Report Advocates More Time On Student Persistence

Abstract:

Policy makers should be focusing on student persistence as much as college access, according to a University of California report “Beyond Access: How the First Semester Matters for community College Students’ Aspirations and Persistence.” The report focuses on recent California high school graduates who are entering community college with the goal of transferring to a four-year institution in order to obtain a bachelor’s degree. The majority of those students do not realize their goal of obtaining a bachelor’s degree and the report argues that more should be done to increase student persistence while maintaining a focus on college access.

The full article was originally published in NASFAA’s Today’s News on 8/23/07.