Dual enrollment--in which students take college credit-bearing courses when still in high school--is becoming increasingly popular. Community college programs account for about 70% of the dual enrollment that more than one million high school students participate in each year nationwide. Yet dual enrollment can be a big financial burden for…

Objective: This study examines the labor market gains for students who enrolled at for-profit colleges after beginning their postsecondary education in community college. Method: We use student-level administrative record data from college transcripts, unemployment insurance earnings data, and progression data from the National Student…

Of the more than one million new students who enter community colleges each fall, nearly 70 percent are assigned to remedial coursework. The cost of providing this coursework is high, yet evidence about the effectiveness of remediation is not compelling. In addition, many students are misclassified in the remedial assessment process. In order for…

This paper estimates technical efficiency scores across the community college sector in the United States. Using stochastic frontier analysis and data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for 2003-2010, we estimate efficiency scores for 950 community colleges and perform a series of sensitivity tests to check for robustness. We…

This brief reviews new findings from a series of extensive studies by the Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE) researchers. The research makes use of large state datasets that include student transcripts merged with individual quarterly earnings records, which allow for the analysis of returns to particular…

This paper reviews recent evidence on the labor market returns to credit accumulation, certificates, and associate degrees from community colleges. Evidence is collated from estimates of earnings gaps across college students using large-scale, statewide administrative datasets from eight states. Six of these states were partners of the Center for…

Community colleges are under pressure to increase completion rates and efficiency despite limited evidence of the economic consequences of different reform strategies. We introduce an economic model of student course pathways linked to college expenditures and revenues. Using detailed data from a single college, we calculate baseline efficiency…

This paper examines the returns to math courses relative to those in courses in other subjects for students who started their postsecondary education at community college. The limited available evidence presumes that college-level math is valuable in the labor market relative to other coursework. Using data on college transcript and earnings from…

Of the copious research on the labor market returns to college, very little has adequately modeled the pathways of non-completers or compared their outcomes with those of award holders. In this paper, we present a novel method for linking non-completers with completers according to their program of study. This method allows us to calculate the…

In this paper, the authors examine the relative labor market gains for first-time college students who enrolled in the North Carolina Community College System in 2002-03. The medium-term returns to diplomas, certificates, and degrees are compared with returns for students who accumulated college credits but did not graduate. The authors also…

This paper examines the returns to math courses relative to courses in other subjects for students in community college. Using matched college transcript and earnings data on over 80,000 students entering community college during the 2000s, we find that college-level math coursework has an indirect positive effect on award completion that is…

In this brief, we summarize our research on the wage returns to community college pathways in North Carolina. We use detailed individual and college transcript information on approximately 830,000 students who attended community college during the 2000s. This transcript data is matched with earnings data from Unemployment Insurance records. We…

This study examines the labor market gains for students who enrolled at for-profit colleges after beginning their post-secondary education in community college. We use student-level administrative record data from college transcripts, Unemployment Insurance earnings data, and progression data from the National Student Clearinghouse across full…

This study evaluates the postsecondary and labor market outcomes of students who attended for-profit colleges. The evaluation complements a similar study by Deming, Goldin, and Katz (2012) that found significant differences in outcomes between students in for-profit colleges and those in other sectors. In this study we use the Education…

Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) integrates the teaching of basic skills and technical content in order to accelerate basic skills students' transition into and through a college-level occupational field of study. The study reported on here represents the final phase of a multi-year evaluation of the I-BEST model that began…