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Education Dive
Minority and first-gen students feel greater belonging at 2-year colleges, study finds
Natalie Schwartz@nmschwartz23
Jan. 2, 2020
Dive Brief:
First-generation and underrepresented minority students attending
community colleges report they feel a greater sense of belonging at
those institutions than their peers, according to a recent analysis of
federal data.
The researchers found the opposite at four-year colleges. Students who
were not first-generation or from underrepresented minority groups were
more likely to report a higher sense of belonging there than other
students.
Among four-year institutions, a sense of belonging is tied to higher
persistence rates, increased use of campus services and better mental
health. However, the researchers didn't find this to be the case at
two-year colleges.
Dive Insight:
The report's authors have several theories why underrepresented
minority and first-generation students attending community colleges
feel a greater sense of belonging at those institutions compared to
other students. It could be partly that because of the wide range of
students at two-year colleges, feeling a sense of belonging in a
certain program or class is more important than whether they fit in
with the institution as a whole.
Colleges can take steps to "build students' sense of belonging,"
Shannon Brady, an assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest
University who co-authored the report, said in an interview with
Education Dive.
"A student's sense of belonging is something (colleges) can at least
have partial control over, and it's something they can work very
intentionally on," she said.
The study backs previous research that found underrepresented minority
and first-generation students at four-year colleges tend to have a
lower sense of belonging than their peers.
Many colleges are trying to reverse that trend to improve student
outcomes. A greater sense of belonging may prompt students to seek out
more campus resources and have better mental health.
Even smaller interventions can help. A series of recent experiments,
for example, found that online sessions in which students read about
how past students navigated the transition from high school to college
increased full-time enrollment rates and GPA, as well as helped
disadvantaged students to integrate into college.
Yet what works for one institution may not be successful at another.
"There is no magic bullet," Maithreyi Gopalan, an assistant professor
of education at Penn State University who co-authored the report, said
in an interview with Education Dive. "Administrators, faculty, as well
as researchers, should dig deeper to understand what is it that
promotes students' sense of belonging and try a whole variety of
approaches."
Colleges may also be able to improve student success by targeting
specific groups with their services. An analysis last year from Civitas
Learning found that advising services improve persistence rates more
for Hispanic students than others.
Community college students, who may be juggling family and work
responsibilities, could see greater benefit from more proactive
advising. First-year seminars and welcome videos can also help or
hinder how much students feel like they belong, Brady said.
For the past few years, outgoing seniors at Stanford University have
created welcome videos for incoming students about how they
transitioned to college life and developed a sense of belonging.
But such videos can backfire if they don't reflect the student
population. The University of Wisconsin is facing backlash for a video
that meant to unite students ahead of homecoming week but featured
nearly all white students. The video caused a furor online, and several
underrepresented minority students told The New York Times it
underscored feelings they aren't wanted on campus.
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