Unemployment rate in the [Philippines] is commonly associated with the misfit [between] graduates

produced by universities and colleges and the workforce needed by different companies. The wrong
choice of course taken by most high school students adds to the unemployment and underemployment
rate of newly graduated students. This prompted the research to identify the factors that affect the choice
of career of third year students in the Laboratory School of University of Rizal System in Morong, Rizal.

The findings revealed that the availability of work after college is the first consideration of students in
choosing a course in college. Most of the students prefer to take scientific related field courses, or the
'popular courses' for Filipinos. The least preferred courses are in the agricultural field. The results of the
study served as the basis in the construction of a career path program for laboratory school students.

The authors conclude that students' career success can be best attained if proper guidance is given in
choosing the right course in college, suited to students' personality, ability and intellect. Helping students
choose the career that suits them can be done by integrating a career plan with the curriculum so that
students can make good decisions in what course to take in college. Collaborative effort of the school
administration, guidance counselor and parents should also be made to come up with a better career plan
for every individual student.

Student-related Factors
In the opinion of college faculty members who responded to the study, the first major area, and
largest by far, for failure of students is Student-related Factors (cited 415 times or 68%). As seen in
Table 1, under this area there are four categories: (1) Not Ready for College (mentioned 231 times,
or 38% of responses); (2) Lack of Effort (mentioned 72 times, or 12% of responses); (3) Lack of
Motivation or Interest (mentioned 73 times, or 12% of responses); and (4) Personality
Issues (mentioned 39 times, or 6% of responses).
Not Ready for College
The student-related factor that both two-year and four-year faculty members mentioned most often
was students not being ready for college-level work (cited 231 times, or 38% of responses). Faculty
members stated many reasons, including the fact that a significant number of incoming students
have poor levels of or a complete lack of academic preparedness for college courses, lack of
learning and study skills, and/or lack of organizational skills (including time management and setting
priorities). More than half of the respondents cited students’ lack of academic preparedness and
poor study skills, note-taking skills, reading, and scientific reasoning skills, lack of experience, and
more, without directly attributing responsibility. Others specifically blamed students’ K–12 education
for this lack of preparedness. It was difficult to separate these two criteria as both dealt with lack of
preparation, rendering students not ready for college work. As one respondent said:
They have not been adequately prepared for post-secondary work and may lack foundational skills (such as the
ability to write clearly, comprehend readings, follow instructions, etc.) that interfere with their ability to achieve
passing grades. For some reason, many students do not learn these skills throughout grade school and high
school, and so when they reach college they are not ready for what it demands.

Still others said that students are “underprepared for college-level work in terms of basic writing,
reading and thinking skills. For example, they have an inability to think critically, an inability to
express oneself in a written format, and an inability to comprehend the nature of assignments.” One
respondent said students have a “high school-rooted misconception that one can pass a course
without studying,” and several cited the lack of college-level reading and writing skills and other
essential study skills.
One of the respondents who blamed high schools or K–12 education stated that four-year college
students are more prepared than two-year college students. He said they have “a more
comprehensive academic preparation than the typical two-year college student would have.” Another
faculty member was very specific in pointing blame: “Many of the students (attending) two-year
colleges in large cities come from the Urban Public Schools where they have not necessarily
encountered a quality education and experienced a deep understanding of real learning as opposed
to externalized and superficial learning.”
Another thought that students fail because they have not been exposed to the “academic rigor of
college, or the expectations of college work.” Many thought that some students are just not ready for
college work. Faculty respondents said many students arrive without knowing how to learn, without
having the academic prerequisites, or without having the skill set needed to be successful. Many
faculty respondents mentioned that students do not know how to be active learners and engaged in
the learning process. A number of students do not realize that college requires a higher level of
commitment involving a variety of learning skills, such as deep reading, purposeful study, critical
thinking, or even asking for help. As one faculty member explained:
As I teach students that are most likely first generation college students, I also would suggest that they do not
have an idea of what being a college student involves. And it is at this point that they become “behind in the
game,” for they do not even know the steps to take, [or] the order to take, to succeed.

