Do Community College Adjunct Professors Inhibit College Completion?
Adjunct Professors have grown to a majority in many community colleges and often teach a majority of remedial/developmental courses. Do these part time professors hinder student progress? They often have no offices at a college and commute to teach at several campuses. The answer to the questions in this blog is we do not know much.
A study of four year state colleges indicates that for every 10 percent increase in instruction of first year students by adjuncts, the probability of these students returning as sophomores drops by as much as 4 percent. insidehighered.com
But there are other studies that show no or positve impact from adjuncts. We need many more controlled experimental studies to draw any conclusions.
This topic has remarkable potential! As one of those adjunct commuter teachers (both on campus and on line), I simply cannot and do not give as much to my students where I am “in and out” versus my students who attend the school where I have my “day job.” I would love to see more statistics presented but this topic for discussion is quite fascinating. I hope to read other thoughts on this topic and I appreciate getting the opportunity to share my perspective. Great topic!!
Mort