Classifying STEM Programs in Community Colleges to Develop a State-Level Middle-Skill STEM Workforce Strategy

By: Valerie Lundy-Wagner & Eric W. Chan | June 2016

This paper provides a classification scheme for sub-baccalaureate STEM programs and, using data from Virginia, analyzes short-term earnings returns to community college STEM credentials.

Do Students Benefit From Going Backward? The Academic and Labor Market Consequences of Four- to Two-Year College Transfer

By: Vivian Yuen Ting Liu | June 2016

This paper examines the effects of four-year to two-year college transfer on “struggling” students, or those who earned less than a 3.0 grade point average in the first term.

Does College Focus Matter? Explaining Differences in Performance Among Community Colleges in North Carolina

By: Michael Dunn & Arne L. Kalleberg | May 2016

This paper examines whether students attending career-focused community colleges have better labor market outcomes than students attending comprehensive or academic-focused community colleges.

Weathering the Great Recession With Human Capital? Evidence on Labor Market Returns to Education From Arkansas

By: Clive Belfield | November 2015

This paper examines the returns to education for large numbers of young workers in Arkansas over the period before, during, and after the Great Recession.

The Labor Market Returns to Math in Community College: Evidence Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002

By: Clive Belfield | October 2015

This paper examines the returns to math courses relative to returns in other courses for students who started their postsecondary education at community college.

The Impact of Co-locating American Job Centers on Community College Campuses in North Carolina

By: Michelle Van Noy | September 2015

This study examines student outcomes at six community colleges in North Carolina that had co-located American Job Centers on their campuses.

Denying Loan Access: The Student-Level Consequences When Community Colleges Opt Out of the Stafford Loan Program

By: Mark Wiederspan | July 2015

This paper investigates the student-level impacts associated with the decision of community colleges to opt out of the Stafford loan program.

Career-Technical Education and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From California Community Colleges

By: Ann Stevens, Michal Kurlaender, & Michel Grosz | May 2015

This paper estimates the earnings returns to vocational, or career-technical, education programs in California Community Colleges, the nation’s largest community college system.

Examining the Earnings Trajectories of Community College Students Using a Piecewise Growth Curve Modeling Approach

By: Shanna Smith Jaggars & Di Xu | April 2015

This paper introduces a piecewise growth approach to analyzing labor market outcomes of students, and it discusses how insights gained from the approach can be used to strengthen econometric analyses of labor market returns. A version of this paper is available in the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.

Labor Market Returns to Community College Awards: Evidence From Michigan

By: Peter Riley Bahr, Susan Dynarski, Brian Jacob, Daniel Kreisman, Alfredo Sosa, & Mark Wiederspan | March 2015

This paper examines the relative labor market gains experienced by first-time college students who enrolled in five community colleges in Michigan in 2003 and 2004.