TY - JOUR
T1 - The “Geography of Opportunity” in Community Colleges
T2 - The Role of the Local Labor Market in Students’ Decisions to Persist and Succeed
AU - Reyes, Maria
AU - Dache-Gerbino, Amalia
AU - Rios-Aguilar, Cecilia
AU - Gonzalez-Canche, Manuel
AU - Deil-Amen, Regina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2018.
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Objective: The process by which students decide to stay in college has been primarily based on models that are independent of geographic context. This article describes the local labor market in which community college students are situated and discusses the multiple and complex ways these labor markets impact student decisions to persist and graduate. Method: Using institutional data and U.S. Census Data for 2010, this article argues that the process students use to decide to enroll and persist in community college needs to account for geographic context. Applying ArcGIS mapping, we layout students’ location, local labor market data, and the educational attainment data of a Houston area community college to map the geography of opportunity for these students. Results: The geography of opportunity signifies the educational or occupational opportunities afforded to individuals that are influenced by geography. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that research addressing persistence would benefit from acknowledging the geographic context of the higher education institution.
AB - Objective: The process by which students decide to stay in college has been primarily based on models that are independent of geographic context. This article describes the local labor market in which community college students are situated and discusses the multiple and complex ways these labor markets impact student decisions to persist and graduate. Method: Using institutional data and U.S. Census Data for 2010, this article argues that the process students use to decide to enroll and persist in community college needs to account for geographic context. Applying ArcGIS mapping, we layout students’ location, local labor market data, and the educational attainment data of a Houston area community college to map the geography of opportunity for these students. Results: The geography of opportunity signifies the educational or occupational opportunities afforded to individuals that are influenced by geography. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that research addressing persistence would benefit from acknowledging the geographic context of the higher education institution.
KW - community college
KW - geography of opportunity
KW - labor market
KW - persistence
KW - proximity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85059057785&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85059057785&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0091552118818321
DO - 10.1177/0091552118818321
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85059057785
SN - 0091-5521
VL - 47
SP - 31
EP - 52
JO - Community College Review
JF - Community College Review
IS - 1
ER -