The California Master Plan states that the California community college was designed to "admit any student who was capable of benefitting from instruction" and to be affordable through a Cal-Grant program, which ensures financially needy students, have equal access (University of California, 1960). Despite this attempt, a gap is occurring for underrepresented students who are the first in their family to pursue higher education as they transition from high school. The current study revealed that we are losing students at four junctures, meaning there are four key opportunities to serve students through the community college pathway. These missed opportunities minimize chances for a successful transition, or often result in no college attendance at all. These four loss points include: 1) students who did not meet four-year institution entry requirements; 2) those who got accepted into a four-year institution but cannot afford the fees; 3) those who did not complete the community college enrollment process; and 4) those who dropped out of high school. For each of these groups of students, a majority of whom are underrepresented, a four-year institution was not a possibility. There is, however, an opportunity to capture students at each juncture through a community college pathway.
Study Rationale
The purpose of this study is to explore how high schools and community colleges can work together to improve the transition of underrepresented first-gen high school students to the community college. The study investigated first-gen students' lack of access to social capital at home regarding the college enrollment process and the consequent need to rely on school-based social capital. Despite this, students who have higher levels of home-based social capital absorb the public high schools' very few resources, leaving little opportunity for underrepresented community college bound students to receive support through the application process. High schools may assume that community college bound students do not need assistance, and therefore, do not create a space to support them in their transition. My argument is that although community colleges are open-access institutions, underrepresented students do in fact need assistance. The current study aims to shed light on any inequities in school-based social capital and offers recommendations for how high schools can better support all students through a transition to post-secondary education.
Methods
An Explanatory Sequential design was employed, whereby data was collected in two ways. First, a survey was conducted among 89 current San Francisco Unified School District students, 86 of whom would be the first in their family to pursue college. The study was executed in the fall of their senior year of high school: the time frame when they would have started their college application process. The survey contained ten closed-ended Likert scale questions.
The second phase of data collection was qualitative and involved focus groups among 18 recent high school graduates, all of whom would be the first in their family to pursue college and at the time of this study were enrolled in a San Francisco community college. In total, 107 participants responded, including 89 high school survey respondents (quantitative) and 18 community college focus group participants (qualitative). Combined, 59% of the survey participants are considered historically underrepresented (African-American, Latino, Filipino, Native-American), while 41% are of Asian or White ethnicity. Data were analyzed via statistical analysis including analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests and post hoc comparisons using the Scheffe Test. Also, qualitative data were analyzed through thematic indexing.
Study Findings
The present study revealed that underrepresented first-gen students have limited home-based social capital when applying to college. Their parents, peers, extended family members, and siblings did not offer significant support when applying to college either before or after their transition to college, except among Asian students. A majority of focus group participants (all first-gen) indicated their parents were generally not helpful to them with their application(s) to college. In fact, 94% of focus group participants (n=17) indicated that they received no help from parents in applying to community college as evidenced in the following comment from a focus group participant when speaking of her financial aid application, "They just gave me their tax returns: they got mad and asked me why." However, all Asian participants indicated that they experienced strict pressure from parents to do well in high school and pursue a college education and this was a major factor in their eased transition to college. In comparison, all other ethnic groups (African-American, Latino, Filipino, and Pacific Islander) indicated they received encouragement (although minimally) rather than pressure from parents. Findings also revealed that Asian students had the highest levels of support from all sources -- parents, teachers, after school service providers, and counselors -- above Latino and African-American groups.
It was also revealed that high school counselors overwhelmingly prioritized support to four-year bound students over community college students in the college application process. In fact, across all focus group participants, 94% reported that their high school counselors overwhelmingly prioritized the needs of four-year bound students over them, as evidenced by a focus group participants' comment, "Teachers and counselors were saying they could help complete personal statements and applications for four-year universities. But the community college questions were redirected to a retired instructor who was only there once a month." Overall, the four-year institution pathway is disproportionately being promoted over the community college pathway, in fact, 70% of respondents revealed they always heard of the four-year application process, compared to always hearing about the community college only 20% of the time. In some instances, the community college is being discouraged by their schools, despite the fact that it is the only post-secondary option -- by reasons of eligibility and cost -- for the largest majority of San Francisco youth.
