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Bringing Adults Back:

Strategies to Re-Engage Adult Learners

John Hamblin, Mt. Hood Community College

Ivy Love, New America

Tiffany Thai, New America

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Project Overview

Community college enrollment declines threaten to worsen educational inequity
Center on Education & Labor at New America wanted to offset these declines
Partnered with 6 colleges in 3 states over the course of 18 months
Playbook contains recommendations for colleges nationwide

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Why did Mt. Hood apply to participate?

33% enrollment decline since 2020
Multiple years prior to pandemic enrollment losses

7 years of enrollment declines

Strategic Plan and Strategic Enrollment Plan

Strategic Plan rollout 2022
SEM Plan rollout 2022

Population can be difficult to engage

Different engagement than traditional students

Opportunity to understand why they left and what could help keep them or bring them back

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Themes and Recommendations

Community colleges should:

Improve their communications with adult students
Revise their Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) policies
Increase course flexibility
Establish case management systems for enrollment & advising
Help students afford their basic needs

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Theme 1: Improve Communications

“With enrollment…advisors need to communicate better…I sat around in 2020, I was waiting on an advisor to let me know what classes I was supposed to register in. It was weeks I was waiting until they finally got back to me…I didn’t know that I was supposed to (enroll) at the City Park campus…and I started at (another campus). (Because of this), I took classes that first year that I didn’t need to take… Nobody trying to take extra classes…That’s like money that…could’ve gone to something that you actually needed.”

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Theme 1: Recommendations

Create a messaging campaign on the financial benefits of CTE programs
Create a central place on your website for returning adults
Hire enrollment navigators and communicate their availability to students
Create a set of incentives to entice students to re-enroll

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Success Story: Mt. Hood’s Incentives

Mt. Hood reduced outstanding student balances owed to the college to remove registration holds
Assisted 685 students
Led to a 285 student enrollment increase
The college spent ~$107,000 on this effort and netted a nearly $400,000 ROI

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Theme 2: Revise SAP Policies

“SAP is one of those…hot button issues. Last semester alone we've seen more SAP requests than ever before. Students are having other challenges…but it is affecting the SAP process…We saw in (a student) survey, when you get into trouble with SAP and you start getting these emails that are using words like probation and threatening dismissal…that can compound issues.”

Ivy

To be eligible for federal financial aid authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA), college students need to make satisfactory academic progress, and colleges must have a policy to define and monitor that progress. College SAP policies must establish both quantitative and qualitative standards to define what constitutes student academic progress, as well as a maximum time frame for completing a program of study. Colleges need to establish a grade point average students must maintain in order to meet SAP, and they must also determine the pace at which students need to progress through their program in order to qualify for Title IV funding.

The pace and GPA required to meet SAP must be at least as stringent as the academic requirements for students not receiving Title IV aid and for most institutions this means a GPA of at least 2.0 and a completion pace—the share of classes that students pass—of 67 percent of classes enrolled in.

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Theme 2: Recommendations

Improve communication with students before (and after) they fail to make SAP
Create a fair, well-documented, simplified appeals process
Analyze SAP patterns by race, gender, Pell status

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Theme 3: Increase Course Flexibility

“(Taking virtual courses) was awesome…I had a newborn she was born right before the pandemic…So I went back in the fall of 2020 and it was all online, so I didn’t have to do any shifting or anything, and I loved it. I wouldn’t have gone to the class at all if it hadn’t been online.”

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Theme 3: Recommendations

Offer more night and weekend courses

Understanding staffing constraints

Offer more HyFlex Courses

Courses that can be taken virtually or in-person

Increase flexibility for entire programs

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Theme 4: Case Management for Enrollment & Advising

“I felt that there were too many emails that got me confused. I just want to talk to (one) person… Like one person to ask all of my questions….I don’t want to go through different offices. They [say] go to this one for financial aid, this one for health insurance…The pandemic made it hard [and] virtual made it not attractive.”

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Theme 4: Recommendations

Hire enrollment navigators to integrate enrollment and advising

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MHCC Success Story

Student Services Hub redesign

Title III grant
Foundation support

Redeveloped service model

SEM structure provided opportunity to enhance services
2 FTE added and a direct supervisor
Pilot project- engagement strategies

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Theme 5: Basic Needs

“Everything costs so much, and I’m at the point where now I can barely afford groceries, and I can get public assistance, and still can't afford groceries. I don't plan on living like that. It's not a goal of mine. My goal is to be financially stable, where I can take care of my children without public assistance.”

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Finding 5: Recommendations

Hire benefits navigators

Coordinate basic needs support & help students access available resources

Require student basic needs training for all faculty & staff
Review institutional policies relating to basic needs & financial aid
Offer students free resources

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Questions and contact

John.Hamblin@mhcc.edu

Love@newamerica.org

Thai@newamerica.org