Postsecondary education and training are increasingly the gateway to family-sustaining employment. While access to postsecondary education is a barrier for many low-income students, too many students who enter college fail to complete programs and attain credentials. Some students may leave after achieving short term goals, but most students, even nontraditional ones such as working adults, enter college with the goal of earning a certificate or degree. CLASP seeks to address both access and success challenges to ensure more low-income people succeed in the labor market.
Pressures of Work and Family Key Drivers for College Dropouts
By Tom Hilliard
The largest barrier to college completion is the pressure of work responsibilities. In fact, an overwhelming majority of college dropouts say that work and family commitments keep them from returning.
Those are some of the key findings of a new study by Public Agenda on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Public Agenda surveyed 600 current and former college students for its report, With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them: Myths and Realities about Why So Many Students Fail to Finish College. The report probes the reasons why some students complete their education while others do not, and followed up with interviews and focus groups.
The study finds that college students are struggling with adult responsibilities to a greater extent than most Americans may realize:
- More than half of all young adults who left college said that a major reason for leaving was needing to go to work and make money;
- While two-thirds of college dropouts have thought about going back, more than half cite the need to work full-time (56 percent) and family commitments (53 percent) as major reasons why returning would be difficult.
- Students who leave college are different from those who complete: they are less likely to have a scholarship or financial aid (31 percent to 57 percent), less likely to take out loans (31 percent to 49 percent), and more likely to choose their school on the basis of proximity to home or work (66 percent to 45 percent).
The report proposes policies that would improve college success for working adults, such as allowing part-time students to qualify for financial aid, cutting college attendance costs, and providing child care services. CLASP proposals that would help non-traditional students achieve college success can be found in Overcoming Obstacles, Optimizing Opportunities: State Policies to Increase Postsecondary Attainment for Low-Skilled Adults.
- Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield and Thomas Hilliard | Dec 10, 2009 Recommendations to Refocus WIA Title II on Career and Postsecondary Success
- Evelyn Ganzglass | Dec 10, 2009 Proposal to Create Career Pathways State Policy Leadership Grants Program
- Linda Harris and Evelyn Ganzglass | Oct 29, 2008 Creating Postsecondary Pathways to Good Jobs for Young High School Dropouts
- Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield and Julie Strawn | Sep 24, 2008 Congress Expands Student Aid and Supports Innovation in Student Success, Basic Skills and Workforce Partnerships
- Amy-Ellen Duke and Julie Strawn | Mar 12, 2008 Overcoming Obstacles,Optimizing Opportunities: State Policies to Increase Postsecondary Attainment for Low-Skilled Adults
- CLASP | Jan 25, 2010 Federal Policy Recommendations for 2010
- Evelyn Ganzglass | Dec 10, 2009 Proposal to Create Career Pathways State Policy Leadership Grants Program
- CLASP | Sep 01, 2009 Federal Policy Recommendations for 2009 and Beyond
- Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield and Evelyn Ganzglass | Jul 20, 2009 Letter to the House Committee on Education and Labor on the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR 3221)
- Matt Lewis | Jun 15, 2009 Distance Learning Can Help Low-Income Parents Attend School: TANF Agencies Should Adopt Supportive Policies (Revised)






