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A COMPARISON OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS BY PROGRAM AREAS
Introduction
The public community college system of Florida is made up of twenty-eight institutions with over 90 main campuses or centers and course offerings at over 2,000 off-campus sites. This vast array of locations brings the first two years of postsecondary education within commuting distance of 99 percent of the state's population. The institutions are under the direct control of local Boards of Trustees with system-wide coordination provided by the State Board of Community Colleges located in Tallahassee.
Mission
The mission of the Florida Community College System (CCS) covers five broad areas:
- Provide lower division undergraduate education
- Prepare students directly for vocations requiring less than baccalaureate degrees
- Provide the appropriate range of student development services to ensure increases in retention and graduation rates
- Promote economic development for the state through the provision of special programs
- Provide community service
These different areas are addressed through the AA and AS degree and certificate programs, supplemental vocational, adult education and college preparatory courses, and recreation and leisure activities.
Degree programs consist of a designed course of study that leads to either the Associate in Arts, which is the university parallel program, or the Associate in Science for persons going directly into the world of work. AA degree recipients are assured entrance into the State University System (SUS) under the Articulation Agreement. AS degree holders may also transfer into the SUS, but their course work is evaluated on an individual basis.
Certificate programs are courses of study that take less than two years and prepare students for specific vocational fields. People who already hold AS degrees, certificates, or have on-the-job training may enhance or upgrade their skills through continuing education or supplemental vocational courses.
Adult education enrolls persons who are no longer willing or able to attend regular high school and moves them toward high school completion. For some, this means attaining basic or functional literacy while for others the outcome is an adult high school diploma or the general equivalency diploma (GED). Functional literacy is often a prerequisite for employment.
Persons who have completed high school but are not yet academically ready for college are served by the college preparatory program. This program provides instruction in reading, English, mathematics and English-as-a-second language. Many of the students in this program are older and have been out of high school for several years. This program allows them to refresh their skills and then proceed with college level work.
The final mission section is community service. One method of fulfilling this component is through the programmatic area of recreation and leisure (R&L). R&L consists of avocational courses such as stained glass. This type of instruction is fully self-supporting and is not included in the enrollment calculations of the colleges for state funding purposes. Therefore, this type of service is not included in the following demographic information.
Course Classifications
As would be expected with such a broad mission, the demographics of students served are also quite broad. While individual students have specific educational intents, the demographics presented in this report are based upon the students taking a certain classification of courses and not student intent. There is a general alignment between course type and award, but students move among course types as is necessary to meet their goal. Most of the courses required for an AA degree are classified as Advanced and Professional; while most of the AS courses are Postsecondary Vocational. These two areas are comprised of college credit courses that are potentially transferrable to a university.
Certificate courses are usually found in either Postsecondary Vocational or Postsecondary Adult Vocational. This is because the system offers two types of certificates: college credit certificates which are comprised of college credit courses and thus come from the Postsecondary Vocational area and vocational credit certificates which are comprised of clock hour courses and come from the Postsecondary Adult Vocational area. The courses in Postsecondary Adult Vocational are not college credit nor transferrable.
Adult Education courses prepare students to take the GED or lead to an adult high school diploma. College Preparatory and Supplemental Vocational do not lead directly to awards, but provide needed support services and/or opportunities for obtaining additional job related skills. College Preparatory courses are required for persons who fail any section of the statewide entry level placement test. This area contains courses that provide pre-college skills in mathematics, reading and English. Supplemental Vocational is a non-credit area established to provide short courses in skill areas needed by individuals already working in field.
Group Demographics
Due to the major focus of the course category, the typical student in an area ages as one goes from Adult Education, to College Preparatory, to Advanced and Professional and on to Postsecondary Vocational, Postsecondary Adult Vocational and finally Supplemental Vocational. Using age as a rubric, the group demographics will be presented in the same order. All of the following discussion is based upon data extracted from the Student Data Base as submitted by the individual colleges for fall term 1993, 1994 and 1995. Tables displaying the exact percentages are included at the end of the report.
