Community College Responses to Calls for Higher Completion Rates: The Cases of Three Community Colleges

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to understand how three diverse community colleges are interpreting and acting on federal initiatives to increase completion rates. The study attempted to answer four main research questions: (1) How do a selection of Kansas community colleges, as organizations, interpret the initiative to increase completion rates? (2) How are community colleges responding to how they understand the latest initiative? (3) What are obstacles to responding? (4) How are interpretation and response affected by Kansas Board of Regents, U.S. Board of Education, accreditation, or local policies? We have yet to understand how continuing calls for higher completion numbers, better student success, and more accountability affect morale, work environments, or public relations for personnel at community colleges. This dissertation attempted to address this deficiency through a multi-case study of three community colleges in Kansas. Administrators, faculty, and staff were interviewed to learn their perceptions, views, and beliefs about completion, the community college missions and values, and the latest initiative to increase completion rates. Almost no discrepancy between colleges was found, although a wide variety of views were discussed by participants. In general, interviewees believe that this latest initiative is a good goal, but without better definitions for completion and without better funding, the largest benefit of the current initiative is in its promotion of community colleges as viable providers of education, whether as bridges between K-12 education and four-year colleges or as contributors to the economic security of both graduates and communities through vocational programs.