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Non-Traditional Students

Introduction

This research gives a better idea about the drop-out rates of tradtional and non-traditional students from academic institutions. According to this research, approximately one-fourth of university students in the United States are droping out before graduating from university. It is generally accepted that university drop-out rates are a reflection of the universities and the communities they serve. Although there is a tendency to think of dropping out of university as a phenomenon of low socioeconomic communities, recent studies have indicated that that may not always be the case. Certain university organizational characteristics are also associated with high drop-out rates. Because drop-out rates are linked to the well-being of tradtional students, it is important that those characteristics be identified and their impact on the quality of life within the communities investigated.

Most of the research concerning university dropouts has been aimed at defining the characteristics of dropouts and at-risk students. The research has generally concluded that socioeconomic status is the most important factor in student drop-out rates (Rumberger 1987). Researchers have identified clusters of factors related to a student's decision to drop out. Phelan (1992) labeled these clusters as family background, personal problems, and university-related factors.

Wehlage (1986) emphasized the need for research on university dropouts that is concerned with more than the identification and description of at-risk students. Research needs to identify factors related to drop-out rates that universities can control. (Wehlage, 18-28)

Hence, the first part of the study reported on here was concerned with university characteristics that are related to high drop-out rates. The second part of the study was concerned with the relationship between university drop-out rates and the general well-being of communities. Indicators of the general well-being of a community for this study included unemployment rates, average family income, and crime rates.

University Characteristics and University Drop-Out Rates

The sample for the first part of the study included 428 Missouri university districts that have university's (excluding the two districts under federal desegregation court orders, which experienced large increases in drop-out rates while under the court orders). The yearly drop-out rates of are the percentage of non-tradtional students in grades 13-16 who leave university each year without graduating or requesting that a transcript be sent to another university. Annual drop-out rates in this study are the five-year averages for the university years between 2004 and 2009.

University Size

University enrollments per attendance center at the elementary, intermediate, and university levels have been found to be related to university drop-out rates. To simplify the analysis, the total K-12 enrollment for each district was divided by the number of attendance centers within the district to get the district enrollment per attendance center. The relationship between the average enrollment per attendance center and drop-out rates is complicated to measure. It is apparent that as the attendance center size increases the drop-out rate also increases. In a study of drop-out rates for Mississippi university's, Merritt (1983) found that large universities had higher drop-out rates than small universities. A study by Pittman and Haughwout (1987) revealed a ...