Adult Students
Students shouldering adult responsibilities, like full-time work and family care, comprise a growing share of the community college student population. States policymakers are increasingly focused on improving college graduation rates among adult students, seeking to reach individuals who never attended college or who have some college but no degree. Yet, colleges too often are organized around serving recent high school graduates in their late teens and early twenties. How can we ensure that community colleges deliver on the promise of access and opportunity for adult students?
Less is more, or is it? Differences by Age and Gender in the Relationships Between Early Academic Momentum and College Completion
2024
Peter Riley Bahr, Claire A. Boeck, Yiran Chen, and Paula Clasing-Manquian.
Revise and resubmit to Research in Higher Education
Do older community college students build momentum toward graduation differently than their younger peers? One-third of students in community colleges are 25 years of age or older, and these students tend to have lower rates of completion than their younger peers. There is little research on how the factors that influence college completion differ across the wide range of ages found among community college students. Using multilevel statistical models to analyze data for Ohio’s community colleges, we investigate how the relationships between early academic momentum and the likelihood of completing a postsecondary credential vary by age. We disaggregate results by gender in light of prior evidence of differences in the educational experiences and outcomes of adult men and women. The measures of momentum, all observed in the first year in community college, include credits earned, credit success rate, enrollment continuity, passing college-level math, and passing college-level English. The college completion outcomes, observed over six years, include earning a postsecondary certificate, earning an associate degree from a community college, and earning a baccalaureate degree from a four-year institution. We find some differences and some similarities in how older and younger students build momentum toward a postsecondary credential, and how these patterns differ for men and women, revealing fruitful opportunities to strengthen the outcomes of older students.
Topics: Adult Students
In what contexts do adult students prosper? Differences in Relationships Between Age and Completion by Institutional Characteristics
In Press
Peter Riley Bahr, Yiran Chen, Claire A. Boeck, Paula Clasing-Manquian, and Phyllis Cummins
Community College Review
Objective: Policymakers in many states are endeavoring to increase graduation rates among older community college students. However, we know little about how the factors that influence college completion among older students differ from their younger peers. We aim to identify features of institutional contexts in which adult community college students are more likely to prosper, as evidenced by an elevated likelihood of graduating. Methods: Using a multilevel statistical approach to analyze administrative data for Ohio’s community colleges, we examine how associations between students’ age and their likelihood of graduating differ as a function of dosage-weighted exposure to six contextual characteristics that align with the organizational, human aggregate, and socially constructed dimensions of Strange and Banning’s (2015) socioecological framework for campus environments. Results: Contrary to expectations, we find more similarities than differences between older and younger students in how exposure to particular institutional characteristics is related to the likelihood of graduating. Only one of the six characteristics has a relationship of meaningful magnitude with the likelihood of graduating among students of any age. Specifically, exposure to classmates taking heavier course credit loads is positively related to the likelihood of graduating for students 40 years of age and older. Conclusion: Our findings point to two potential levers for strengthening outcomes of older students, namely incentivizing a full-time course load across the student population and creating opportunities for adult students, many of whom attend part-time, to take classes with a range of classmates, including younger classmates and classmates who are attending full-time.
Topics: Adult Students
Structuring Flexibility: Balancing Standardization and Flexibility in Postsecondary Education
2024
Matthew D. Regele, Sarah Woodruff, Abigail Helsinger, Maressa Dixon, Phyllis A. Cummins, and Peter Riley Bahr
Under review by American Educational Research Journal
Hyperlink coming soon.
A key challenge for postsecondary institutions is structuring programs to accommodate students managing adult responsibilities while simultaneously providing relevant skills and credentials in a timely manner. Through a study of Ohio Technical Centers (OTCs), we examine one approach to meeting this challenge. We find that, at least for some students, greater structure and standardization facilitate students’ planning while simultaneously allowing OTCs the flexibility to offer personalized support. Our findings build on research on interventions like guided pathways by highlighting an alternative approach and demonstrating a need for research on how standardization and flexibility interact to influence enrollment, progress, and completion for different student populations, as well as how different student needs might be best addressed at a system level.