Recommendations for Action
The following recommendations aim to: a) ensure that school-based social capital, in the area of college planning activities, is distributed equally to all students; b) to increase access to pivotal adults for students of color; and c) to promote the community college equal to four-year institutions in homes and in the schools.
Recommendation 1:
Strategic Partnerships Grounded in Data-Driven Decisions
First, given that the transition from high school to college occurs between two distinctly different institutions, a partnership needs to be formed between the two. There is a need to move away from working in silos, to a unified approach towards tackling the transition issue. In fact, every high school and local college should have a college access strategy (Tierney, et al., 2009). Such partnerships need to be strategic, intentional, and grounded in data-driven decisions. A primary aspect of the partnership includes transparency of data. An honest look at data regarding transitional issues should be presented to top leaders from both institutions (The Campaign For College Opportunity, 2011). To minimize bias, a third-party researcher could conduct a comprehensive analysis.
Recommendation 2:
Engage Every Student in College Application Process:
A Universal Approach
Intentionally making the college application part of the school day is imperative. This approach allows leaders to directly support students who are four-year-bound, community college-bound, and those who don't have a plan with clear direction and options. The second recommendation, therefore, encourages leaders to engage every student in the college application process by taking a universal approach. One assured way to increase student access to school-based social capital in the area of college planning activities is to make the college enrollment process a mandatory high school activity, affording all students a postsecondary option.
Access to pivotal adults is a critical factor in building school-based social capital, especially because African-American and Latino students are accessing pivotal adults the least. It is important to triage the supports offered to students by school personnel to ensure that every student is equally served. In the fall semester of their senior year, high schools can categorize students into three cohorts. First are those students who are on track to meet CSU/UC entry requirements; which suggests they are highly disciplined and likely willing to seek afterschool support. Given this, the school can assign the after school program providers to serve as this cohort's pivotal adults. The second cohort includes students who are at risk of not meeting CSU/UC entry requirements. High school counselors can provide targeted advising to this cohort. Community college counselors can manage the third. This group is the largest within public high schools, and often includes the highest percentage of African-American and Latino students. Within this cohort are two types of students, those who already have plans to attend the local community college and those who do not have postsecondary plans, despite being on target to graduate high school.
Recommendation 3:
Priority enrollment for local students
It is important to ensure that students are off to a strong start at their local community college. First-generation students are significantly disadvantaged at the start of their college experience in that they typically do not enroll full-time because they cannot access courses (Pascarella, Wolniak, et al., 2003) and supporting full-time enrollment leads to increased college degree completion (Shulock & Moore, 2007). Registering for classes late correlates with lower grades, completion, and persistence rates into the subsequent term (CCCSE, 2012). It is important, then, to allow newly enrolled students from the local school district to hit the ground running with a full load of courses and access to gatekeeper math and English courses in their first semester. Providing them with such access allows them to start their educational plans immediately, thereby shortening their completion and/or transfer date. Thus, the third recommendation is to ensure that local high school graduates receive a priority enrollment date.
Conclusion
Research reveals that educational systems lose students in their path to post-secondary education at four major loss points. These loss points include: students who did not qualify for four-year institution entry, those who are accepted into a four-year institution, but cannot afford fees or access courses, students who graduate from high school but go nowhere afterwards, and finally students who dropped out of high school. These loss points represent opportunities to capture more students in the post-secondary pipeline. The community college was designed to serve each of these students because a four-year institution was not an option.
However, within both home and school contexts, the community college is not heavily promoted as a viable option. This inevitably contributes towards a problematic transition to the community college for underrepresented students. However, with a solid partnership between educational leaders and the right interventions, an easier transition to community college can conceivably minimize the equity gap that plagues our nation. High schools and community colleges need to work in strategic collaboration to prevent more first-gen, underrepresented students of colorfrom falling through the cracks of the educ
ational pipeline.
References
University of California. (1960). California Master Education Plan. Retrieved from
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Tierney, W. G., Bailey, T., Constantine, J., Finkelstein, N., & Hurd, N. F. (2009). Helping students navigate the path to college: What high schools can do: A practice guide (NCEE #2009-4066). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/.
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