Investigating Why Academically Successful Community College Students Leave College without a Degree

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Justin Ortagus, University of Florida; Benjamin Skinner, University of Florida; Melvin Tanner, University of Florida

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
README.pdf application/pdf 143.2 KB 11/18/2021 12:17:PM
example_survey_instrument.pdf application/pdf 98.7 KB 11/18/2021 11:58:AM

Project Citation: 

Ortagus, Justin, Skinner, Benjamin, and Tanner, Melvin. Investigating Why Academically Successful Community College Students Leave College without a Degree . Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-11-18. https://doi.org/10.3886/E155002V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary These files contain instructions for accessing data and scripts to replicate the analyses for "Investigating Why Academically Successful Community College Students Leave College without a Degree"

The abstract for the paper is found below:

Even though a postsecondary degree can offer economic, social, and civic benefits, many community college students leave without earning a degree—including some who have performed well academically and made substantial progress toward graduation. To better understand the factors contributing to early exit, we surveyed a number of former students in a large community college system. We improve the generalizability of the survey responses through multilevel regression with poststratification (MRP), which we use to reweight the responses to better represent the population in our original survey frame. We find that tuition and fees, living expenses, and no longer being eligible for financial aid are the factors contributing to early exit for the largest share of students. We also find variation in both financial and non-financial factors across subgroups, suggesting that targeted supports may be useful in helping students persist or return to college and complete their degree.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms community college; drop out; stop out; survey; multilevel regression with poststratification
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Florida
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 2019 – 2019
Universe:  View help for Universe Previously successful community college students who left prior to earning a degree
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source administrative records
Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) web-based survey
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation individuals

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-11-18]

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