Topics: Adult Students
Economic Mobility for Adult Learners: Strengthening Short-Term Skills Builder Course Sequences
2023
Kathy Booth, Pamela Fong, Peter Riley Bahr, Jennifer May-Trifiletti, and Yiran Chen
Center for Economic Mobility, WestEd
Community colleges are facing significant shifts in population demographics and regional economies that are upending traditional approaches to recruiting and retaining students. The current enrollment crisis highlights a fundamental service delivery issue: college structures are largely designed for firsttime, full-time students. This approach often poses challenges for students balancing work and family responsibilities, particularly in the context of rising inflation, scarce affordable housing, and reduced state funding for education. For many current and potential students, it is not clear that attending college is worth the opportunity costs.
Given the declining number of new high school graduates, many colleges are exploring strategies for attracting more students, including more adult learners. As colleges seek to grow enrollment of adult learners, one segment of the student population on which community colleges should focus their attention is skills builders: students who typically enroll in colleges for a short period of time, take and successfully complete a handful of career-oriented classes, and frequently translate their coursework into earnings gains. This practice guide introduces community college leaders, practitioners, staff, and institutional researchers to skills builders. It is intended to build collective knowledge about skills builders and support college teams as they explore how strengthening skills builder course sequences can be an enrollment and equity strategy at their college.
Topics: Adult Students; Upskilling and Reskilling; Education, Employment, and Earnings; Career and Technical Education
Mid- and Later-life Community College Students: ‘Off-time’ Education and the Significance of Intracohort Diversity
2023
Phyllis A. Cummins, Kathryn McGrew, Annabelle Arbogast, Peter Riley Bahr, and Yiran Chen
Community College Journal of Research and Practice
Through a gerontological lens, using grounded theory methods and both qualitative and quantitative data, we investigated the “off-time” enrollment of mid- and later-life (MLL) community college students (age 40+) to explore how their enrollment decisions and academic goals are situated in the timing and intersection of life events and transitions, such as the responsibilities of work and family. We conducted twelve focus group interviews with MLL community college students (n = 68) in Ohio and conducted a quantitative analysis of the distribution of academic goals by age group in Ohio’s 23 community colleges. We conclude that the foremost characteristic of MLL students as a group is its within-group heterogeneity and argue that the greatest barrier to serving MLL students is in how we have been thinking – or failing to think – about them. We take a first slice at disaggregating “adult” students and turn away from deficit narratives to identify opportunities and assets among MLLs. Finally, we offer a theory to explain how especially wide within-group diversity of MLL academic goals is produced by cohort divergence of life events, transitions and trajectories; diverse enrollment precipitants; and individual point-of-time appraisals of lifetime elapsed and lifetime remaining. We suggest that community colleges, already leaders in adult education, are in a unique position to effectively serve MLL students by recognizing and accommodating their diversity. We present implications and strategies for colleges, policymakers and researchers based on our findings.
Topics: Adult Students
Is Age Just a Number? A Statewide Investigation of Community College Students’ Age, Classroom Context, and Course Outcomes in College Math and English
2022
Peter Riley Bahr, Claire A. Boeck, and Phyllis A. Cummins
Research in Higher Education
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-021-09660-w
Students 25 years of age and older comprise one-third of the population in public two-year institutions, and these students face significant disadvantages in first-year retention and eventual graduation. Successfully passing college math and college English are important steps for adult students in building momentum toward a degree. Classroom context and classroom experiences play important roles in students' likelihood of passing college math and English. However, little is known about how the contextual features and experiences that are associated with the likelihood of passing differ depending on students’ age. Using multilevel models and statewide administrative data, we examine variation by age in relationships between students’ likelihood of passing a college math or English course and the characteristics of the course itself, peers in the course, the instructor teaching the course, and student behaviors that may bear on course outcomes.
