Use of Community College Student Services and Student Success Outcomes

The purpose of this study was to utilize the 2010 Community College Survey of Student Engagement data and enrollment data from a rural mid-sized community college in Illinois, to examine the use of student services on student success outcomes, specifically cumulative grade point average and program completion rate. This research presents findings on student cumulative grade point average and program completion rate compared to how often students used each of the following selected student services: academic advising/planning, career counseling, job placement assistance, financial aid advising, campus computer labs, and transfer credit assistance. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine if there was any relationship between individual student service use and the variables of cumulative grade point average and program completion rate. This resulted in only a small number of relationships between the use of some student services and cumulative grade point average and program completion rate. A linear regression analysis was conducted to determine to what degree the combined use of all student services might be as a predictor in cumulative grade point average and program completion rate. The results from the linear regression analysis show that use of all combined services has a positive relationship with cumulative grade point average and program completion rate