Community Colleges: Opening or Closing Doors for Students?

Joanna Karet

February 14, 2013

The background for this research

Is it the two-year college itself that is limiting

student success?

Formal research question:Do students who begin at two-year

colleges achieve less academic success than otherwise similar students who

begin at four-year colleges?

What does previous research indicate?

• Clark (1960, 1980) -- two-year colleges are counterproductive in the overall educational achievement of students and cause “cooling out”

What does previous research indicate?

• Brint and Karabel (1989) -- the dream of education as a route to upward mobility, as well as the ideal of equal educational opportunity for all, are both seriously threatened by the community college.

What does previous research indicate?

• Dougherty (1994) -- "Is it an avenue of opportunity for its many working-class, minority and female students, or is it a blind alley blocking off equality?"

Measures of “academic success”• (1) whether a student remains

continuously enrolled throughout college

• (2) total number of semesters a student successfully completes

• (3) highest degree, if any, a student obtains

Matching variables• (1) gender• (2) ethnicity• (3) mother's highest level of education• (4) father's highest level of education• (5) total family income during the

student's eighth grade year• (6) the student's own predictions of

how far he or she will go in post secondary education, made while a senior in high school.

Brief Methodology Overview• Six digit index variables (for example 115613)• Gender

– 1 = male– 2 = female

• Mother’s level of education– 1 = less than high school education – 2 = high school graduate– 3 = AA / AS / Junior College / College less than four

years – 4 = BA / BS – 5 = Master’s degree – 6 = PhD, MD, JD

• Example index variable 115613– Tells us this is a male, Hispanic, etc…

• Match max. number of students possible– If 5 students from the two-year group have

the index variable 115613– And 3 students from the four-year group

have the index variable 115613– Then 3 pairs were matched with this index

variable

How many students were involved?

• 9,875 students available• 6,022 after cleaning for my

six variables• 1,553 matches for a total of

3,106 students.

Highest Degree Attained

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

No degree Certificate AA/AS BA/BS MA/MS PhD/Prof

Degree

Per

cen

tag

e o

f S

tud

ents

Begin at Two Year Begin at Four Year

Years of Full Time Enrollment

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

Less than 1 1 to 2 2 or More

Total Years

Per

cen

tag

e o

f S

tud

ents

Begin at Two Year Begin at Four Year

Continuity of Enrollment

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

100.00%

120.00%

Continuous Breaks

Continuously Enrolled vs. Breaks in Enrollment

Per

cen

tag

e o

f S

tud

ents

Begin at Two Year Begin at Four Year

What does this tell us?

• On these variables, two year students do not achieve at the same level as their four year peers, even when matched on important background variables

What doesn’t this tell us?

• Why not?• What are we doing to influence the

culture of success at our institutions both positively and negatively?

How do we create a culture of success?