Improving Graduation Rates at a Minority-Serving Community College
This literature review examines the factors influencing student completion and graduation rates at a minority-serving institution where African-Americans and Latinos comprise over 65 percent of the student population. Despite institutional efforts to foster an inclusive campus climate, completion rates among these groups remain disproportionately low. The review synthesizes research on academic factors (GPA, past performance, program satisfaction), institutional factors (campus climate, sense of belonging, supplemental instruction), individual factors (age, gender, race/ethnicity, parental education), and financial/socioeconomic factors. It also surveys evidence-based strategies for improving retention, including collaborative learning, service-learning, academic support programs, and financial aid expansion. Two theoretical frameworks — Self-Determination Theory and Danielson's Framework for Teaching — provide the study's conceptual foundation.
- Overview and Research Context: Frames low graduation rates among minority students
- Academic and Institutional Factors Influencing Completion: GPA, campus climate, belonging, and staffing factors
- Individual and Socioeconomic Factors: Age, race, income, and family background factors
- Strategies for Increasing Completion Rates: Collaborative learning, service-learning, and financial aid
- Theoretical Framework: Self-Determination Theory and Danielson's teaching framework
- Summary and Research Gaps: Synthesis of findings and gap in community college research
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The review organizes a broad body of literature into clearly delineated factor categories — academic, institutional, individual, and financial — making it easy to locate specific evidence and compare findings across sources.
- The summary section explicitly identifies a gap in the literature (no studies conducted at the specific institution or focused on community colleges), which grounds the proposed research in genuine scholarly need rather than repetition.
- Pairing the narrative review with a theoretical framework section shows the writer understands how empirical findings must be anchored to explanatory theory, a hallmark of graduate-level research design.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates gap identification as a rhetorical and methodological move. After cataloguing what the existing literature says about completion factors and interventions, the writer argues that the unique institutional context — a community college with a predominantly minority student body — has not been studied directly, thus justifying the proposed investigation. This technique is essential for any literature review that precedes original research.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with an overview that frames the problem and previews the review's organization. The narrative review follows, subdivided into five thematic subsections covering four factor categories and intervention strategies. A theoretical framework section then grounds the study in Self-Determination Theory and Danielson's Framework for Teaching. A concise summary closes the review by synthesizing key findings and articulating the research gap. This introduction–body–gap–conclusion structure is standard for a dissertation or thesis chapter-level literature review.
Overview and Research Context
This literature review seeks to determine the factors that influence student completion rates at a minority-serving institution and to make evidence-based recommendations. The institution's student population presents a rich racial composition, with African-Americans and Latinos making up over 65 percent of the student body. Unfortunately, completion and graduation rates among Latino and African-American students have been consistently low relative to their white counterparts, despite efforts made by the institution to foster an inclusive college climate.
This chapter reviews relevant literature on college student retention. The first part is a narrative review of literature on the factors influencing student completion and strategies for improving graduation rates. The second part reviews literature on the theoretical frameworks that provide a foundation for the proposed study.
References
Afable, T. M., Lamberto, C. D., Nicole, T. A., Umandap, A. N., & Arcinas, M. M. (2022). SHS students' engagement in online synchronous collaborative learning activities: Correlations with self-efficacy, peer social support, well-being and academic performance. International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research, 3(6), 1128–1138.
Almenaie, O. (2018). Factors affecting the rate of completion of undergraduate students. Journal of Education and Practice, 9(36), 37–45.
Bengesai, A. V., & Paideya, V. (2018). An analysis of academic and institutional factors affecting graduation among engineering students at a South African university. African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education, 22(2), 137–148.
Buckman, D. G., Hand, N., & Johnson, A. (2021). Improving high school graduation through school climate. NASSP Bulletin, 105(1), 5–24.
Fleming, A. R., Oertle, K. M., Plotner, A. J., & Hakun, J. G. (2017). Influence of social factors on student satisfaction among college students with disabilities. Journal of College Student Development, 58(2), 215–228.
Guzman, A., Barragan, S., & Vitery, F. (2021). Dropout in rural higher education: A systematic review. Frontiers in Education, 6(1), 1–13.
Mungo, M. H. (2017). Closing the gap: Can service-learning enhance retention, graduation, and GPAs of students of color? Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 23(2), 42–52.
Margarit, V., & Kennedy, J. (2019). Students' variables predicting timely graduation at a community college. Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 19(6), 97–117.
Morris-Matthews, H., Stark, K., Jones, N. D., Brownell, M., & Bell, C. A. (2020). Danielson's framework for teaching: Convergence and divergence with conceptions of effectiveness in special education. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 54(1), 64–78.
Okwuduba, E., Zulnaidi, H., Rauf, R., & Nwosu, K. (2022). Impact of perceived learning support and student engagement on remedial students' science success in the university placement examination during the Covid-19 pandemic. Education Research, 1(1), 1–14.
Scott, I., & Castles, J. (2017). Factors influencing the academic performance of African-American student athletes in historically Black colleges and universities. The Sport Journal.
Srairi, S. (2021). An analysis of factors affecting student dropout: The case of Tunisian universities. International Journal of Education, 1(1), 1–9.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.