Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields are widely credited as the primary drivers of economic growth through innovation, with engineering universally identified as especially critical. Yet as other nations have strengthened their engineering talent pools, the United States has struggled to cultivate an engineering workforce…

In 2009, at the end of the 12-month Great Recession in the United States, the U.S. government established a college degree attainment goal for 60% of 25- to 34-year-olds to earn an associate's or bachelor's degree by the year 2020. In the same year, Lumina Foundation set a similar goal for 60% of 25- to 64-year-olds to earn a high-quality…

Washington's community and technical colleges (CTCs) play an important role in producing baccalaureate degree graduates in the state through the applied baccalaureate (AB) degree. The key policy goals of the AB degree in Washington state are to increase educational attainment for students and meet employer demand. Compared to the traditional…

Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study explored factors that predict stability of educational expectations among baccalaureate aspirants beginning at community colleges. Based on a nationally representative sample of baccalaureate-aspiring high school seniors of 2004 who entered community colleges as their first…

Conventional studies of the private and social rates of return to a Bachelor's degree focus on the earnings difference between Bachelor degree holders and high school graduates, and find that there are large rates of return for degree recipients. The estimates in these studies, however, do not take into account the risk of not completing a degree.…

Student feedback is an essential component of a high-quality, relevant education system. BC Student Outcomes provides that feedback by surveying former post-secondary students who took baccalaureate programs, apprenticeship technical training, and diploma, certificate, or associate degree programs. In 2015, almost 28,000 former students were…

For many underrepresented minority students, the path to the baccalaureate degree begins with initial enrollment at a community college. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of students interested in transferring actually do transfer to a 4-year institution. Of these transfers, few graduate with a baccalaureate degree within 6 years of initial…

Concerns over the United States' global standing have spurred a national focus on improving postsecondary attainment. At the same time, many sectors of the economy find they have difficulty recruiting highly trained individuals to fill the good jobs that exist; jobs like nursing, respiratory care, dental hygiene, and various mid-level management…

Today's global economy requires a highly skilled labor force that is prepared to compete on the world stage. Studies from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Brookings Institution, and the Conference Board have all identified building and maintaining a highly skilled workforce as a national and local imperative. If America is…

From January 9 to 13, 2013, Hart Research Associates conducted an online survey among 318 employers whose organizations have at least 25 employees and report that 25 percent or more of their new hires hold either an associate's degree from a two-year college or a bachelor's degree from a four-year college. Respondents are executives at private…

In this new report from the Signature series, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, in partnership with the Indiana University Project on Academic Success, presents findings on two- to four-year transfer students, focusing on their baccalaureate completion within six years after transfer. The report examines baccalaureate completion…

The number of astronomy bachelor's conferred in the U.S. continues to climb. The academic year 2010-11 produced more astronomy bachelor's than in any other time in U.S. history. The 408 astronomy bachelor's degrees earned in the class of 2011 more than doubled the class of 2000, and the number of astronomy PhDs conferred (160) is…

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has produced new reporting tools of graduate wage outcomes out to twenty years post completion. These reports are available at the statewide level by program discipline (two-digit level of the Classification of Instructional Programs). It was found that reported wages increase by level of…

This chapter addresses transfer from a community college to a four-year institution, an important pathway for students seeking the bachelor's degree, especially students from underserved groups. The transfer pathway will be an increasingly important source of bachelor's degree holders as colleges and universities strive to meet President…

This inquiry is an exploration of the educational trajectories of African American women community college students. We compare the persistence of African American women to African American men and to all women college students using the 1996/2001 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Survey and the 1993/2003 Baccalaureate and Beyond…