scholarly journals Beyond BA Blinders: Lessons from Occupational Colleges and Certificate Programs for Nontraditional Students

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E Rosenbaum ◽  
Janet Rosenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Nontraditional Students ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Degree Completion ◽  
Private Colleges ◽  
Career Preparation ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Certificate Programs ◽  
Student Difficulties

Postsecondary education mostly focuses on the four-year BA degree. Community colleges are often promoted as the first step toward the ultimate goal of a four-year degree. However, community colleges have extremely poor degree completion rates. There is evidence suggesting better results for their private, two-year counterparts—particularly for certificate completion. We will focus on occupational colleges—private accredited colleges that offer career preparation in occupational fields like health care, business, information technology, and others. These institutions challenge many of our preconceptions about college. They are less wedded to college traditions, which raises some interesting questions: Do private colleges offering certificates or AA degrees use different procedures? Should community colleges consider some of these procedures to reduce student difficulties and improve their completion rates? For many community college students, earning a more likely, quick sub-BA credential—perhaps followed by a four-year degree in the future—will be preferable to the relatively unlikely pathway from a community college program directly to a four-year BA. In sum, this paper suggests that nontraditional colleges and nontraditional credentials (certificates and AA degrees) deserve much closer attention from researchers, policymakers, and students.

Baccalaureate Success of Transfers and Rising 4-Year College Juniors

2009 ◽  
Vol 111 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Melguizo ◽  
Alicia C. Dowd
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Degree Completion ◽  
Bachelor's Degree ◽  
The State ◽  
Low Ses ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Institutional Selectivity ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Junior Students

Background/Context A longstanding debate continues concerning whether community colleges democratize education by expanding enrollment or divert students from attaining a bachelor's degree. The extant evidence is contradictory, but recent findings suggest that community colleges are serving to democratize education without a sizeable diversion effect preventing students from ultimately earning the bachelor's degree. The diversion effect appears to be much smaller than previously stated. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The main objective of this study is to compare the effect of being a successful community college “transfer” student instead of a “rising junior” in a 4-year college on bachelor's degree attainment (250 transfers and 790 rising juniors). This study examines the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) and institutional selectivity on the bachelor's degree completion of transfer students and rising 4-year college juniors. Data Collection and Analysis We analyze the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88/2000) high school senior class of 1992 to compare the degree completion outcomes of two samples—transfer and rising junior students—with equivalent degree aspirations. Logistic regression is used to estimate the differences in attainment. Interactions are included to examine the effect of SES and institutional selectivity. To address the problem of selection of students into institutions, we control for proxy variables for students’ motivation. In addition, a Heckman two-stage regression model is estimated using the average state tuition in the state where the student finished high school as the instrumental variable. Finally, to adjust for unobserved institutional characteristics related to the state where the institution is located, a model that includes a state-level dummy variable indicating those that have strong transfer and articulation systems is estimated to more fully control for state characteristics. Findings/Results Three main findings emerge from this inquiry. First, the negative effect of being a transfer as opposed to a rising junior diminishes substantially after controlling for differences in SES. The negative effect “disappears” in the sense of not being statistically significant, after corrections for self-selection bias and the addition of variables controlling for transfer policies in the state where the student attended college. Second, and consistent with prior research, degree completion rates increase with selectivity of the 4-year institution attended. Third, the results show that when we allow the effects of community college attendance to vary by SES by introducing an interaction term, there are no statistically significant differences between the completion rates of low-SES transfer and low-SES rising junior students. Conclusions/Recommendations Our main conclusion is that previous estimates have overstated the diversion effect. Alongside other recent contributions to the democratization-ver-sus-diversion-effect debate, this study provides an additional piece of evidence demonstrating that the diversion effect is much smaller than was previously estimated. Community college practitioners should feel confident in counseling traditional-age students who want to earn the bachelor's degree to transfer, because the evidence shows that they are as likely to succeed as their 4-year college counterparts.

scholarly journals Supporting Community College Students from Start to Degree Completion: Long-Term Evidence from a Randomized Trial of CUNY’s ASAP

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Weiss ◽  
Alyssa Ratledge ◽  
Colleen Sommo ◽  
Himani Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Graduation Rates ◽  
Degree Completion ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Randomized Experiments ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The City

Nationwide, graduation rates at community colleges are discouragingly low. This randomized experiment provides evidence that graduation rates can be increased dramatically. The City University of New York’s (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) is a comprehensive, integrated, 3-year program that has an estimated 18 percentage point effect on 3-year graduation rates, increases 6-year graduation rates by an estimated 10 percentage points, and helps students graduate more quickly. Graduation effect estimates of this magnitude are exceptional in randomized experiments conducted in higher education, offering hope of what is possible when serving low-income students. (JEL H75, I23, I24, I28)

How Noncredit Enrollments Distort Community College IPEDS Data: An Eight-State Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Romano ◽  
Mark D’Amico
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
New York ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
System Level ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Full Time Equivalent ◽  
Education Data ◽  
State Study

