Here are three reports to read this month.

• Though overall persistence and retention rates have remained relatively flat among community college students who entered in fall 2023, the rates for older learners show big drops, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Fall 2024 enrollments for two-year students who entered college in fall 2023 declined by 0.4 percentage points, dropping from 62.9% to 62.5%. It marked the first dip after a slight rebound over the past couple of years following declines during the Covid pandemic. Full- and part-time public two-year college students also saw slight decreases, from 71.5% to 71.1% among full-time students, and 51.6% to 51.4% among part-time students.
• Another NSC Research Center report out this month focused on stop-outs. For the second year in a row, the number of college students stopping out before earning a credential has declined. At the same time, the number of students with “some college, no credential” (SCNC) re-enrolling has increased. Nearly all higher education institution sectors saw fewer stop-outs between January 2022 and July 2023, but the decline was really driven by fewer students stopping out from community colleges. At public two-year colleges, 129,000 fewer students (-10.7%) stopped out during the 2022-23 period than the previous year. At primarily associate degree-granting baccalaureate (PAB) institutions, 19,000 fewer students (-8.0%) stopped out.
• Colleges may need to improve communication around credit requirements, transferability and alternative credentials to retain students and bring back those who have stopped out or decided not to attend altogether. That’s according to findings from a survey of U.S. learners by higher education technology provide Ellucian and EMI Research Solution. Sixty percent of stop-outs surveyed said they would return to college if provided clearer program completion details. Further, just 22% of those stop-outs know what credits they still need to complete. Another barrier is cost: 56% of those surveyed who opted out of college cited cost as the top barrier to college.