ERIC Review: What Community Colleges Should Do to Assist First-Generation Students

In the years since World War II, institutions of higher education have been called upon to educate an increasing number of diverse students with a wide variety of backgrounds and needs. From 1984 to 1994, for example, the total number of White undergraduates in institutions of higher education increased by 5.1 %. During the same period, the number of Asian American, Hispanic, African American, and Native American undergraduates increased by 61 % (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1998). Not only have these institutions been challenged to serve an increasingly diverse student body, they also have increasingly been held accountable for the success of these students. Educators are attempting to understand the students who are coming to college in order to help them be successful. One group of students that educators are trying to understand better than in the past are those students who are the first in their family to attend college. These first-generation students, who do not tend to experience the academic success of their peers, made up 45 % of all undergraduates in 1995-96 and are of particular interest to community college leaders. In 1994, 55 % of all first-generation students attended public two-year colleges (ERI & IHEP, 1997). The purpose of this review is to answer the global question: What should community colleges do to help first-generation students be successful? The review is based on an examination of the literature relating to first-generation college students. The sources cited include studies of students at both two-year and four-year institutions; the majority of these are public, but a few are private. The studies span the years from 1982 to 1999. They include case studies that involve both students and institutions, small samples of students at two- and four-year institutions, focus groups, longitudinal studies, and research using national-level data. Four questions are addressed in this paper: How is first-generation student defined? Do first-generation students differ from their peers prior to college enrollment? Do first-generation students differ from their peers after college enrollment? What should colleges do to help first-generation students? The paper concludes with a discussion of whether the recommendations made by researchers for improving the success of first-generation students, which are often based on data gathered from four-year institutions, are relevant in the community college environment. How Is First-Generation Defined? Based upon the works cited in this review, the term first-generation has several definitions. Most researchers have defined first-generation in one of three general ways. The broadest definition of first-generation, and the one used least in the studies cited, was that neither parent had completed a college degree (Chaney & Associates, 1998; U.S. Department of Education, 1996; Willett, 1989). The most restrictive definition of first-- generation, and the one used second most frequently by the authors cited in this study, was that a student must be the first member of the family to attend college (Hellman & Harbeck, 1997; Inman & Mayes, 1999; Terenzini & Associates, 1994; Ting, 1998; York-Anderson & Bowman, 1991). The definition of first-generation students used most frequently was that their parents had no college experience. This definition, or a variation thereof, was used by eight of the researchers cited (Billson & Terry, 1982; Brooks-Terry, 1988; McGregor & Associates, 1991; NCES, 1998; Pratt & Skaggs, 1989; Riehl, 1994; Terenzini & Associates, 1996; Williams, 1998). Do First-Generation Students Differ from Their Peers Prior to College Enrollment? Research indicates that first-generation students differ from their peers in many ways prior to college enrollment, including their demographic characteristics, the importance they place on college, their aspirations, their perceived level of family support for attending college, their institutional choice and commitment, their pre-college knowledge and behaviors, and their entering academic skills and confidence levels. …