The Costs of Completion: Student Success in Community College

Robin G. Isserles' book "The Costs of Completion" explores the community college completion crisis and proposes initiatives created in accordance with a care ethic to support first-generation students. She argues that disruptions are primarily driven by degree attainment and place learning and developing as afterthoughts, ignoring the complex lives of community college students.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 07 December 2021
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

The success of community colleges is a complex issue that requires a multifaceted approach. To address the completion crisis facing these institutions, we must consider the lived realities of students. The college-going experience of many students is interrupted, leading to longer time to completing a degree or even dropping out altogether. This crisis is contextualized by Robin G. Isserles in her book, The Costs of Completion, where she attributes it to the neoliberal policies that have shaped public community colleges over the past thirty years.

Isserles argues that the disinvestment of state funding has created austerity conditions, leading to an overreliance on contingent labor, excessive investments in advisement technologies, and a push to performance outcomes like retention and graduation rates for measuring student and institutional success.

The prevailing theory at the root of the community college completion crisis is academic momentum, which suggests that students need to build momentum in their first year by becoming academically integrated. Innovative disruptions have been implemented to improve on community college completion, but Isserles argues that they place learning and developing as afterthoughts while ignoring the complex lives that define many community college students.

To address this issue, Isserles takes a student-centered approach, drawing on more than twenty years of teaching, advising, and researching largely first-generation community college students. She proposes initiatives created in accordance with a care ethic, which strive to prioritize the well-being and success of students. These initiatives include providing more support services, such as counseling and academic advising, to help students navigate the challenges they face.

Isserles also emphasizes the importance of addressing the systemic issues that contribute to the completion crisis, such as poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to resources. She advocates for policies that promote equity and inclusion, such as increased funding for community colleges, expanded eligibility for financial aid, and improved support for students from marginalized communities.

In conclusion, the success of community colleges requires a comprehensive approach that considers the lived realities of students. By implementing initiatives created in accordance with a care ethic, we can help ensure that more students complete their degrees and achieve their goals. It is essential to address the systemic issues that contribute to the completion crisis and promote policies that promote equity and inclusion to create a more equitable and accessible higher education system.

Weight: 594g
Dimension: 161 x 237 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781421442075