A new report from the Working Students Success Network (WSSN) describes some of the barriers that low-income students face and identifies practices that can make a significant impact on student success.
“Many of our students live on the edge,” said Dr. Scott Ralls, president of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and former president of the 58-college North Carolina Community College System.
“They turn to community colleges, but they struggle with financial insecurity issues that range from housing and transportation to food,” he added. “In many cases, regardless of what we do in terms of other types of efforts, such as program pathways and counseling services, students can be a car breakdown away from dropping out or stopping out. When they stop out, they often don’t come back.”
WSSN is a consortium of 19 community colleges in Arkansas, California, Virginia and Washington that was launched in 2014 by a group of philanthropic organizations. The goal of the consortium is to address the broad financial issues of low-income students, take a holistic approach and try to find new and comprehensive ways to advance retention and student success. These colleges are working with Achieving the Dream (ATD), a national college reform organization.
“We’re trying to raise the awareness of these kinds of challenges and help colleges come up with strategies where they can meet some of these needs, which will give those students a better shot at retaining and succeeding at college,” says Carol Lincoln, senior vice president of ATD.
For the report released Monday, WSSN hired DVP-Praxis to conduct a study focused on documenting services its colleges have designed and delivered to students to help address basic needs and improve financial stability, as well as assessing the implementation. Data was collected from October 2015 to June 2017.
Some major issues that face low-income students are transportation, food and housing security. Simple, consistent services such as giving bus passes, having a food pantry, helping students apply for public benefits and providing child care can make the difference between a student succeeding or dropping out.
