Having a structured academic pathway, a student-centered culture and culturally sensitive leadership are three conditions that can help community colleges successfully serve first-generation, low-income students, according to a study released today by the Washington-based Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education.

"Community colleges are critical gateways for those students so we're looking for the best practices to help these students get through, persist and successfully move on" to four-year colleges, said Dr. Chandra Taylor Smith, Pell Institute director and vice president for research.

In "Bridging the Gaps to Success: Promising Practices for Promoting Among Low-Income and First-Generation Students", researchers led by Taylor Smith focused on six Texas community colleges with large proportions of socioeconomically disadvantaged students, but still had higher than predicted transfer rates. Texas, with a large low-income, first-generation youth population, has taken an aggressive approach with its ‘Closing the Gaps by 2015' initiative, which was adopted by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in 2000. The initiative seeks to improve participation and success in higher education by under-represented students.

The schools chosen for the study were Laredo Community College, Northeast Texas Community College, Southwest Texas Junior College, Trinity Valley Community College, Tarrant County College-Southeast Campus and Victoria College. Schools were selected based on several factors including the difference between actual and expected transfer rates of low-income students, the overall socioeconomic status of its student population and the student diversity. 

The schools had actual transfer rates that ranged between 18 to 25 percent, higher than the predicted rates of 11 to 18 percent. Their actual rates are higher than the state average of 20 percent. This is comparable to the national average of 25 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Researchers traveled to the schools on two-day visits and interviewed administrators, faculty and staff, as well as current and former students who transferred to four-year colleges.