Publications
Policy Levers to Strengthen Community College Transfer Student Success in Texas
Based on three sets of analyses, this report to the Greater Texas Foundation recommends ways that state policy could help to improve outcomes for community college transfer students in Texas.
Estimating Returns to College Attainment: Comparing Survey and State Administrative Data Based Estimates
This CAPSEE working paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to provide new, nationally representative, non-experimental estimates of the returns to degrees, as well as to assess the possible limitations of single-state, administrative-data-based estimates.
Nonpecuniary Returns to Postsecondary Education: Examining Early Non-Wage Labor Market Outcomes Among College-Goers in the United States
Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, this CAPSEE working paper examines nonpecuniary labor market outcomes associated with different levels of postsecondary educational attainment.
Assistance or Obstacle? The Impact of Different Levels of English Developmental Education on Underprepared Students in Community Colleges
This journal article examines the impacts of different levels of developmental reading and writing on students’ academic outcomes.
Higher Education Rulemaking: The Politics of Creating Regulatory Policy
This book explores the how and why of the federal regulatory policymaking process as it pertains to higher education, financial aid, and student loan debt.
Transforming the Community College Student Experience Through Comprehensive, Technology-Mediated Advising
This chapter examines the use of technology and other structural changes to encourage comprehensive advising reforms.
The Redesign of Developmental Education in Virginia
This chapter describes the structure and implementation of a redesign of developmental education in the Virginia Community College System, discusses preliminary descriptive findings from an evaluation of the redesign, and shares lessons for the field.
Labor Market Outcomes and Postsecondary Accountability: Are Imperfect Metrics Better Than None?
This NBER working paper uses state administrative data and unemployment records to construct a variety of possible institution-level labor market outcome metrics to explore how sensitive institutional ratings are to the choice of labor market metric, length of follow-up, and inclusion of adjustments for student characteristics.
Goodbye to Summer Vacation? The Effects of Summer Enrollment on College and Employment Outcomes
Using proximity to the closest four-year college as an instrumental variable, this CAPSEE working paper analyzes public higher education data from an anonymous state to examine how enrolling in summer credits can impact college and labor market outcomes.
A Longitudinal Analysis of Community College Pathways to Computer Science Bachelor’s Degrees
This report investigates the national landscape of computer science students at community colleges in order to better understand student behaviors and institutional characteristics that support or hinder community college students’ efforts to attain a computer science bachelor’s degree.
Supporting Military Veteran Students: Early Lessons From Kohlberg Prize Recipients
This review describes the early experiences of five colleges that received the Kisco Foundation’s Kohlberg Prize, a grant aimed at making community colleges more welcoming and better able to meet the needs of veteran students.
Strategies for Postsecondary Students in Developmental Education
This practice guide presents six evidence-based recommendations for college and university faculty, administrators, and advisors working to improve the success of students academically underprepared for college.
Understanding the Relative Value of Alternative Pathways in Postsecondary Education: Evidence From the State of Virginia
This book chapter replicates and extends analyses completed in other statewide studies and estimates returns to credentials and credit accumulation for first-time college students who enrolled in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) in 2004–2005 using a classic Mincerian approach.
STEM-Focused Technology-Mediated Advising Reform: Plans for Implementation by Four Colleges
This brief discusses four colleges’ STEM-focused iPASS implementation, including their reasons for undertaking reform, their plans for piloting and scaling up iPASS, and early evidence of change.
Black-White Disparity in Student Loan Debt More Than Triples After Graduation
In this report for Brookings, Judith Scott-Clayton lays out a new analysis that shows that the gap in student debt between Black and White bachelor's degree earners triples in the four years after graduation.
Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS): State of the Literature
This paper examines the current state of the literature on Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success (iPASS), an increasingly popular approach to technology-mediated advising reform.
Performance Funding for Higher Education
This book is the culmination of a three-year study of performance funding in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee. Based on interviews with state officials and staff at 18 public institutions, the book delves into the policy implications of performance funding, which ties state financial support of colleges and universities to institutional performance.
A Holistic Conception of Nonacademic Support: How Four Mechanisms Combine to Encourage Positive Student Outcomes in the Community College
Building on Karp's 2011 framework of nonacademic support, this article explores the evidence that holistic support can encourage community college students’ success.
Financial Aid, Debt Management, and Socioeconomic Outcomes: Post-College Effects of Merit-Based Aid
This paper utilizes two complementary quasi-experimental strategies to identify causal effects of the WV PROMISE scholarship, a broad-based state merit aid program, up to 10 years post–college entry and examine important outcomes that have not previously been examined, including homeownership, neighborhood characteristics, and financial management.
Matching Talents to Careers: From Self-Directed to Guided Pathways
This chapter in the book Matching Students to Opportunity examines the matching process between students and college programs or majors, primarily in community colleges.