Retention and Completion of Underrepresented Students in Higher Education; A Look at the Seattle Colleges

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for further attention and action towards creating effective retention efforts among underrepresented students in higher education given their underrepresentation in college completion. First, I present the current state of underrepresented students in higher education, highlighting the Hispanic/Latino experience, as a subgroup of historically underrepresented students, and emphasizing the need to examine community colleges as they are the primary higher education destination for these students. Second, I present literature describing best practices in retention and completion for underrepresented students in higher education and, additionally, best practices in retention and completion in community colleges across the nation. Third, I explore an urban community college system in Seattle, WA, in its effort to increase the retention and completion rates of their students, of which will be evaluated against literature supporting best practices. Finally, recommendations for future programming to address both the needs of this population of students and/or other underrepresented students to create better systems towards increasing retention and completion will be offered to the community colleges explored.