Other faculty respondents said students are not aware of the rigors of their chosen discipline.
Students can have difficulty in adjusting their own career expectations. Some students have/aspire to become a
physician . . . but they do not realize that it is a very difficult and long road academically. Learning is one
percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration . . . some students have not realized this yet.

Respondents saw insufficient academic skills as closely related to lack of time management skills,
often mentioning the two in the same sentence. Faculty respondents said too many students do not
know how to study or learn, do not know how to organize their time and set priorities, do not ask for
help from their instructors or advisors, and do not use available resources, such as the library and
tutors. They most likely lack critical thinking skills and other higher-level learning skills so necessary
in college. In short, many of them come from high school not yet ready for college-level work and
learning.
It was very hard to separate lack of organizational skills from academic preparedness as a reason
for student failure. As a separate subcategory, poor time management and organizational skills
ranked second as a major roadblock to student success. Faculty respondents said that students
could not organize their priorities. They have work, home, social, and school obligations and cannot
organize their time to accommodate all of these conflicting time demands. They do not make a plan
that enables them to spend the necessary time reading, studying, attending class, completing
assignments, and learning. They do not have “contingency plans” in case of illness, child care, work
schedule changes, and so forth. As a result, they develop unrealistic expectations and overcommit
themselves:
On the most part the students are unrealistic about the time it will require to do the assignments, readings, and
problems. They work full time, have family responsibilities, take a full course load, and do not set aside enough
time to concentrate on the problem at hand. They are over committed in terms of their time.

In other words, if students have not planned sufficiently to manage their time, they have not got a
Plan B in place. They simply “don’t invest the amount of time required or expected” to succeed.
Several faculty members mentioned procrastination as a problem, “waiting until the one before the
last to give ‘the best shot,’ forgetting grades are accumulative.” Students start asking for extra-credit
assignments, what they can do to make up what they missed, and so on. In short, most respondents
mentioned three major problems under this category: overcommitment (jobs, family, and school),
unrealistic expectations about the time necessary to do well in college, and the inability to organize
their time effectively. Once they get behind, they can no longer catch up.
Lack of Effort
The next category of student-related issues, ranking third in that area, was Lack of Effort, repeated
72 times, or 12 percent of responses. This category included both Lack of effort and Poor or
nonexistent work ethic as subcategories. Many faculty members were disturbed by how many
students are satisfied with a grade of C or D instead of working harder to get better grades. A few
faculty members stated that even when they give students opportunities to improve their grades by
redoing homework, lab reports, or writing assignments, many students do not bother. Some
participants stated that students do not exert enough effort and do not bother to find out, either from
the instructor or fellow students, how much work is really needed to pass a given class.
Under the subcategory of Poor or nonexistent work ethic, some respondents said that students do
not complete assignments but then expect teachers to let them make it up with extra-credit work.
Some students expect to pass just because they attend class, and others think that doing ungraded
homework is unimportant. Many believe that an open-book exam means they can learn the material
while taking the exam. One respondent blamed more than the student: “Work ethic (strengthened by
peer behavior AND administration acquiescence) was summarized by the notion, ‘do just enough to
get by,’ which is rarely enough to just get by.”
Another said that students expect teachers to excuse multiple missed assignments and absences
“based on a student’s circumstances,” which demonstrated a “diminished sense of personal
responsibility.” Still another cited a much more serious problem: “They [students] may be collecting
financial aid money for living expenses and have no intention of completing a course once they have
received all the funds.”
Respondents said failing students come to class late and/or do not show up at all. When they do
show up, they send texts or play videos during class or otherwise do not pay attention. They do not
read the material before class and do not complete their assignments. Some students do not care if
they fail. A few instructors stated that some students do not value education because they do not
have to work to pay for it, or if they fail, they can always repeat the course. Bad study habits that
worked in high school were also cited more than once; students are unable or unwilling to put effort
into learning. This could be due to lack of motivation or inadequate preparation to be successful.
One faculty respondent explained that many college students do not read to learn:
In my opinion students fail because they do not put in the effort needed to succeed. They only read in order to
answer a question or to pass a test, instead of reading the entire assigned chapters. I have some students who
never read the lectures in the online classes.

