bundle new and existing courses into skill-based certificate packages," frequently covering months of material in weeks (Bragg, 2001, p. 11). Often certificates are sequenced, including "short-term training options or single courses that working students can take in a particular career area, and relevant job opportunities are connected to each 'rung' in the career ladder. Students can enter or exit at multiple points" (Matus-Groosman et al., 2002, online). These courses are frequently offered on evenings or weekends, times convenient for working adults.