Adjunct Faculty Member Impact on Student Success at the New England Community College

Adjunct faculty members receive low pay, teach at multiple institutions, are provided minimal training, may not be required to hold office hours, and have no guarantee that they will teach the following semester. As a result, they do not allow for social exchange to occur with their students. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to analyze whether a negative relationship existed at the New England public community colleges between adjunct faculty members and retention and graduation rates. This study analyzed archival data from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) using their Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Statistical analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between these variables. The correlation analyses demonstrated that graduation rates negatively correlated with adjunct percentage rates with significant negative results in Maine and Massachusetts, which may be related to the states’ lack of course limits and office hours. Maine was further impacted because the Maine system provides low and varying pay rates. The regression analysis for the graduation rates indicated a negative effect from adjunct percentage rates and a positive effect from urbanization. The analysis between adjunct percentage rates and full-time retention rates showed a small, significant correlation for MA. Finally, Carnegie classification of the colleges showed a statistically significant difference between small-sized and medium-sized college average graduation rates. The smaller the college was, the higher the graduation rate. The research concluded with recommendations that adjunct faculty members need to be required to spend time on campus to interact with students, provided an office, compensated adequately for their work, and provided with professional development opportunities. Future research should occur on other states that have varied levels of compensation, unionization, and requirements