One of the faculty respondents summed up the category as a recipe for failure: “Lastly, some of our
students are just not willing to work hard. Receiving an F is not enough of a deterrent for them to do
all the work. They would rather play video games than do their homework, so that is what they do.”
Lack of Motivation or Interest
Lack of Motivation or Interest, engagement, persistence, and “not being active learners” were
mentioned frequently in this survey. It ranks third overall, in terms how often it was mentioned, and it
was the second most-often-mentioned student-related root-cause factor: 73 times or 12 percent of
responses. This category included the following subcategories: Lack of motivation; Don’t-care
attitude, or negative attitude; Lack of engagement; Lack of interest, direction, or focus; Don’t want to
be in college; and Lack of passion. Some faculty respondents thought that failing students have little
understanding of how their education relates to their lives. They do not know what they want in life
and have no clear goals as to where they are going. If someone has no idea where they are going, it
will likely be extremely difficult to get there.
Other faculty members stated that some college students might not have a real desire to be in
school; they might not be ready yet. Perhaps they are being pressured by family or friends, or
perhaps they are drifting in life or repeatedly changing majors. Other survey respondents said
students are not motivated to do the work: “They either do not want to be in school but external
forces are forcing it on them or they simply do not care.”
A few faculty respondents said that even students with passion “often lack the understanding of how
specific course(s) fit within the ‘grand scheme,’ especially if they determine (rightly or wrongly) that
the course(s) is not on the critical path” to their ultimate goal. Others do not realize the amount of
work involved in their majors or cannot decide on a major field of study. Other faculty members said
students lack direction, and that “These students attend college with little, if any, goals in mind;
education means little to them due to the lack of connection between what they study and their
lives.” Finally, a faculty respondent said simply that:
Students lack the passion/determination/drive for the educational goal of earning a degree. Pursuing a
bachelor’s degree is a long-term goal requiring passion, determination, the drive to overcome “hurdles,” and a
willingness to do “whatever it takes” to achieve their goal.

Personality Issues
Factors related to Personality Issues ranked seventh overall and fourth among student-related
factors (mentioned 39 times or 6% of responses). This category includes Lack of social
connection, Lack of support system and network, and Poor self-esteem and self-confidence. One
respondent thought lack of self-confidence was the major reason for failure:
I think most students fail because of a lack in self-confidence. Often the students that I see are bright but make
failing grades due to their not believing that they are smart enough to do the work. We try to work through this
and if there is some improvement in self-confidence, grades improve.

In another example, a faculty respondent said, “Learning is social—no connection to the institution or
the classmates can make a student feel isolated and hence, un-engaged.” The general feeling was
that if students were “active on campus, and have interactions with faculty and students outside of
the classroom,” they would be more likely to succeed in college. One respondent mentioned
teamwork as an important factor in science and engineering classes. Another mentioned lack of
support from faculty members. One faculty member said, “Students also fail because their support
network is challenged.” This could be a “mother with kids and no one to help her so she can attend
class” or lack of support at work and/or school. Another respondent pondered the underlying
reasons why students might lack commitment to college life:
Students . . . fail because their support network is challenged. Perhaps something in their personal life is going
on and the student is not able to “engage” themselves in their learning. Students need to be aware of their
schedules and their ability to manage their personal life to ensure they are “ready” to be in college and ready to
fully commit to their courses and university.

Life and Socioeconomic Issues

According to two-year college faculty members, a second major area of student failure (cited 70
times, or 12% of responses) is Life and Socioeconomic Issues. As seen in Table 1, under this
area there are two categories: Life, Work, and Career Issues (mentioned 53 times, or 9% of
responses) and Economic Issues(mentioned 17 times, or 3% of responses).
Life, Work and Career Issues
Faculty members cited life issues, such as poverty, homelessness, single parenting, excessive
workload, family responsibilities, health, mental illness, addiction, and death of a loved one. One
faculty member said:
Many [students] are managing a balancing act of family, work, money and college and this is a fluid and
frequently changing picture that does not support a sustained consistent involvement over a multiple year
commitment.