Adult Education
Students taking Adult Education courses were about fifty-five percent female and forty-five percent male. This area had a larger percentage of black students than any of the others. The modal age group was 17 or less and approximately eighty percent of the students were part-time. As expected, the main identified intent was an adult high school diploma and very few were on financial aid. This area also had the highest percentage of disabled students.
College Preparatory
College Preparatory was the only area that was sixty percent or more female. Both black and Hispanic students represented a higher proportion of students than in the student body as a whole. The average age for this area was less than Advanced and Professional, but the modal age group was the same, 26-35 years old. Slightly over half of the students taking these courses were 21 years of age or over. About one-third were full-time and two-thirds indicated an AA degree as their educational intent. Almost four percent were disabled.
Advanced and Professional
Advanced and Professional was the most populous group, serving approximately 250,000 students each of these terms. A and P was fifty-nine percent female and two-thirds white. The percentage of both black and Hispanic students increased slightly during this time frame. The median age was in the 22-25 group and slightly over one-third attended full-time. As expected, the educational intent for two-thirds of the students was the AA degree. About two and a half percent were disabled and about one-third were receiving some type of financial aid in fall 1995.
The percent of students receiving grants varied more than the other characteristics during this time. Possible explanations for that include changes in calculations that occurred as part of the reauthorization process and a philosophical shift from favoring independent students to favoring dependent ones. As the impact of various changes emerges over the course of one year, new changes are often implemented the following year to counteract unintended consequences.
Postsecondary Vocational
Postsecondary Vocational students were very similar to those in A and P. Part of this was due to the large crossover between the two groups as identified by the educational intent percentages. The main differences were in age and class level. PSV students were slightly older and more were sophomores.
In spite of PSV being the major source of AS and college certificate courses, more students taking these courses had an intent of AA than AS. This may be partly due to the intent field not being updated very often in the SDB. This field often represents the initial intent of the student upon first contact with a college. Very few community college students officially inform the institution of changes in intent.
PSV was fifty-nine percent female with the ethnic distribution being fairly representative of the student body as a whole. The modal age group was 26-35 with about fifty percent of the students over 25. A third of the students were full-time and about two and a half percent were disabled. These students experienced the same changes in financial aid grants as those taking A and P courses.
Postsecondary Adult Vocational
The gender distribution of Postsecondary Adult Vocational was the same as the other areas with fifty-six percent female. Black students were over represented compare to the student body as a whole and only one-fourth of these students were full-time. In keeping with the outcome of PSAV courses, the major educational intent of students was a certificate. There was a rather dramatic increase in this percentage during the time period under consideration. It is uncertain how much of this is due to changes in student intent and how much to changes in reporting. Again, about two and a half percent were disabled and students experienced the same type changes in financial aid grants as those taking A and P courses, although at a lower level.
Supplemental Vocational
Supplemental Vocational had the smallest percentage of Hispanic students of any area considered. It also had the highest average age and smallest percentage of full-time students. Full-time status was almost certainly due to also taking courses in other areas. The major intent for this group was Other and disabled students comprised only about one percent. Very few students were receiving financial aid and again those were due to also taking courses in other areas.
Conclusion
As one considers the demographics of these various areas, it is clear there is an underlying relationship between the purpose of the area and the students served. It is also apparent that students are moving among the different areas as needed. This is a strong indication that the system is serving the needs of the students and not placing artificial barriers in their way. This movement among areas should be kept in mind when considering changes in programs or types of courses offered.
For further information please contact:
Dr. Patricia "Pat" Windham, Director
Office of Educational Effectiveness and Research
Florida Division of Community Colleges
1340 Turlington Building
325 West Gaines Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400
(904)488-0555 Ext. 172
SunCom: 278-0555 Ext. 172
Fax: (904)-488-9763
E-mail: Pat@dcc.firn.edu