An Analysis of Student Motivations for Withdrawal in a Community College. AIR 1995 Annual Forum Paper

Information was collected in 1993 from students who withdrew from courses in mid-term at a community college either because they were dropping a course or departing from the college. This report documents withdrawal patterns of students during the calendar year of 1994. Self-reported reasons for course/college withdrawal were identified and differences in withdrawal patterns across gender, ethnic, age groups, and academic curricula were identified. A Student Withdrawal Form, which is appended, was used to gather information on 15,918 withdrawals. Findings included: compared to actual enrollments, students withdrew from courses in the natural and physical sciences at a disproportionate rate, and mathematics represented the largest number of students within this group; allied health and public service had much lower withdrawal rates than their enrollments would suggest; when students withdrew from natural/physical science courses, they were more likely to retain other courses at the colleges, while when they withdrew from allied/technical courses, there were more likely to be departing from the college; there were few differences across curriculum areas for gender and racial/ethnic groups; the most common reason cited for withdrawal was conflict with work; more than 1,200 students who withdrew from the college felt the college could have prevented the withdrawal and cited reasons for their view. The student withdrawal form is attached. (Contains 11 references.) (SW)