ABSTRACT

Two-year public colleges serve roughly one-third of undergraduate students in the United States, and, like other types of colleges across the country, they face shifting population demographics. Additionally, completion rates at two-year institutions have received political and scholarly attention within states and across the nation in recent years. This study examined how the proportion of adult students, those 25 or older, influenced the graduation rates of two-year, public institutions. Based on multiple regression techniques using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the results of the study indicated that graduation rates decreased by less than 1% when the proportion of adult students increased by 1%. The results also revealed a negative relationship shared between graduation rates and the proportion of female students, part-time students, and the Pell Grant recipients.

摘要

两年制公立大学为美国大约三分之一的本科生提供服务，并且与全国其他类型的大学一样，它们面临着人口结构的变化。此外，近年来，两年制机构的完成率在各州和全国受到政治和学术关注。这项研究调查了 25 岁或 25 岁以上的成年学生的比例如何影响两年制公立机构的毕业率。基于使用综合高等教育数据系统 (IPEDS) 数据的多元回归技术，研究结果表明，当成年学生比例增加 1% 时，毕业率下降不到 1%。