Using detailed administrative data from Virginia, this paper examines how and why the community college pathway to a baccalaureate influences students' degree attainment and short-term labor market performance. We find that the community college pathway sharply reduces the likelihood of earning a bachelor's degree but does not have a significant…

In this paper we examine a range of postsecondary education and labor market outcomes, with a particular focus on minorities and/or disadvantaged workers. We use administrative data from the state of Florida, where postsecondary student records have been linked to Unemployment Insurance (UI) earnings data and also to secondary education records.…

A considerable fraction of college students and bachelor's degree recipients attend multiple postsecondary institutions. Despite this fact, there is scant research that examines the nature of the paths--both the number and types of institutions--that students take to obtain a bachelor's degree or through the higher education system more generally.…

The "Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice" (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2008) seek to communicate standards that will prepare graduates to function within a complex healthcare system. The document highlights concepts from patient-centered care to evidence-based practice (Commission on…

The Baccalaureate Graduates Survey (BGS) is directed at graduates from all public degree granting institutions in British Columbia. It is one of the annual surveys that make up BC Student Outcomes, which is an ongoing research program that gathers student outcomes information for B.C.'s public postsecondary institutions and the Province of British…

The authors examined the sustainability of income, as it relates to educational attainment, from the two recent decades, which includes three significant economic downturns. The data was analyzed to determine trends in the wealth gap, parsed by educational attainment and gender. Utilizing the data from 1991 through 2010, predictions in changes in…

Gainful employment and earnings to support a family living are significant policy goals of the applied baccalaureate program. Therefore, employment is an important metric to study; however, there are limitations in the data and process used in past reports that make understanding the true impact of applied baccalaureate programs on an individuals'…

Overall, too few students are completing two-year college. Those who complete are still starting off unequally. About one-third of students earning academic degrees do not transfer, but rather go directly to work and find their degree has little value in the labor market. Research suggests they could have benefitted from having marketable skills…

This report presents initial findings about the employment outcomes of bachelor's degree recipients approximately 4 years after they completed their 2007-08 degrees. These findings are based on data from the second follow-up of the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:08/12), a nationally representative longitudinal sample survey…

In this brief, the authors have corralled existing research to make the point that while on average the return to college is highly positive, there is a considerable spread in the value of going to college. A bachelor's degree is not a smart investment for every student in every circumstance. The authors have outlined three important steps…

Parental income and wealth contribute to children's success but are at least partly endogenous to parents' cognitive and noncognitive skills. We estimate the degree to which mothers' skills measured in early adulthood confound the relationship between their economic resources and their children's postsecondary education outcomes. Analyses of…

What works to increase success for Latinos in colleges and universities? Since 2005, Examples of Excelencia has been the only national effort to recognize evidence-based practices that accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Through this process, "Excelencia" recognizes programs in three different academic levels as well…

The College-Level Examination Program® (CLEP®) is an exam program consisting of 33 exams in five subject areas that typically correspond to single-semester courses, but some correspond to full-year or two-year courses. CLEP exams offer students the opportunity to receive college course credit for learning that has already occurred outside of the…

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…

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.…