The Community College Route to the Bachelor's Degree

• Published in: Educational evaluation and policy analysis Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 70 - 91
• Main Authors: Monaghan, David B., Attewell, Paul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-03-2015; American Educational Research Association
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Academic degrees; At Risk Students; Bachelors Degrees; Beginning Postsecondary Students Long Study; Coding; College Credits; College Freshmen; College Preparation; College students; College Transfer Students; Community College Students; Community Colleges; Dropouts; Graduation Rate; Higher education; Longitudinal Studies; Scoring; Secondary Education; Student Characteristics; Student Employment; Student Financial Aid; Two Year College Students; remediation; college transfer; college completion; propensity-score matching; community college
• ISSN: 0162-3737; 1935-1062
• DOI: 10.3102/0162373714521865

It is well established that students who begin post-secondary education at a community college are less likely to earn a bachelor's degree than otherwise similar undergraduates who begin at a 4-year school, but there is less consensus over the mechanisms generating this disparity. We explore these using national longitudinal transcript data and propensity-score methods. Inferior academic preparation does not seem to be the main culprit: We find few differences between students' academic progress at each type of institution during the first 2 years of college and (contrary to some earlier scholarship) students who do transfer have BA graduation rates equal to similar students who begin at 4-year colleges. However, after 2 years, credit accumulation diverges in the two kinds of institutions, due in part to community college students' greater involvement in employment, and a higher likelihood of stopping out of college, after controlling for their academic performance. Contrary to some earlier claims, we find that a vocational emphasis in community college is not a major factor behind the disparity. One important mechanism is the widespread loss of credits that occurs after undergraduates transfer from a community college to a 4-year institution; the greater the loss, the lower the chances of completing a BA. However, earlier claims that community college students receive lower aid levels after transfer and that transfers disproportionately fail to survive through the senior year are not supported by our analyses.