Topics: Adult Students
Are there age disparities in community college completion? Evidence from Ohio’s Community Colleges
2022
Peter Riley Bahr, Rooney Columbus, and Yiran Chen
Community College Journal of Research and Practice
https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2021.1976308
Research points to an age disparity in college completion, with adult community college students (ages 25 years and older) being less likely to complete postsecondary credentials than their younger peers. However, research also demonstrates that adult community college students are more likely to report educational goals that do not culminate in a postsecondary credential, especially goals related to updating job skills or changing careers. Hence, it is unclear whether the age gap in college completion is a result of differences in goals or a result of obstacles to persisting in college for adult students. Here, we use multilevel models to analyze longitudinal data from the Ohio community college system on over 300,000 first-time students in order to measure the age gaps in the completion of three types of postsecondary credentials – certificates, associate degrees, and baccalaureate degrees – after accounting for differences in the distribution of students’ goals and other potentially relevant characteristics. We find that older students—both male and female—are more likely to complete certificates than their younger peers. Older women are more likely to complete associate degrees than younger women, while older men do not differ significantly from younger men in the likelihood of completing an associate degree. Conversely, older students are markedly less likely to complete baccalaureate degrees than younger students. Our results point to the potential value of increasing flexible access to baccalaureate degrees. Expanding community college baccalaureate offerings is a promising avenue for helping baccalaureate-seeking adult students achieve their goals.
Topics: Adult Students
Strengthening Outcomes of Adult Students in Community Colleges
2021
Peter Riley Bahr, Claire A. Boeck, and Phyllis Cummins
Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44007-7_3
Students who are over 24 years – older than the age deemed “traditional” for higher education – account for about one in every three students enrolled in community colleges. Unfortunately, their educational outcomes lag behind their younger peers. A greater understanding of what it means to be an adult student in higher education is a crucial step toward determining how postsecondary institutions, particularly community colleges, can improve adults’ experiences and chances of achieving their goals. With the overriding objective of providing guidance to stakeholders about how to strengthen adult students’ success and increase college completion, we draw from extant literature to develop a Multidimensional Conceptualization of Adult Students (MCAS). We propose a corresponding set of measures to identify adult students in a community college’s student population and to differentiate the gradations of experience, responsibility, and subject sense of adulthood that constitute adult status. We review evidence on adult students’ participation in higher education, how their approaches to college tend to differ from younger students, and community college programs and initiatives that aim to improve adult students’ outcomes. Finally, we discuss the alignment of the programs and initiatives with adult students’ learning needs and with the dimensions of the MCAS.
Topics: Adult Students
Living Longer, Working Longer, Learning Longer
2021
Phyllis Cummins, Peter Riley Bahr, and Takashi Yamashita
The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook on Aging and Work
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538129944/The-Rowman-and-Littlefield-Handbook-on-Aging-and-Work
In this chapter, we discuss changes in the age structure of the labor force, the need for continued skill upgrading over the life course to remain employable, patterns of participation in adult learning and development activities, and the role community colleges play in providing education and training to middle-aged and older adults. In an increasingly global and technology-based economy, it is relevant to compare the U.S. to other developed countries.
Topics: Adult Students
Barriers and Facilitators for Mid- and Later-life Community College Students: The Role of Faculty
2021
Phyllis Cummins, Annabelle Arbogast, Kathryn McGrew, and Peter Riley Bahr
Community College Journal of Research and Practice
https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2021.1876783
This qualitative study of students in mid- and later-life (MLL; age 40 and older) sought to address the role faculty play in facilitating student success and how institutions support faculty, especially adjunct faculty. Adjunct faculty teach a majority of classes at community colleges but are not provided the same professional development opportunities as tenure track faculty and are often not well integrated into the college system. Data were collected in focus groups with faculty (both adjunct and tenured) and students, supplemented by key informant interviews, at multiple community colleges in a Midwestern state. MLL students are a heterogeneous group and often have more demands on their time than do younger students. Our findings on the critical role faculty members play in helping MLL students succeed suggest that providing additional support for faculty is a valuable investment for community colleges.
