After Admission: From College Access to College Success

CHAPTER ELEVEN. CONCLUSION: ORGANIZATIONAL PROCEDURES TO REDUCE STUDENT PROBLEMS

CHAPTER ELEVEN CONCLUSION: ORGANIZATIONAL PROCEDURES TO REDUCE STUDENT PROBLEMS In only a little over one generation, American society has shifted to “college for all” policies. Despite changing their admissions requirements and enrolling new groups of students, however, community colleges still use traditional procedures designed for traditional college students. Thus, though poor degree completion rates are blamed on students’ academic and financial limitations, we found community college procedures that may also contribute to student problems. The occupational colleges we studied use, as we discovered, alternative procedures, not based on traditional assumptions about students and which reduce students’ problems, even among nontraditional students with academic and financial limitations. AN ALTERNATIVE INSTITUTIONAL MODEL: REDUCING MISTAKES, INCREASING SUCCESS Society often hurts disadvantaged youth (and struggling adults) by offering dreams without directions for how to attain them. Although community colleges often warm-up students’ plans, just as often they do not provide adequate information about requirements or dependable pathways to graduation. Occupational colleges, on the other hand, devise procedures that reduce students’ mistakes and increase their success. Of course, because they serve a broader range of students and purposes, community colleges cannot totally emulate occupational colleges. However, 222 they might learn some lessons from occupational colleges, particularly for their occupational programs, which are the focus of our study. Ironically , though community colleges are usually blamed for posing barriers to students, we have found the opposite—these colleges offer many options, but they do not facilitate their attainment. Their efforts to create boundless opportunity are laudable, but climbing to the top of the educational ladder should not be blindly adopted as the only goal. Colleges must also consider realistic options on which students can depend, and devise plans to serve the many students who now leave community colleges with no degree and too few credits. We contend that a close examination of organizational procedures may help these colleges better understand why so many students face disappointments, and to identify alternative procedures that might help them better accomplish their goals. Comparing these two kinds of colleges has allowed us to uncover features we might not have noticed and has identified alternatives we might not have imagined. The comparison showed how student incentives, behaviors, services , support, and guidance procedures differ across organizations. One must be cautious about inferring causality. Nonetheless, a detailed understanding of procedures sometimes leads to compelling causal inferences , even as it helps us understand the paths by which an outcome may occur. When students experience more information problems with complex procedures than with simple ones, or when they express more confidence about job payoffs in colleges where they perceive useful employer contacts, causal inferences are hard to avoid. As we have seen, schools are more than classrooms, and implement procedures other than instruction. The procedures influence whether students persist and progress in college and make effective transitions from college to careers. Colleges need to consider whether their procedures match student needs, especially those of nontraditional students. REDUCING SOCIAL PREREQUISITES FOR COLLEGE Community college procedures are premised on many assumptions about student capabilities and attributes, which we find are not always true. Students are assumed to possess well-developed plans, yet we found many students whose plans are vague or unrealistic. Students are assumed to be highly motivated, yet we found student efforts to be highly dependent on contextual factors. Students are assumed to be able to make informed choices, know their capabilities and preferences, know the full range of college and career alternatives, and weigh the costs and benefits associated Conclusion 223 with college, yet our analyses show that many of them have great difficulty with such choices. We find that many students have poor information about remedial courses, course requirements, realistic timetables, degree options, and job payoffs. In addition, though students are assumed to possess the social skills and job-search skills to get appropriate jobs, faculty report that many of their students do not. The community colleges we studied use procedures that assume that students already have certain social prerequisites—plans, motivation, information, social skills, and job-search skills. In contrast, the occupational colleges in our study use procedures not based on these assumptions. The community colleges blame student failures on individuals’ deficiencies , but the occupational colleges use procedures that make these social prerequisites less necessary. In effect, community colleges make students responsible for their success or failure, but occupational colleges shift the responsibility to the institution, devising procedures to help...