A commonly used metric for measuring college costs, drawn from data in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), is expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE) student. This article discusses an error in this per FTE calculation when using IPEDS data, especially with regard to community colleges. The problem is that expenditures for noncredit courses are reported to IPEDS but enrollments are not. This exclusion inflates any per FTE student figure calculated from IPEDS, in particular expenditures and revenues. A 2021 IPEDS Technical Review Panel (TRP #62) acknowledged this problem and moved campus institutional research offices a step closer to reporting noncredit enrollment data (RTI International, 2021). This article is the first to provide some numbers on the magnitude of this problem. It covers eight states—California, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Data on noncredit community college enrollments were made available from system offices in all states. In addition, discussions were held at both the system level and the campus level to verify the data and assumptions. Figures provided by states were merged with existing IPEDS data at the campus and state levels, and then were adjusted to account for noncredit enrollments. The results provide evidence that calculations using IPEDS data alone overestimate the resources that community colleges have to spend on each student, although distortions vary greatly between states and among colleges in the same state. The results have important implications for research studies and college benchmarking.

Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander Student Progression through Community College: A Disaggregated Transcript Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Federick Ngo ◽  
Jenna Sablan
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Pacific Islander ◽  
College Persistence ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Developmental Math ◽  
Transcript Analysis ◽  
Asian And Pacific Islander

Background/Context Research on the postsecondary education of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) students has typically focused on attainment within four-year colleges and neglected the experiences of API students in community colleges. However, many API students pursuing postsecondary education, particularly Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander (SEAPI) students, do so through U.S. community colleges. The progress and achievement of these students in community college remains largely unstudied, due in part to the limited availability of disaggregated data. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study (1) To what extent do API students, and specifically SEAPI students, achieve community college progress milestones, such as enrollment, completion of gatekeeper courses, and attainment of degree- and transfer-applicable credits? (2) How are these students progressing through developmental math? Research Design We examine the academic progress of API students using transcript data from a large California community college district. The disaggregated race/ethnicity data allow us to focus on oft-overlooked API subgroups. Focusing on SEAPI students, we analyze momentum towards key college persistence and completion milestones. We also track progression through developmental math education, one of the key barriers community college students face in completing community college. Findings In our disaggregated transcript analysis, we find that SEAPI students are less likely than their peers to achieve college milestones such as completing math courses and earning the degree-applicable units necessary for degree completion or transfer. Seeking explanations for these differences within the context of developmental education, we observe that SEAPI students are significantly less likely than their peers to attempt developmental math courses, though the data suggest they are more likely to complete courses when they do attempt them. These relationships hold after controlling for differences in the demographic characteristics of these students. Conclusions/Recommendations These findings point towards non-academic and institutional explanations for lower rates of college persistence and completion and offer direction for policy efforts and institutional practice to support these students.

Campus of Opportunity: A Qualitative Analysis of Homeless Students in Community College

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarrett T. Gupton
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Homeless Youth ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Underrepresented Students ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Homeless Students

Objective: Community colleges are gateways of access to higher education for many underrepresented students. One group that has received little attention in the community college research literature is homeless youth. The objective of this research is to address the following research questions: (a) What might be learned from the narratives of homeless youth and their experiences in postsecondary education? and (b) How might community colleges promote interpersonal and institutional resilience for homeless students? Method: Utilizing qualitative research techniques, this article reviews the experiences’ of homeless youth attending community college and explores the ways in which community colleges might serve as sites for fostering resilience and stability in the lives of homeless students. Results: The results of this empirical work suggest that although homeless students do benefit from enrolling in community college, some of the benefits are not salient to them and they are unable to take full advantage of institutional resources. Contributions: The findings from this study contribute to the literature on low-income students’ experiences in community college and add the voices and experiences of homeless youth.

A Multilevel Analysis of Community College Students’ Transfer to Four-Year Institutions of Varying Selectivity

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Xueli Wang
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Community College ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Community College Students ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Community College Student ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Selective Institutions ◽  
Four Year Institutions

