Socio-Academic Integrative Moments: Rethinking Academic and Social Integration Among Two-Year College Students in Career-Related Programs.

COMMUNITY colleges -- Social aspects; SCHOOL dropout prevention; COMMUNITY colleges; SERVICES for community college students; SOCIAL conditions of college students; HIGHER education of minorities; TEACHER-student relationships; PREDICTION of dropout behavior

The article discusses programmatic efforts to integrate students in two-year college programs in order to retain college students and lower the drop-out rate. It describes the low rate of students finishing academic or vocational degrees, Tinto's Theory of Student Departure, and the importance of socially integrating non-traditional students into college services and campus life. Other subjects under discussion include the drop-out rates for racial and ethnic minorities, the gender gap between women and men in higher education, and teacher-student relationships in the classroom.