The Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles

In this study, we set out to ask:  (1) What causes some students to choose higher transfer community colleges than the college most students from their high school attend? (2) What do these higher transfer colleges do to effect better outcomes for students of color coming from these high need/low-performing high schools? Five colleges were identified as disproportionately transferring students of color from low performing/high needs high schools to community colleges.  Three colleges were disproportionately successful with Latino students, and two colleges with African American students, but none was equally successful with both groups.  Two colleges were located in urban centers (both of these were most successful with African Americans), two in urban-suburban areas, and one in a rural area of the state.  The colleges ranged in size from relatively small (9500) to large (32,000). Each campus had its own success story, and some probably would not qualify today as successful in transfer because of significant changes that have occurred on the campuses.  Overall, there were more differences than similarities among campuses with respect to strategies for supporting the transfer function.