Factors that influence adult success at community college

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

Student interviews

* What is your age, sex, race, and religious preference?

* What is your highest level of education?

* What is your parents' highest level of education?

* When did you start community college?

* What are you studying?

* What is your anticipated completion date?

* Why did you decide to return to school?

* What have been challenges to being and staying in school?

* What factors have helped you in being and staying in school?

College personnel interviews

* For how long and in what capacity have you worked with students returning to community college after either working or raising a family?

* What, in your opinion, motivates students to return to community college?

* What factors, in your opinion, impact the success of these students?

* What do you see as these students' greatest challenges?

* What supports or strategies do they use to overcome these challenges?

* Do you know what impact community college has on students' job prospects following program completion?

* Tell about efforts at your community college to meet the needs of these students.

* What efforts do you believe are particularly successful in helping these students succeed?

Motivation to return

External Forces

Five students were pressured to gain education by circumstances outside of their control-two due to a change in certification requirements for their current employment, two due to physical disability, and one whose field of work had disappeared from the area. These five students were among the older students interviewed, ranging from 38 to 55 years old, with a mean age of 45.8 years (compared to the mean age of all interviewed students at 34.4 years). They left school longer ago and so are more likely to find their field of work changed or eliminated in the changing job market.

In the first case, adults working in early childhood education found that the job, previously requiring no specific education, now required a certificate. California has new certification requirements for working in early childhood education to standardize the field, and community colleges offer the certification programs. They range from six to twenty-four units, and each certifies students for a different level of responsibility, from assistant to master teacher.

Two of the students were subject to new certification requirements and therefore had returned to school. One had received a four-year degree in elementary school teaching in Peru, but the degree did not translate to the U.S. Another student was working two jobs on top of teaching to support her family, but she was pushed to return by certification requirements. She said, "It is a big change, and I'm suffering for it." These students are motivated by a desire not to lose their current work.

Physical disabilities explain two students' return to school. One suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and needed work that did not aggravate it. Another student injured her back, but had no credentials for less physically demanding work. She explained: "Since physically I'm limited, being a paralegal is as good as it can get."