Abstract
The Purpose of the Study was to examine student dropout patterns in the California Community Colleges as perceived by counselors of the various colleges surveyed. Their views are held to be useful for development of programatic strategies and procedures for ensuring greater student retention. The Methodology of the Study was descriptive. A total population of 106 head counselors was surveyed. The data collected were interpreted by utilizing the percentage of response, frequency of response and the means of the population surveyed. The Findings of the Study. The counselors surveyed perceived dropouts as students who primarily enrolled in part time programs, and whose major reasons for dropping out were job hours/class conflict, and lack of finances. The Conclusions and Implications. According to the counselors surveyed the majority of dropouts are "stopouts" and intend to resume their education. Sixty-six percent of the counselors replied that their dropouts planned to return to college at a later date. Recommendations. The primary recommendation is to encourage students to seek counseling prior to a final decision to stopout of Community College. It is also recommended that the Community Colleges create enrollment management committees to determine the rate of stopout retention in their college. The enrollment management committee would develop programs geared towards greater student retention.