It was clear from faculty respondents’ comments that they have a real connection to their students. It
is also evident that faculty members care about their students, who are working against substantial
odds in order to get an education that could improve their lives. As one faculty member explained:
In my experience, Harold Washington College students often face significant life challenges outside of the
classroom that prevent them from doing what is necessary to pass, including poverty, homelessness, needing
to care for a child or relative, the demands of a full-time job, or major life disruptions such as a death. These
students are at high risk of failure or a grade lower than what they are capable of, because their ability to put the
required time in on coursework, or even attend class, is so compromised.

Another faculty member said:

 In my opinion the most common cause of failure in the classroom is not intrinsic lack of ability but the
distractions of life outside of the classroom. Certainly there are many times when outside life should take priority
over the classroom. Feeding a family, paying the bills, caring for sick relations are all much more important than
any grade.

There were many variations of this theme offered, including:

I think that their personal life gets in the way to the point that they are absent from class and don’t turn
assignments in on time, (child-care issues, varying work hours, lack of transportation and funds, etc.). I don’t
think it has anything to do with lack of intelligence.

Respondents sounded very understanding about these life issues but also helpless in being able to
do anything about them: “In my experience, students who fail class ran into life events, where they
fall behind. If they cannot make up in the time and effort necessary, they fail.” As one faculty
member put it, “Perhaps if colleges provided multiple delivery systems with flexibility in time, space,
and delivery format, students might be better able to cope with some of the difficult circumstances
they encounter.
Economic Issues
Economic Issues (primarily, lack of resources) was another category of reasons for student failure
(cited 17 times, or 3% of responses). Several faculty members cited economic disability as a reason
why students fail. One faculty respondent said, “I have had students who want to learn but can’t
afford bus fare to get to school. When they don’t have a computer, can’t afford Internet access, and
it takes them two hours to get to school on the bus, what are they supposed to do?” A support
system is necessary to succeed in college, and “support from family” could be an important
resource. This category is closely related to life issues.
One respondent thought socioeconomic demographics played a major role in the success of
students. This teacher said, “Of course, this is increased immensely when you look at students of
color and especially males. . . . Some students come to college because there are no jobs available
to them and Higher Education presents something positive and financially supported for them to do.”
The authors thought this teacher was hopeful that some of these students would succeed.
Wealth and easy access to funding for schooling was also perceived by some faculty as a
contributing factor for some students’ lack of success in college level. The respondent who cited
easy access to funding said, “These students undervalue their education; I have seen a difference
between students who work and pay for their schooling and students who attend school via other
means.” A faculty member who cited a “No Fail” culture said:
These students have grown up in a world in which they never “failed”; regardless of their performance, they
received a trophy; therefore, they think that any effort, such as simply showing up to class, entitles them to a
good grade.

Perhaps the most interesting comment was one that blamed wealth as a reason for failure:
Wealth—These students do not appreciate the opportunities they have in attending college; unlike many in the
world, they can exit and reenter college at their will, or get a job that, at a young age, they think is more than
sufficient to live on; if their options given failure were bleak, if poverty was the consequence of failure, their
appreciation and work ethic would be different.

Failures of the Educational System

This survey includes categories of responses that do not place blame on students but, instead, on
the faculty and the educational system. The root-cause factors in student failure that are not related
to students but are related, instead, to the Failures of the Educational System were mentioned
125 times, or 20 percent of responses. Some faculty respondents thought that the faculty or teaching
had failed, the college had failed, or that some courses are too short. Others thought that there are
too many problems in online education. Faculty members agreed that most students had not been
well prepared in high school for college learning, and this poses a tough challenge for some
instructors in helping their students to success. The respondents divided the insufficiencies in the
college educational system between faculty issues and institutional issues, so, under this major
area, there are two categories: Faculty Instruction and Behavior and Facilities, Materials, and
Delivery Systems.
Faculty Instruction and Behavior
Faculty Instruction and Behavior is the category mentioned most (mentioned 77 times or 12%),
under Failures of the Educational System. Subcategories include Failure to address students’
diverse learning styles, Lack of interest in teaching, Lack of professional development in one’s field,
and Faculty behaviors and attitudes toward students.
Faculty members who commented on this thought the college and faculty need to teach students
how to study and how to set goals:
Faculty need to provide a lot of structure and to have the class “set up” ahead of time with deadlines that are
clear. If a student has a good roadmap and clear guidelines their chances of success will increase.

