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Study: Only 35 percent get degrees in 6 years
By Scott Waldman
Updated 7:16 am, Tuesday, June 11, 2013
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Graduates Jeffery Rodriguez, left, Santa Pumpura, center, and Darnnell Jeffers applaud the speakers during college commencement on Friday, May 17, 2013, at Fulton-Montgomery Community College in Johnstown, N.Y. (Cindy Schultz / Times Union)
      
Just one-third of the students who enroll in the state's community colleges actually finish, a new study has found.

The study by the Center for an Urban Future, a Manhattan-based think tank that focuses on economic issues, found 35 percent of the students who enroll in community college graduate with an associate or bachelor's degree in six years.

School officials argue those numbers don't tell the whole story because not every student who enrolls in community college intends to graduate; some come only for a few courses.

The state's community colleges are often touted as a way to get people back to work. They are increasingly viewed as a practical and affordable way to streamline the typical four-year college experience while training students for jobs upon graduation. President Barack Obama traveled to Hudson Valley Community College in 2009 to promote his goal to have America lead the world with the highest proportion of college graduates.

Despite their poor performance in getting students to complete school, community colleges are still a vital part of the state economy, said Tom Hilliard, the report's author and a senior fellow at the center.

"The problem is not that community colleges lack value to the labor market and the local community," he said. "The problem is they fall short of their potential."

The report suggests that New York's community colleges are falling far short.

In New York City, just 29 percent of students graduate in six years.

Locally, Hudson Valley has a six-year graduation rate of 39 percent. It's even lower at Schenectady County Community College: 34 percent. Columbia-Greene was higher, at 43 percent, and Fulton-Montgomery had a 42 percent graduation rate. The highest rate in the state was Jefferson County, at 46 percent. Hostos, in the Bronx, was the lowest at 21 percent.

Of the 42,000 students who enrolled at community colleges statewide in 2002, only 15,000 graduated six years later with a degree: 26 percent graduated with an associate's degree, 9 percent with a bachelor's degree and 5 percent were still enrolled.

Community college officials point out that not every student who enrolls intends to complete a degree. Many come to the school to complete a few courses, to advance at a job or to change careers. To account for that variation, the study tracked whether students graduated from any institution of higher education six years after they started community college.

Still, SUNY is focused on improving the college completion rates because they are so important to the state's economy, spokesman David Doyle said.

"We are committed to ensuring that more students — even those who need the most assistance — have access to high-quality programs that produce real results," he said in a statement. "However, as noted in the report, we can't do it alone. We will continue to engage with stakeholders and our many constituencies to support this critical work."

To improve those numbers, New York needs to increase accountability for schools by publishing graduation rates, Hilliard said. The schools also need to do a better job of offering support services to students to keep them in school. Other states have had success with this, including Florida, where 52 percent of students graduate in six years, as well as Wisconsin, with 50 percent and Illinois, with 48 percent.

Since community colleges are open to anyone, students often come with many academic needs, SCCC vice president Angela Prestigiacomo said. The school devotes considerable resources to help them finish, she said, since many are at risk of not completing their education.

"Students come to community college, in particular, unprepared and with many barriers," she said. "Our goal is to help them succeed and that's a pretty daunting task sometimes."

She also said the study doesn't account for the students who are hired by employers before they even complete the program, which happens frequently in the culinary arts program at SCCC.

A primary reason for the low graduation rates are that so few incoming community college students are actually prepared for college-level work. Half need remedial courses in reading, writing and math, and the number grows to 8 out of 10 in New York City. Students who need even one remedial course are far less likely to make it to a second year of school.

At HVCC, the school has many different services to reduce blockades to graduation, spokesman Dennis Kennedy said. There are free, on-demand tutors, direct public transportation, child care and a study lounge just for veterans. Kennedy said there are other measures of success than simply completion, since so many students use the school as a way to find employment and not just for a degree. The school's internal numbers show 96 percent of students who don't complete either transfer or get into the job market.

New York's community college enrollment has over the last decade far outpaced that of the state's four-year colleges and universities. As community colleges added 28 percent more students, public four-year schools added 13 percent more students. In addition, the state cut community college funding by about 30 percent, adjusted for inflation, in the last decade, the report found.

Improving the graduation rate by 10 percent would add $150 million annually to the economy, the report found.