Community Support and College Success
This project was awarded the Small Research Grant by the Spencer Foundation in 2020.
Despite expanded access to higher education, sharp inequities remain in college completion rates, especially among lower-income students and students of color. National figures show that fewer than half of Hispanic and Black students, and under one-fifth of low-income students, earn a degree within six years. Institutional efforts to improve retention have made limited progress, often sidestepping the structural racism and classism embedded in academic systems that shape students’ daily realities.
Community-based organizations (CBOs) have stepped into this gap, developing College Success Programs (CSPs) that accompany students beyond admission. Grounded in community trust and culturally responsive approaches, these programs aim to sustain persistence and improve degree attainment. Early evidence points to their promise, yet systematic evaluation of how these programs operate and which elements most influence student outcomes remains scarce.
This mixed-method study seeks to address that absence. It will examine how CBO-led CSPs conceptualize, enact, and maintain college success among underrepresented students. The study will analyze which conditions CBOs identify as central to persistence, what specific supports they offer, how students experience those supports, and what measurable effects emerge in graduation data. The broader aim is to distill effective strategies that can inform institutional policy and guide both educational systems and community organizations in fostering equitable pathways to degree completion for students of color and those from lower-income families.