Others said faculty should encourage students to use college resources, such as tutoring, and
should take the time to “help students improve on study skills and time management skills.”
Several faculty members said that some of their colleagues lack teaching skills. They cited failure to
make the subject interesting or relatable, inadequate teaching methods, or failure to inspire. As one
teacher explained:
I’d like to think that as faculty members, we are setting the tone—we are setting the example. After all, students
observe our actions more than they listen to our words. If we are prepared, engaged, and working hard, I
believe students notice that. If we are raising our expectations with them, I think for some students, it’s that
extra nudge that has the potential to make a difference.

Another faculty member thought that faculty members need to nurture new, higher-level learning
skills:
Some students do not experience warmth, care and relentless supports from a range of key actors in their new
community college experience. This allows them to lock into old, well-established, behavior patterns that did not
promote success in their past.

Other factors mentioned were problems navigating online courses, inadequate facilities, and poor
“simplistic” teaching styles that approached teaching as “a transmission of content, content, content.
. . .”
One faculty respondent was quite passionate about college failure of their students:
We send too many students into the “purgatory” of pre-credit developmental education courses from which they
never emerge. From a strengths-based social work and youth work perspective—this means many new
students first experience of HWC [Harold Washington College] is that we label them as “failures” or “not up to
college standards” and we put them into classes with similarly labeled students. Do we really think the results of
this can be any different from what we get? There is a large enough body of research from K through 12
education to demonstrate how powerful teacher and school expectations are in impacting outcomes. Early on in
their HWC journey a vulnerable student must connect with a faculty member or staff member who expressly
demonstrates they care, they have got their back, and they will catch them when they fall. . . . We don’t have
appropriate ways to catch them when they fall. Note “fall,” not “fail.”

