An Examination of the Major Financial, Demographic, and Course Delivery Indexes for Public 2-Year Colleges in the Year of COVID as Provided by the IPEDS Database: A Quasi-Experimental National Study

The COVID pandemic has transformed American higher education in ways that have yet to be fully comprehended. The abrupt shift toward online instruction was the first reaction to the growing threat of COVID. The effects of this shift were far-reaching. Specifically, this realignment to online delivery models created new links between or among financial and demographic compositions of community colleges, which have the potential to exclude under-represented and first-generation college students. To understand how educational delivery methodologies and services have changed before and after the pandemic, one must first examine what occurred in the foremost year of the pandemic; Academic Year 2020-2021 (AY 2020-2021). The purpose of this study was to examine major financial, demographic, and course delivery variables for public 2-year colleges in AY 2020-2021 that potentially contributed to learning gaps affecting under-represented populations during the year of COVID. To determine the extent of this impact a national study was conducted utilizing a quasi-experimental design to examine potential relationships between or among the variables of interest as extracted from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) database. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the following set of nine observable variables: (1) Cost of Attendance -- Out-of-State, Out-of-District, In-District; (2) Age Distributions; (3) Enrollment Percentages -- Undergraduate Full-Time; (4) Gender Percentages -- Female; (5) Percentage Utilization of Distance Education -- Exclusive, Some, None; (6) Percentage Undergraduate Enrollment Distributions - In-State, Out-of-State, Foreign, First-Time, First-Time Full-time; (7) Percent Undergraduate Retention Rates -- Full-Time, Part-Time; (8) Percentage Revenue Sources -- Tuition, State Appropriations, Local Revenue, Grants-Contracts, Other Revenue; and (9) Financial Aid Award Percentages of Full-Time, First-Time Undergraduate Students. Three major themes emerged with the interpretation of the research findings. These three themes relate directly to the nine latent variables: (1) affected migration patterns; (2) proactive versus reactive adoption of distance education; and (3) issues relating to the impact of COVID on females and economically challenged students. The research inferences of these three themes were examined in terms of the implications for policy and practice. Recommendations for future research include suggested comparison of the years prior and subsequent to AY 2020-2021 and suggest an examination of the long-term challenges associated with the retention rates of female students, the retention of economically disadvantaged students, and the likelihood that students lost in the year of COVID will return to higher education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]