College student persistence and dropout have been studied for decades, but little inquiry has focused on community college or private two-year college students. Although about half of first-time postsecondary students enroll in a two-year college, researchers understand little about why only approximately a quarter of these degree-seekers complete…

A qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological study conducted through interviews with 20 non-traditional (NT) Hispanic/Latino female part-time community college students and located at an urban community college in southern New Jersey explored for factors of persistence and discontinuation. Six themes emerged. Theme 1: Institutional persistence…

The project reported here considers community college students who quit within a semester of study, as opposed to not finishing an entire college program. The latter subject has commanded the better part of the attention devoted to the college dropout. Community college faculty and administrative staff admit to a fairly high dropout rate for…

Pascarella and Terenzini developed five factorially derived institutional integration scales to operationalize Tinto's conceptual model of college student withdrawal. Some psychometric characteristics of these scales were estimated for disadvantaged students at an urban commuter college. The scales showed improved characteristics after item…

Information was collected in 1993 from students who withdrew from courses in mid-term at a community college either because they were dropping a course or departing from the college. This report documents withdrawal patterns of students during the calendar year of 1994. Self-reported reasons for course/college withdrawal were identified and…

A study of student attrition rates in 15 Florida junior colleges considered students' educational objectives and plans to reach them. Responses show two groups commonly mislabeled dropouts: those who originally planned to take one or more courses and those who left planning to return. Only two percent were considered legitimate dropouts. (JT)

Effects of credit load on the intent-turnover relation at a community college were assessed. Results of a stepwise logistic regression model for 316 students indicate that intent was more strongly related to turnover among students carrying 13 or more credit hours as compared to students carrying fewer credit hours. (TJH)

A study was conducted in December 1994 at Miami-Dade Community College (M-DCC), in Florida, to determine the current educational status of Associate in Arts (AA) and Associate in Science (AS) students identified as leavers in 1991-92. Results showed that of 8,475 M-DCC leavers: (1) 36% were considered to be employed in the state since they could…

A model is presented for creating a community college student typology for the purpose of defining successful and unsuccessful student outcomes for each typology segment. The need for such a typology is addressed, as well as a description given of the computer techniques used to gather the baseline data upon which the typology is based, and the…

A survey of students in the community and technical colleges and four-year college of the University of Akron showed withdrawal often occurred because of job conflicts, financial problems, and need for a temporary break. Nonpersisters would have been encouraged by improved counseling and advising, financial aid, and instruction. Persisters would…

This annotated bibliography focuses on literature of student attrition at the college level published for the most part between 1965 and 1973. The articles focus mostly on research studies on attrition. Descriptive articles have been included when they were perceived to extend the concept of attrition. Dissertations and theses have not been…

The reasons for withdrawal by students qualified to return to Bronx Community College (BCC) were studied. A short survey form consisting of three open-ended questions was sent to 153 of the dropouts, while a long form with about 30 objective questions was sent to 1,498 dropouts. Thirty-two responses to the short form and 250 responses to the long…

Follow-up studies were conducted at William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) to obtain a profile of students who stopped attending WRHC before earning 48 credit hours. Nine studies were conducted between 1974 and 1978, surveying students who, after attending WRHC for at least one semester failed to enroll for the following semester. A consolidation of…

This working paper is a staff paper prepared to elicit discussion of issues as they relate to degree completion and persistence in Indiana's public postsecondary education. This is based on a requirement from the Indiana General Assembly for the Commission of Higher Education to "develop a definition for and report biennially on" degree…

In spring 1991, a study was conducted of non-returning students from the seven 2-year Regional Campuses (RC's) of Kent State University to identify demographic characteristics of such students, determine the reasons they did not continue their enrollment, and obtain their opinions regarding the academic and student services at the RC's. Of the…