Essay on Increasing College Completion for Latino/as in Community Colleges

Introduction

The recent attention on college completion has led to an increased belief that higher education in America is in crisis. This may be an accurate description of the performance of many colleges and universities, though the rhetoric about college completion is deceptive because not all postsecondary institutions have the problem of achievement. This is because many such institutions have reported their highest completion rates compounded with increased enrollment, endowments, student performance, and revenue generation. Supplemental instruction is one of the concepts that have been advocated to help in improving the rate of completion of students in community college, and the idea can be applied at the Chicago College.

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The completion gap between the highly selective institutions and other institutions is enormous, with completion varying from as high as 80% and as low as 39% in Texas (Gonzalez 71. Consequently, the completion rates demonstrate a segregated system with less selective institutions registering lower completion rates. Highly selective colleges serve high-income students while less selective institutions have more students of color and middle and low-income students (Stone and Jacobs 41). This gap is more relevant for Latino/as they mostly attend less selective colleges, with more than half of all Latino/as students attending community colleges. Such colleges have the lowest completion rates of all institutions, with an average of 38% of students completing a degree or transferring to a 4-year institution (Gonzalez 72). For Latino/as students, the number drops to 31%. Latino/as students are more likely to be placed in remedial classes and are more in the lowest levels, with less likelihood of success as compared to their white or Asian peers (Gonzalez 72). Many Latino/as community institution students start in non-college level course, with most never making to college-level English course. Remedial education is, thus, an intervention to help the students who were unprepared for a college-level English course. However, it has been proven to be unsuccessful, with high non-completion rates and overrepresentation of Latino/as, African-American, low income and community college students.

The situation is even more troubling for Latino males, with their female counterparts outperforming them in almost every stage of the college over the past two decades. It is estimated that Latinos females are twice more likely to complete a degree than Latino males. A recent study in California shows that 81% of male Latinos in higher education attend community colleges, and only 4.8% attend top universities (Gonzalez 71). Only 24% of Latino males completed in 6 years compared to a state average of 38% (Gonzalez 72). Latino males in community colleges were also the less likely to transfer to a 4-year institution as compared to other men from other groups such as Whites and Asians.

The state of college completion in America depends on the institution type and student demography. For the highly selective institutions, which serve white and high-income students, college completion is not an issue of concern, but for the majority, which serves more ethnic and economically diverse students completion is a problem (Marling 48). On the other hand, for Latino/as attending community colleges, lack of college completion is more pronounced and regular, suggesting an ineffective system of higher education in America.

There are concerns about the willingness of college administrations, the faculty, and the entire community leadership to increase college completion rates in America. Institutional leaders believe that only enrollment matters, with this being considered as the lifeline of the institutions (Dawson 612). For the faculty, enrollment manifests itself in civil rights perspective, as an increase of access to college education for students of color and those from low-income families. The energy directed to access in less selective institutions has distracted leaders from the low rates of completion. Only in the recent past have institutions recognized that majority of students who enroll in developmental courses, especially those of color never succeed in college-level courses. This high failure rate in students from developmental education has gone unchecked for more than two decades (Stone and Jacobs 13). Recently, most stakeholders agree that access to college without degree completion is not fair access. Unfortunately, the need to initiate and ensure increment in completion rates for Latino/as students in community colleges is difficult especially in those states with high populations of Latino/as people.

In a conventional perspective, community college administrators should be held accountable for enrollment like their counterparts in 4-year colleges or universities. This is because they mostly focus on attendance and not on completion and graduation. It is normal for college heads to describe the status of their institutions using enrollment numbers, boasting of how high their enrollment is. The increase of college completion rates is a new expectation for institution leaders. However, while it is not seen to have revenue and budget implications like enrollment, it makes it an unpopular perspective. Thus, most college administrators perceive the aspect of focusing on increasing college completion as being more rhetoric than realistic. This means that the will is not really within the higher education leadership.

