Community College Dropout Analysis

Community colleges are a great way to transition students from high school to the real world. Community colleges are smaller, cheaper, and closer to home than most four-year universities. Even so, dropout rates are at an all-time high for community colleges. While community colleges are near perfect in theory, there are many improvements that need to be made to help students graduate and to decrease dropout rates. Even though community college is a lot cheaper than a four-year university, many people still cannot afford to attend. In the article How to Improve Community Colleges, Max Page (2012) stated: “The explosion of student debt threatens the role public higher education plays in providing a pathway into the middle class” (para. 9). Community

Remedial classes use up the students’ financial aid eligibility, but are not included in graduation credits; therefore, taking the classes push the students further away from their degrees. According to Tugend (2016), “Remedial classes, which students often pay for but usually aren’t included in graduation credits, are the single most deadly issue for students of color” (para. 15). After students take the remedial classes, they may have little to no money left to take classes that directly help achieve degrees. Even if a student passes the remedial class, he or she is not any closer to his or her degree than before, which often discourages many students. According to Meredith Kolodner (2015), “The model that’s used now is a set of prerequisite courses in English and math that presumably will build up the skills of a student so that they can be successful in any college-level course, but that hasn’t been effective” (para. 7). While remedial classes are good in theory, in many cases, they are unnecessary for students if the standard class does not help the student achieve his or her degree. Remedial classes often push students further away from their degrees, and community colleges would benefit from only making students take remedial classes that are required for their degree. Along with being too expensive and having required remedial classes, many students

They are a great transition for students from high school to the real world, they are a lot less expensive than a four-year university, and, for the most part, are smaller than a university, which helps students not get lost in the crowd. While community colleges have many positive aspects, there are still numerous things that can be done to improve the students’ experience, such as lowering the costs, having remedial classes help students achieve their degrees, and providing more advisers for the students. Revamping community colleges could not only improve the students’ experience, but it could also greatly decrease dropout rates