September/October 2009 Issue of Data Notes Available

Data Notes is a bimonthly newsletter that presents data from the national Achieving the Dream database. Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, is a multiyear national initiative to help more community college students succeed. The initiative focuses particularly on student groups that traditionally have faced significant barriers to success, including students of color and low-income students.

The September/October 2009 issue of Data Notes has just been released, and can be viewed on the Achieving the Dream Web site at:

http://www.achievingthedream.org/DATARESEARCH/DATANOTESNEWSLETTER/default.tp

This issue of Data Notes is the first of a two-part series investigating the characteristics of late stop-outs – students who accumulate at least 30 credits within the first two years, only to stop out without completing credentials or transferring. Seventy-five percent of students at Achieving the Dream colleges who accumulated 30 or more credits in their first two years were either still enrolled (59 percent), transferred (2 percent), or completed their credential (14 percent) by the end of their third year. Native American students had the highest stop-out rate (59 percent) by the end of year 5, while Asian/Pacific Islanders had the lowest stop out rate (44 percent). Interestingly, Pell grant recipients were slightly more likely to stop-out than non-recipients (49 percent).

Achieving the Dream Colleges, Data Facilitators and Coaches – you can also view your individual college’s companion figures to this issue of Data Notes on www.dreamwebsubmission.org (the Achieving the Dream Web submission site). To view your college’s data, sign in using your username and password and select the Sept/Oct 2009 issue under the “Reports” tab.