Background/Context Transfer from community colleges to selective four-year institutions is an issue that assumes great importance for the democratization of postsecondary education. Yet research on what influences transfer to selective four-year institutions is surprisingly sparse. Transfer research typically lumps four-year schools receiving community college transfers into one group. This approach neglects heterogeneity in institutional selectivity and fails to study forces underlying the varied pathways to four-year institutions. Purpose This research fills the gap in the literature by exploring the following question: What student and institutional factors are associated with transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions of varying selectivity? This study is aimed at identifying beneficial experiences to support community college students’ pathway to the baccalaureate, especially at selective institutions. Research Design This study drew upon several national data sources and a nationally representative sample of all first-time postsecondary students beginning at a public two-year college in 2003–2004. Based on the study's conceptual framework that depicts the relationship between transfer and various individual and institutional factors, I analyzed the hypothesized relationships using a multilevel path model. Findings The study shows that few community college students transferred to highly selective institutions. In terms of individual factors that distinguish those who transfer to highly selective institutions from their counterparts who transfer to moderately or less selective schools, holding baccalaureate expectations and transfer intent seems to benefit those who transfer to selective institutions much more strongly than those who transfer to less selective ones. Similarly, rigorous course-taking distinguishes not only those who transfer from those who do not, but also those who transfer to highly selective institutions from their transfer counterparts headed toward moderately or less selective colleges. However, integrative experiences and first-term GPA show no significant relationship with upward transfer. As for institutional characteristics, percentage of certificates and vocational associate degrees awarded is negatively associated with transfer to highly and moderately selective institutions, while it does not particularly affect chances of transfer to less selective institutions. Furthermore, employment of part-time instructional faculty and staff does not benefit or hurt community college students’ chances of transfer, and, overall, proximity to selective institutions does not appear to be influential either. Conclusions This study's findings reinforce persistent issues associated with access and transfer to selective institutions for community college students. Both education policy and research must continue to tackle challenges and create opportunities to help broaden community college student access to four-year institutions.

scholarly journals Effects of Online Course Load on Degree Completion, Transfer, and Dropout among Community College Students of the State University of New York

2019 ◽  
pp. 291-300
Author(s):  
Peter Shea ◽  
Temi Bidjerano
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Community College ◽  
At Risk ◽  
New York ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Community College Students ◽  
Degree Completion ◽  
Online Course ◽  
State University ◽  
Course Load

Past research suggests that some students are at risk of lower levels of academic performance when studying online compared to students who take coursework only in the classroom. Community college students appear to be among those that struggle in online settings. In this paper, we hypothesize that online course load may influence outcomes for such students, especially those at risk for lower levels of degree attainment. To examine this, we conducted a state-wide study using data from the 30 community colleges (n = 45,557) of the State University of New York, to understand online course-load effects on degree completion, transfer, and dropout. We conclude that when controlling for covariates known to impact degree completion, community college students who successfully complete online courses nearly double their chances (odds ratio = 1.72) of earning a degree or transferring to a 4 year college. However, racial minorities had reduced outcomes and additional research is warranted.Post-secondary completion is a significant predictor of a host of individual and societal benefits. Online education has increased access to post-secondary credentials for millions of people. (Allen Siemen, 2016). Community colleges enrol a higher proportion of online students than other institution types (NCES, 2017). However, concerns exist about outcomes for community college students who take online coursework, especially the effect of higher online course loads. The next section briefly summarizes relevant literature reflecting those concerns.

scholarly journals Degree Completion at British Columbia's Universities

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-57
Author(s):  
John D. Dennison ◽  
Glen C. Forrester ◽  
Gordon Jones
Keyword(s):  
Community Colleges ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Transfer Students ◽  
Degree Completion ◽  
Completion Time ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Academic Standing ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Better Than

This study investigated an important dimension of the performance of students in two of the universities in British Columbia. Specifically, it examined rates of degree completion, time taken to earn the degrees and the final academic standing attained by graduates. The study involved all students who enrolled between 1973 and 1978, both directly from secondary school and as transfer students from the community colleges in the province. Results were reported by faculty, by department in which students majored, and by sex. The results revealed wide variations by faculty and department. Furthermore, results were not consistent between the two universities concerned. For example, female students performed far better than males at one university but not at the other. Finally, the study exposed many differences in performances between direct entry and transfer students, but again, the differences varied by university and faculty. Finally, the study invited both speculation and further research on the reasons for the inconsistent results. Particular attention was drawn to the need to assess the impact of rising admission standards upon students' withdrawals, degree completion rates and final academic standing.

It's Time We Started Paying Attention to Community College Students

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 14-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest T. Pascarella
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
College Students ◽  
Community College ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Community College Students ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
The World

While over a third of American college students are enrolled in community colleges, there is surprisingly little research on these institutions to inform our views of the role they play—or can play—in the world of higher education. Turning our attention to these long-ignored but widely attended institutions may mean challenging some common assumptions about what students can and should get out of postsecondary education.

Remedial Education As Ideological Battleground: Emerging Remedial Education Policies in the Community College

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen M. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Community Colleges ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Remedial Education ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
State Level ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Urban Community Colleges

While remedial education has become an increasingly common aspect of all sectors of postsecondary education, recent ideological debates have resulted in state and system-wide policies that increasingly segregate remediation solely within the community college sector. This trend has profound implications for access to educational opportunity for large segments of the population, particularly the poor and minority students who are most often placed in remedial courses. This article first examines the ideological underpinnings of the current debate regarding the purpose and positioning of remedial education. Next, I utilize qualitative data on three urban community colleges to examine the ways in which the interplay between state- and institutional-level ideology and policy is reflected in individual colleges' remediation practices. The data suggest that community colleges respond quite differently to state-level remediation policies and can play an active role in shaping the implementation of these policies.

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