Topics: Adult Students
Strategies Employed by Ohio Community Colleges to Improve Labor Market Outcomes for Older Students
2021
Oksana Dikhtyar, Phyllis A. Cummins, Kathryn McGrew, and Peter Riley Bahr
Community College Journal of Research and Practice
https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2020.1738289
To remain competitive in the labor market, many middle-aged and older adults need to upgrade existing or learn new skills through occupational training and education. Furthermore, as compared with the past, employers now are more willing to hire older workers after completing a credential due to a low unemployment rate. Moreover, employers often collaborate with community colleges to provide workforce training for their employees. Community colleges are the preferred choice for older students due to affordability, open-access admission, a greater number of credential options including short-term credentials, and convenient locations. However, little is known about challenges and opportunities for improving labor market outcomes at community colleges for adults ages 40 and older. Based on thematic analysis of student and faculty focus groups and individual interviews with staff and administrators at 23 Ohio community colleges, this paper identifies strategies community colleges employ to improve labor market outcomes for middle-aged and older adults (age 40 and older) and to meet the needs of employers. Additionally, challenges faced by older community college students during training, retraining, and finding employment are discussed.
Topics: Adult Students; Education, Employment, and Earnings
Community Colleges and Older Learners in Ohio Higher Education
2019
Phyllis Cummins, J. Scott Brown, Peter Riley Bahr, and Nader Mehri
Scripps Gerontology Center
About half of US workers are between the ages of 40 and 64 years. Many older adults entered the labor force with only a high school education when such training was more than adequate to secure stable employment. However, labor force participation rates (LFPR) vary by level of education. Individuals with only a high school diploma have lower LFPR than those with an associate’s degree or higher. Likewise, good paying jobs requiring only a high school diploma are in decline, while those requiring a postsecondary credential are increasing. Although tending to experience lower unemployment rates, older adults also tend to experience longer unemployment durations, especially during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, resulting in some older workers exiting the labor market. The high school education of many older workers is no longer adequate in the current labor market.
The Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) established a goal that 65% of 25 to 64 year-old state residents will have a postsecondary credential by 2025. Additionally, Finish for your Future establishes the goal to increase the proportion of adults over age 25 enrolled in public higher education in Ohio from the current 27% to at least 40% by 2025. Such increases are especially important given declining numbers of high school graduates in Ohio from a post-2000 peak of 137,000 in 2010 to a projected 108,000 in 2028. Attaining these goals is very unlikely without efforts to increase the enrollment of 40 to 64 year-old Ohioans. Informed by these issues, and focusing on public postsecondary institutions in Ohio, this study examines how Ohio students ages 25-39 and 40-64 are distributed across public higher education and the extent to which community college students ages 25-39 and 40-64 enroll on a part-time versus full-time basis?
Topics: Adult Students
Heterogeneity of Adult Learners in Higher Education
2018
Phyllis Cummins, J. Scott Brown, Peter Riley Bahr, and Nader Mehri
Adult Learning
Recent years have seen growing recognition of the importance of a college-educated workforce to meet the needs of employers and ensure economic growth. Lifelong learning, including completing a postsecondary credential, increasingly is necessary to improve employment outcomes among workers, both old and young, who face rising demands for new and improved skills. To satisfy these needs, many states have established postsecondary completion goals pertaining to the segments of their population ages 25 to 64 years. Although it is not always clear how completion goals will be attained for older students, it is widely recognized that community colleges will play an important role. Here, we use data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to examine enrollment trends by part-time and full-time status for students enrolled in Ohio’s public postsecondary institutions from 2006 to 2014. Unlike previous research that considers all students 25 and older as a homogeneous group, we divide older learners into two groups: ages 25 to 39 and ages 40 to 64. We find that adults in these age groups who attend a public college are more likely to attend a community college than they are a 4-year institution and are more likely to attend on a part-time basis. We discuss the implications of these trends and their relevance to college administrators.
Topics: Adult Students