| One of the most significant issues in post-secondary education is persistence. In community colleges, retention and graduation rates are very low. This is especially true for students enrolled in developmental English, reading, and/or math courses. The low cost of community college tuition and fees combined with financial need-based programs in the form of Pell Grants, give all students, including students academically unprepared who require developmental courses, access to a college education and the means to persist and complete a degree program. However, despite the financial resources, these students are not persisting and completing a degree program. This study will be a causal-comparative design using data measuring the persistence and graduation rates of developmental students that received a Pell Grant compared to the persistence and graduation rates of developmental students that self-pay. In this study, Pell Grants will be used as the level to determine if there is a difference between receiving financial aid and persistence and graduation rates among students enrolled in one or more developmental courses. |
