Journal Article

Young Adults and Higher Education: Barriers and Breakthroughs to Success

Brock, Thomas

2010

Overview

Although access to higher education has increased substantially over the past forty years, student success in college—as measured by persistence and degree attainment—has not improved at all. Thomas Brock reviews systematic research findings on the effectiveness of various interventions designed to help at-risk students remain in college. Brock shows how changes in federal policy and public attitudes since the mid-1960s have opened up higher education to women, minorities, and nontraditional students and also shifted the \"center of gravity\" in higher education away from traditional four-year colleges toward nonselective community colleges. Students at two-year colleges, however, are far less likely than those at four-year institutions to complete a degree. Brock argues that the nation's higher education system must do much more to promote student success. Three areas, he says, are particularly ripe for reform: remedial education, student support services, and financial aid. In each of these three areas, Brock reviews programs and interventions that community colleges have undertaken in order to raise completion rates. Some colleges have, for example, experimented with remedial programs that build social cohesion between students and faculty and integrate content across courses. Other colleges have tested student support service programs that offer counseling and advising that are regular, intensive, and personalized. Still others have experimented with ways to simplify the financial aid application process and incentivize students to earn good grades and persist in school. Research shows that such programs and interventions can improve student outcomes, but Brock argues that more must be done to bring proven practices to scale and to test new ideas that might lead to better results. Institutions that most need help are those that provide the greatest access to nontraditional and underprepared students in community colleges and less selective universities.

• Publisher: Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution,Princeton University,Princeton University-Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs,Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution
• Subject: Academic Achievement / Academic degrees / Academic Persistence / Access / Access to Education / Accountability / Adolescent / Adult education / Adults / American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009-US / At risk populations / At Risk Students / Attainment / Attitudes / Bachelors degrees / Barriers / College faculty / College graduates / College Outcomes Assessment / College Students / Colleges / Colleges & universities / Community Colleges / Constraints / Control groups / Developmental Studies Programs / Education / Education - economics / Education - trends / Education policy / Educational Attainment / Educational systems / Elementary school students / Enrollment Trends / Enrollments / Female / Financial services / Graduation Rate / Gravity / Higher Education / Humans / Intervention / Labor economics / Male / Minority groups / Nontraditional students / Outcomes of Education / Policy making / Public opinion / Reform / Remedial education / Risk / School Demography / Schools / Secondary schools / Social cohesion / Social programs / Social Work / Socioeconomic Factors / Student financial aid / Students - statistics & numerical data / Success / Support services / Teenagers / Training Support / Transitional Programs / United States / Universities / Websites / Women / World War II / Young Adult / Young Adults / Youth