Given the large numbers that community colleges train, and the fact that they are most welcoming to students from undeserving backgrounds, they must be involved in any strategy to increase college completion. Despite the fact that a higher focus is on improving college completion, recent analysis has been on the need to increase the number of people with college degrees (Dawson 624). There has been increased emphasis on the need to improve not only the accessibility but also the capacity of community colleges, this, in turn, will make these colleges able to provide higher quality education, and even enable students especially Latino/as to complete and graduate with college degrees. Similarly, completion has also been attributed to the increase in the transfer of students to 4-year colleges, which in turn is associated to agreements and arrangements between community colleges and 4-year colleges thus enabling easier transfer of students.

The Chicago College can improve the academic success of its students using the supplemental instruction method. Supplemental instruction is a study improvement method, which uses peer-assisted sessions to enhance student success in a specific course (Marling 28). This method provides based support system where students who are competent in particular subject help others who are weak to succeed in these subjects (Hayes and Fulton 27). Supplemental instruction method provides review sessions outside class environment where students work together through discussions, comparing notes, predicting tests and sharing ideas for improving their class work.

Supplemental instruction method works effectively in that students work among themselves thus they can discuss openly without fear of being judged, or being punished by their teachers (Marling 18). Study over time has shown that despite ethnic and prior academic performances, students in colleges which practice supplemental instruction method succeed at a higher rate than the students in institutions which do not participate in this method. Equally, students who use the supplemental instruction method tent to study and graduate, thus a higher rate of college completion as compared to those who do not use this method.

The Chicago College can also employ the supplemental instruction, as an academic improvement method and also as a student development method. This method provides peer-led support where students study by themselves, thereby improving their academics and at the same time improving themselves by learning to be responsible (Stone and Jacobs 49). Supplemental instruction lies between tutoring, which involves individualized learning where the lecturer focuses on an individual student and regular class work. Individualized learning is essential in that the teacher can focus on the weak points of the student thus helping him to improve. The supplemental instruction method is critical for developing academic success in that after class work the students can discuss among themselves and help those who did not understand well.

Students who have a higher average of supplemental instruction attendance improve their performance and are even able to graduate in a short time. This is because students who have high supplemental instruction attendance can grasp and understand class work better than students who do not attend supplemental instruction sessions. Thus they do not waste a lot of time in redoing classes and subjects. Supplemental instruction sessions are more likely to work well if introduced during early years such as during the first year or second year of study as the students can understand the subject from the beginning is the study.

Conclusion

Supplemental instruction is a student-led study method, and therefore it requires the students to be willing and ready to participate, this has been proven in areas where students who participate willingly perform better than those who do it merely because it is a requirement of the college. As a result, the Chicago College should convince and show its students the benefits of attending the supplement instruction sessions. Also, supplemental instruction sessions work better with groups of friends or students who have some personal relationship, and with tutors who can establish a close working and study relationships with the students, this creates a favorable grounds and environment for them to share what they understand and also ask questions without fear or resentment.

Works Cited

Dawson, Phillip, et al. "On the Effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction: A Systematic Review of Supplemental Instruction and Peer-Assisted Study Sessions Literature between 2001 and 2010." Review of Educational Research 84.4 (2014): 609-639.

Hayes, Catherine, and John Fulton. "A Participatory Action Research Project of Peer Assisted Student Support and Supplemental Instruction with International Postgraduate Students." Teaching in Higher Education (2017). Gonzalez, Kenneth. Increasing College Completion for Latino/as in Community Colleges: Leadership and Strategy. New Directions for Higher Education, 2015, pp.71-80.

Marling, Janet L., ed. Collegiate Transfer: Navigating the New Normal: New Directions for Higher Education, Number 162. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

Stone, Marion E., and Glen Jacobs. Supplemental Instruction: New visions for empowering student learning. No. 106. Jossey-Bass Inc Pub, 2006.