Many of the faculty respondents (28) blamed either the instructors or the teaching style for student
failure. They thought that some faculty members do not put enough effort into engaging the
underprepared students in the subject or only help those students who ask for help. One faculty
member was quite passionate about this failure:
Faculty members have to take the students from where they are to where they ought to be—not from where
they think they should be to start, but from where they are. Many students are behind through no fault of their
own—the faculty members have to build up student confidence, not tear down student confidence.
Another thought that faculty members have the power to “make or break” a student: “If a faculty
member tells students that they are smart and good students—that is what the students become.
The reverse is unfortunately true.”
One respondent described the “leap” from “learning information (knowledge) to integrating and
synthesizing new concepts (thinkers).” He thought that teachers could do a “better job” in preparing
students for this important transformation so necessary in higher education. One faculty member
blamed this lack on some of the adjunct faculty, saying they “put just the minimum effort in their
classes, which affected students’ learning outcome.”
The teaching style of some faculty members was identified as contributing to students’ lack of
success. Some students had failed because they could not respond to the teaching style, which
prevented them from learning, or they had a poor teacher who was unable to effectively
communicate the material. Other comments cited faulty orientation in the course, giving students the
wrong idea about what they would be studying and how it would affect their major. One comment
stated that faculty members do not have the right idea about their students. This means that they do
not really bother to know their students beyond knowing their names. They do not realize that some
students might have missed semesters between courses and might not be as prepared as others.
One respondent felt that faculty members should recognize lack of self-confidence and address the
problem. As one faculty member put it, in cases like these, “It is not students who fail, but that faculty
fails their students!” Using different teaching styles and active, problem-solving teaching was offered
as the best way to fully engage students: “Faculty cannot force students to be engaged, but they can
surely attempt to get them engaged and create an ‘engaged’ classroom.”
Facilities, Materials, and Delivery Systems
Facilities, Materials, and Delivery Systems was mentioned sixth most often overall root-cause in
general and second most often root-cause under Failures of the Educational System. It was
mentioned 48 times, or 8 percent of responses. Subcategories include Lack of sufficient or
appropriate student and academic services, Lack of student-friendly delivery and learning formats,
and Deficient in curriculum programs structures.
Twenty-two faculty respondents thought the college or university had failed to provide their students
with sufficient or appropriate student and academic services. Some respondents said that colleges
need to improve orientation processes, especially for new students taking blended and or online
courses or taking courses in large lecture halls. Others cited relaxed admission standards and
allowing students to register for classes when they had not completed the prerequisites. Lack of
tutoring or lack of tutors with the right skills in certain subjects was also mentioned as a concern.
Confusing attendance policies were blamed for some student failure. One faculty respondent praised
his or her college: “Our University does a wonderful job of assisting students to navigate through the
SSCs and the ASPIRE program.”
A few other respondents mentioned that some students simply should not be in college. Comments
included assignments being too difficult for many students, especially those who are being pushed to
be in school or in a particular major by their family. One faculty respondent said grade inflation in
high schools resulted in unqualified students being accepted into colleges. One faculty member
surmised, “I don’t think being admitted to a college guarantees that everyone will be successful at it,
but we don’t tell them that when we admit them to our colleges and universities.”
Also, there are those students who stop coming to class but, for some unknown reason, do not
withdraw. In the faculty member’s words, “These students almost always drop off the radar and do
not respond to repeated attempts to contact them. So, as faculty, we have no insight into why they
have stopped attending.” And colleges have no effective mechanisms to remove these students from
the rosters.
A number of faculty members blamed the course delivery format, especially online learning, for
failing many students in classes. Increasingly, the world is shifting to an online culture, and with that
shift comes online courses. However, there are some students who are not suited to an online
learning environment. Even when they themselves desire to take courses in this delivery mode, they
still need the face-to-face interaction of real teachers and classmates. Some students are not
comfortable with computers but cannot take courses onsite because the courses are only offered
online. Others might think they are computer literate but still cannot navigate the maze of electronic
steps necessary to online learning. In this case, colleges should provide the opportunity for students
not only to choose how to take their courses, but also the freedom for them to change their mind in
the middle of the semester if they choose to change to a different delivery format—meaning that they
start online and change to onsite in the middle of the semester, or vice versa.
The way classes are formatted could also be a problem. Colleges tend to standardize their online
classes into one style or format. This may not be effective for all students’ learning styles. With a real
teacher in a real classroom, the teacher can see if a student is not engaged. A student can ask
questions of both teachers and classmates, and teachers can use creative teaching methods, such
as team teaching, critical thinking, and problem solving. Also, if a student is not comfortable with the
instructor, she or he can drop the class or find another instructor. In an online class, a poor or
unengaged instructor might not be identified. One teacher explained:
Students need to be aware if they are in the correct delivery mode. For example, there are many students in
online classes that should not be in those classes—they do not have the skills to succeed. Students need to
choose the delivery mode that fits their learning style, not what they think is “easier.”

Many teachers are still learning how to offer information in blended and online formats and the
course sites do not always work properly. Teachers need training in blended and online course
development and how to connect with and engage their online students, who may lack academic
and social support systems both inside and outside of school. One faculty respondent explained it as
follows:
Students that are active on campus and have interactions with faculty and students outside of the classroom
are more likely to pass (and graduate). The University and faculty need to attempt to foster these connections
as much as they can. This is a challenge for online students and environments. Faculty and academic
managers need to think of creative ways to do this in our virtual learning environments. Faculty managers
currently do not serve well in this role; they are all production based. Faculty need ongoing advanced training in
effective teaching online. Faculty managers need to have more training in academic leadership—especially in
this area of persistence in online environments.

Online students can get lost in the impersonal online environment, lose interest or fall behind, and
drop out before their absence is even noticed. This problem is only going to increase in today’s
virtual learning world.
The length of courses was also cited by a few faculty members as a root cause for some students. A
few faculty respondents thought that some courses are very heavy in content, but the instructors do
not have time to cover the material in depth. They felt that many of the students do not have enough
time to absorb the material in the allotted time. One said that by the time students were just starting
to understand, he had to move on to the next subject: The ten-week quarter “is not enough time for
students to absorb all class material and not enough for professors to go into the depth of the
material.” So the quality of the education was being compromised by time restraints.

