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Today, @NewAmericaEd released a survey of current and would-be community college students to look at the reasons why we saw a 10% decline in #highered enrollment this fall. 1/ https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/community-college-enrollment-survey/
Working w/ @Lake_Research, we surveyed 1,696 adults over 4 groups: 501 "continuers" enrolled in spring 2020/fall 2020; 500 "stop-outs" enrolled in spring but not fall; 195 "new students" who considered in spring/enrolled in fall; 500 "aspirants" who considered & didn't enroll. 2/
Finding #1: COVID-19 is a serious health & economic threat that distracts from academics. Over 60% of each group are concerned about catching COVID-19; 8-12% have already been infected; over 60% feared catching COVID from in-person instruction. 3/
Each group also experienced a high rate of unemployment: 23% of continuers, 24% of stop-outs, 31% of new students, and 21% of aspirants have lost their job since the start of the pandemic. Of those who work, around 60% of each group work essential jobs. 4/
Many in our groups are experiencing signs of extreme financial precarity. 35-49% have fallen behind on a bill, applied for public benefits, or received food from a pantry, program, or friend/family during the pandemic. 16-23% have been threatened w/foreclosure/eviction. 5/
Finding #2: Reasons why stop-outs and aspirants did not enroll. For stop-outs, the major reasons were financial. 41% say they had to work and 38% could no longer afford their program. 23% did not want to take online courses. 19% said they didn't have tech/internet. 6/
For aspirants the major reason they didn't enroll was uncertainty because of the pandemic (47%) followed by financial considerations (44% could no longer afford program; 37% had to work). 7/
Finding #3: Our continuers and new student group were more likely to have higher attainment goals compared to stop-outs & aspirants. And our continuers had more online experience. 8/
Continuers and new students were also more likely to think their colleges had done a good job with COVID-19 precautions & adapting to online ed compared to stop-outs. 9/
Finding #4: Enrollments should recover, but not entirely. Majorities of both stop-outs (57%) & aspirants (63%) still think it is likely they will enroll in the future. Good news, but clearly many aren't sure they will return. 10/
One hook to be on the lookout for? About half of stop-outs need licenses to work and most won't get one unless they finish their programs. Half of aspirants and stop-outs also believe they'll need additional training in the future. 11/
Another hook? Flexibility in these uncertain times and once the pandemic ends. While 21-34% say they prefer fully in-person learning, a plurality in each of our groups would like to mix online and in-person education, with 19-29% wanting to be fully online. 12/
If you've gotten this far, thanks for taking a look at these important data trying to shed light on the difficult decisions & sacrifices #ccstudents have had to make during the pandemic. We'll be analyzing the data further by various demographics in the coming months. /end
