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May 23, 2006
Issue Focus
Bringing Attention to Community College Programs for Low-Income Students
This article by John Hutchins and Tom Brock originally appeared in the March 27, 2006, issue of Community College Week.
The Education Writers Association recently hosted a two-day meeting for 30 working journalists. The stated purpose was to give daily reporters an opportunity to learn from experts about community colleges. The real goal, though, was to persuade the reporters that community colleges were even worth covering, because most education reporters — and editors — see their work as focused strictly on the K-12 beat — and, occasionally, on the four-year college beat.
But reporters aren’t the only ones that might need to be persuaded that community colleges have great stories to tell. Community college leaders themselves may not always make the best use of the media to tell the public why their schools matter — and how they are tackling some of society’s most vexing problems.
The readers of Community College Week hardly need to be told that community colleges are doing good work. The general public, however, is largely unaware that community colleges enroll nearly half of all students in higher education — more than 11 million annually. Or that community colleges offer an important pathway for many out of poverty and to better jobs.
In reality, community colleges are a gateway to the middle class, and they will only become more important as the wage gap between those with college degrees and those without increases, and as the population of students in higher education becomes more diverse — racially, ethnically, and economically.
The story of how community colleges are helping low-income students overcome challenges to success particularly deserves more public attention. Keeping students in school and on track remains a real quandary for community colleges. Only 31 percent of students who entered community college in 1995-1996 with the intention of earning a degree or certificate had met their goal six years later. In focus groups that MDRC conducted, current, former and potential students identified three main barriers to success: having difficulty paying for school, feeling unprepared academically and unsupported on campus, and coping with competing demands of work, family, and school.
Community colleges and research organizations around the country are testing innovative new strategies to deal with each of these issues. MDRC is conducting several such studies with the support of major foundations and the federal government. Early results from one of these projects, Opening Doors, offers promising news about two different types of programs — one focusing on improving instruction while “personalizing” the community college experience and the other on offering performance-based scholarships and enhancing counseling services. Here are further details about those projects:
- Small learning communities: At Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY, hundreds of low-income first-semester students take three “linked classes” together, in small groups of up to 25. The courses are in different subjects (including English) that are closely related in terms of scheduling and content. In addition, students receive enhanced tutoring, extra counseling, and vouchers to purchase books. The result? Improved course and test pass rates, particularly in English, according to a random assignment study conducted by MDRC. So far, however, the program has not led to any improvement in student retention: only about half the students who enrolled in small learning communities were enrolled at Kingsborough one year later.
- Performance-based scholarships and counseling: At two community colleges in the New Orleans area, low-income mothers were offered $1,000 scholarships per semester that were paid in increments based on passing courses and on their maintaining a 2.0 grade point average. They also received extra counseling. Early research results suggest positive effects on semester-to-semester retention, grades, and courses passed. (Tragically, right after the program ended last summer, both campuses were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina.)
These are just two examples of the ways that community colleges are tackling tough issues. From a public relations point of view, these schools are turning what might be a story focused on a problem into one focused on a solution.
If your community college has a program that is addressing a compelling problem like student persistence, how can you get reporters interested? Here are four ideas:
- Explain why your program is special. Don’t be shy about telling reporters why your program is important to the larger community. Are you helping to develop an educated workforce for local industry? Partnering with the K-12 system to help students make the transition to college? Providing affordable and accessible opportunities for first-generation college students?
- Personalize the program. Reporters like compelling real-life stories. Connect them to students who are succeeding in your programs and to the teachers who are inspiring them. Invite reporters to attend classes.
- Connect your program to an issue already in the news. Reporters often use a national story as a “hook” for a local story. If a study is released on some national problem facing community colleges, share it with a local reporter and explain how your institution is confronting the issue.
- Develop your own school’s data. MDRC is participating in Lumina Foundation for Education’s Achieving the Dream initiative, which is encouraging community colleges to collect and use data on student outcomes to improve their programming. The more you know about the problems you confront, the better you are able to illustrate to the press and the public the challenges your programs are addressing.
The best argument for engaging the press is, of course, that it helps shape public opinion. Community colleges are facing a triple squeeze: increased demand for services as state universities become more selective, stagnant or declining financial aid, and rising tuition rates. The better the public understands the critical role that community colleges play in educating the current and future workforce of the nation, the more likely the public, and its elected representatives, will make the investments necessary to see that community colleges thrive.
John Hutchins is MDRC Publications Director. Tom Brock is Director of MDRC's Young Adults and Postsecondary Education policy area.
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