General Conclusions
A problem running through almost all of the categories is that too many students come to college
without the necessary preparation. They lack numerous academic skills, such as critical thinking,
writing skills, and math and science backgrounds. As one faculty respondent said, “Improved K–12
education in all disciplines would be a big help in student success.” Another said, “We are preparing
students to pass standardized tests in K–12 and not to think.” Study skills; communication; core
subjects like math, science, reading and writing; and the ability to learn are necessary skills that
should be learned in high school. As one faculty member stated strongly, “[Failing] students were not
pushed in high school and, therefore, failed to develop an appetite for learning and the disciplines
and skills required to succeed in an academic atmosphere.”
There are categories from this survey that do not place blame on students. Some of the faculty
respondents thought that the faculty or teaching had failed, the college had failed, or some of the
courses were too heavy on content. Others thought that there were too many problems in online
education. The faculty agreed that most students had not been well prepared in high school for
college learning.
There is much talk in higher education about the need for active learning to stimulate students and
faculty. But it is not an easy job to prepare an environment for active learning. In addition, active
learning requires a lot of preparation on the part of faculty members, including preparing the right
materials for learning, preparing the right activity in which to engage, preparing the right teaching
approaches and strategies, and preparing the right environment and classroom setting where
students can engage in active learning. Faculty members, especially those in institutions where
research is prioritized, do not have enough time to spend on preparing for all these things. These
faculty members are under considerable pressure to conduct research and produce results, as well
as to teach large classes. Few can do both successfully, especially if there are no faculty
development programs that focus on this issue in a given institution.
To succeed, students need to have good reasons for taking a given course and for being in school.
Students also need to care about themselves and their education by setting expectations and
achievable goals for themselves. In short, academic success is not governed by a student’s
cognitive abilities alone. Students need to be motivated to want to learn and work hard at it to make
faster gains and learn better than those who are bright but less motivated (Blue 2012). Those who
do care seek help and ask questions when needed. By doing so, they ensure their own success and
that their education meets their individual needs.
Faculty who participated in this study ranked student-related factors first in causing students to fail
classes or drop out of college (415 times, or 68% of responses). According to the respondents, a
significant number of students come to college with poor academic backgrounds, and they lack
prerequisites for college courses. Colleges and universities enroll many students who need remedial
or developmental classes in at least one necessary discipline before taking courses for college
credit. The problem is not that of providing developmental classes at the college level, but rather, the
fact that while the majority of colleges offer developmental coursework, “statistics confirm that less
than 25% of students who enroll in remedial or developmental classes go on to finish their degrees”
(Academic Impressions 2013, 1).
Participants also indicated that some students lack the motivation and/or the interest, and thus they
fail to invest the effort, time, and energy needed to complete college work. This situation is
compounded by the fact that some students lack self-responsibility and come to college classes with
an attitude that they developed in high school, which means that attending is enough to get a
passing grade in a given course. For some students, getting an F in classes is no longer something
to be ashamed of but a cool thing that you must experience before leaving college. Furthermore,
faculty members at both the two-year and four-year college level agreed that time management can
make or break students’ efforts to succeed in college courses and environment. Unfortunately, many
faculty members believe that a significant number of students do not know how to manage their time
and thus they end up doing things at the last minute, taking on more than they can manage,
underestimating what every class task needs to complete, and so on.
While the second most-often offered root-cause factor for students’ failure (125 times, or 20% of
responses) is failure of the educational system, the two-year and four-year college faculty who
participated in this study differ on the effects of education system and life issues, work, and
economic issues. While four-year college faculty ranked the failure of the educational system,
including the ways in which faculty members teach and colleges help students, as second in terms
of contributing to students’ failing college (97 times, or 24% of respondents), the two-year college
faculty cited this as their third most frequent root cause (28 times, or 14% of responses). The two-
year college faculty ranked life and socioeconomic issues, including poverty, the cost of education,
and the need to work and to take care of family as second in terms of contributing to students’ failing
college (40 times, or 20% of responses). The four-year college faculty ranked this as the third root-
cause factor (30 times, or 7% of responses).
Faculty members with whom we had face-to-face discussions about the findings of the study
provided us with deeper insight on the significance of the outcomes and their meaning. They also
provided us with tips and recommendations on how we as faculty and administration can help
students by providing them with better opportunities and options to succeed at the college level.

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