The Influence of Financial, Cultural and Social Capital on the Likelihood of Success of Community College Students

Download or read book The Influence of Financial, Cultural and Social Capital on the Likelihood of Success of Community College Students written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community colleges are an integral part of the postsecondary education system in the United States. Unfortunately, college completion rates continue to decline. Additionally, median income in the United States is also declining. The idea that each successive generation of students will do better than the previous one is quickly becoming a fantasy. Children born in a low socioeconomic status family will most likely remain in that status as they become adults. At no other time in the history of the United States has this been more likely. The middle class is becoming smaller and the gap between rich and poor is widening each year. The idea that education is the solution to many societal problems is ingrained in the national consciousness. Children are taught that education will elevate individuals beyond their economic situation. Community colleges were supposed to facilitate that elevation through expanded access. However, that promise has been broken for many students across the country. Thus, there is a need to investigate the underlying factors that contribute to success throughout the community college system. Drawing on the theoretical formulations of Becker, Bourdieu, Coleman, and Yosso, the researcher endeavored to investigate the relationship among the three forms of capital, financial, cultural and social, and success in community college. Success in community college was defined not only by how far the student progressed through the postsecondary education system, but also the student’s expectations for postsecondary degree attainment in high school. The main research question that was asked in this study was: In what ways do levels of financial capital, cultural capital, and social capital influence the likelihood of success in community college? Data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002-2012 were used to quantify the level of financial, cultural and social capital held by a nationally representative sample of high school students. Multilevel binary, ordinal, and multinomial logistic regression models, as well as discriminant function analysis, were employed in the analysis. The unweighted sample size for the study was 3,280. Through the use of survey weights and Taylor series expansion robust variance estimation techniques, 1.1 million high school students from across the United States were represented. The main findings of this study suggest that along with financial capital, cultural and social capital do contribute to the success of community college students. The most influential of these include: parental expectations, parental education, the tendency of individuals to associate with others of the same ethnicity, student-parent discussions, parents engaging other parents, and college information sources. While it may be difficult to influence financial capital levels, if the relationship between other types of capital and persistence in, completion of and transfer from the community college system can be better understood, it is feasible that the levels of capital can be influenced to effect changes in student outcomes.