Why Don’t Students Finish College and What Can We Do to Help?

January 6th, 2010 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Student Motivation

---

When our students leave the school systems, just 25 percent of them will have the full-time college experience that we think of: residence halls, football games, fraternity or sorority membership, and maybe a job for a little pocket money.

A Public Agenda Report found that 45 percent of students at four-year universities work 20 hours or more. More than half of the community college students work more than 20 hours a week and more than a quarter work 35 hours or more. Twenty-three percent of all college students have children.

The problem is that students start college, but many of them, just 40 percent, receive their four-year degree in six years’ time. At the community college level, just 20 percent finish a two-year degree in three years.

It’s not hard to see why these kids aren’t finishing college. It’s not that students don’t want to be there, it’s that they can’t afford to be there. When faced with the reality of work-schedule and school-schedule conflicts, many choose work instead.

The researchers for Public Agenda’s report, “With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them,” found four myths and realities about why students don’t finish college. I think that secondary school teachers can address two of them.

Myth No. 3: Most students go through a meticulous process of choosing their college from an array of alternatives.

Reality No. 3: Among students who don’t graduate, the college selection process is far more limited and often seems happenstance and uninformed.

The Public Agenda researchers found that most of the college dropouts never went through a college selection process at all. They just went to the nearest school that offered classes they could attend while working. Over half of the students valued the cost of the tuition above the overall reputation of the school.

Students who drop out of college are less likely to have parents or other family members who attended or graduated from college. These are people who selected their college not for its excellent nursing program or because of its reputation as a good business school, but because it was on the way to work.

As teachers, the question is how can we help our students choose a college where they’ll be successful? The students who don’t finish college don’t have a family structure that will help them select or stay in school. Mentoring students about career choices, traveling to a college fair with students who might be the first in their families to attend college, and hosting a virtual campus tour are ways to introduce students to the college choices available.

Myth No. 4: Students who don’t graduate understand fully the value of a college degree and the consequences and trade-offs of leaving school without one.

Reality No. 4: Students who leave college realize that a diploma is an asset, but they may not fully recognize the impact dropping out of school will have on their future.

In high school, fewer of the college dropouts thought that they’d attend college than the college graduates. Fewer dropouts thought that their teachers believed they’d attend college. They didn’t have their family’s support, either. The dropouts’ families didn’t value a college education as much as those of college graduates.

Our mission as teachers is clear: we need to communicate the importance of higher education. The students who drop out of college don’t have a strong push from their families to finish their education. We need to provide that push while the students are still in secondary school. Just talking about possible careers and the career paths in our disciplines can help students visualize the steps they need to take to find a job in a field they love. The research shows that students who do not graduate from college didn’t have as clear of an idea of what career they were aiming for as those students who did graduate. Teachers can easily supply the information and support students as they develop their career goals.

The study also found that students want to take classes in the evenings and on weekends. They’d like more financial aid for part-time students who are trying to work and go to school. Many students would like access to affordable day care options while they take classes. These are important changes, but not really changes that teachers can make.

However, we can support our students, especially first-generation potential college students. Their families aren’t pushing college and they don’t have the home support to work, go to class, and eat Ramen noodles for four years. It’s a struggle for any kid, but it’s really hard for students who have a hard time picturing themselves in a collegiate cap and gown.

Reference:

“With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them.” (2009) Public Agenda for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Accessed 12/9/09 http://www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/theirwholelivesaheadofthem.pdf

Tags: careers, college, dropout, research

---

Topics

• Administration
• Adolescent Development
• Classroom Management
• English Language Learners
• Higher Education
• Learning Community
• Lesson Planning
• School Law
• School Safety
• Special Needs
• Student Motivation
• Teaching Strategies
• English Teaching Strategies
• Math Teaching Strategies
• Reading Teaching Strategies
• Science Teaching Strategies
• Social Studies Teaching Strategies
• Technology in the Classroom