Report: Community College Pell Grant Recipients Less Likely to Transfer to Four-Year Schools
Credit: FG Trade / Getty Images- A Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond report found that 20% of non-Pell recipients transferred from community colleges to four-year institutions, while only 10% of Pell recipients did.
- The authors conclude that the reasons behind the disparity may be that Pell recipients are typically lower-income students who face more educational barriers than other students.
- Community colleges enroll a large number of first-generation, low-income, and other students who face more barriers to education. Community colleges around the country are aiming to fight basic-needs insecurities.
“Success” is relative, but, by one report’s measures, community college students who receive Pell Grants are succeeding less than their non-Pell recipient peers.
The report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (Richmond Fed) on community college students entering the 2019-2020 school year found that persistence, the rate at which students complete their associate degrees, is almost identical between the two groups of students.
However, when it comes to going on to earn bachelor’s degrees, Pell Grant recipients face a discrepancy. According to the report, 20% of non-Pell recipients transferred into four-year institutions, while Pell recipients successfully transferred at half the rate (10%).
Overall, the study found that Pell recipients — who make up about 46% of first-time, full-time community college students — are less “successful” than non-Pell students. Pell Grant students in community college experience “success” at a 40% rate, while non-Pell students have a 53% rate.
The Richmond Fed defines success for degree- and certificate-seeking students over a four-year span as:
- Earning an associate degree
- Earning a diploma or credit-bearing certificate
- Earning an industry- or employer-recognized licensure or credential
- Transferring to a four-year institution before degree or award attainment
- Persisting in enrollment (while earning at least 30 credit hours)
However, these differences don’t necessarily mean that the Pell Grant system is less effective at graduating low-income students.
“Students who qualify for and receive Pell Grant funding may have substantively different characteristics than non-Pell students — differences that could be driving the differences in outcomes,” the report said.
“But there is certainly more to this story. Not only is there a difference in the overall success rate between these two groups, but there are also observable differences in the ways in which they succeed.”
Pell Recipients Are More Likely to Face Educational Barriers
The researchers concluded that while non-Pell students are most likely to succeed, they also face different barriers to education than their Pell-recipient counterparts.
Pell recipients — who must come from lower-income backgrounds to qualify — are more likely to experience housing, food, and childcare insecurities.
These statistics also align with previous reports that college students who were food insecure were less likely to get their bachelor’s degrees than those who were food secure (21% vs. 36%).
Community colleges typically enroll more students of color, first-generation students, student-parents, and adult learners — those who are more likely to be Pell-eligible and face more educational barriers.
Fighting Basic Needs Insecurities at Community Colleges
Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC) in Minnesota recently received over $26,000 in state grants to help keep its students fed.
RCTC largely serves part-time and rural students. The college found that 38% of its students indicated being food insecure within the previous 30 days, and 47% were struggling financially at the time of reporting.
“Choosing to pay for gas versus food, those are the choices our students are forced to make,” Dr. Teresa Brown, vice president of student affairs at RCTC, previously told BestColleges. “So we try to look at this as holistically as we can. We have emergency grants that we also give to students, but, of course, those have limitations, too.”
Alongside a food pantry, the community college offers support to complete Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit forms and “grab-and-go” bags of food for students to pick up all over campus.
The Richmond Fed said it will continue to study support services programs to measure how well they’re helping Pell Grant recipients succeed.
One community college president in Oregon, Tim Cook of Clackamas Community College, is taking a unique approach to fighting basic needs insecurities by running 1,500 miles across the state to raise money and awareness.
A 2019 Hope Center survey of 14 Oregon colleges found that, within 30 days of responding, 41% of students had been food insecure, meaning they missed at least one meal or were unsure of how to pay for a meal. Twenty percent of respondents had been homeless in the previous year, and 52% reported being housing insecure in the previous year.
So Cook is running 32 miles every day to 17 colleges over 50 days to help change that.
“I’ve been concerned for several years [about] just the challenges students were facing around food and housing insecurity,” Cook previously told BestColleges.
“I was seeing it escalate and seeing students living in cars, seeing students struggle to find food — and you can’t learn if you don’t have a place to live and you don’t have food.”