Tatiana Velasco is an applied microeconomist specializing in the economics of education and labor economics. At CCRC, her research centers on dual enrollment, community college transfer, STEM pathways, and the postsecondary and labor market trajectories of students from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds. She draws on large-scale state and national administrative datasets and employs rigorous quantitative methods to produce evidence that is actionable for practitioners, policymakers, and state systems.
Velasco leads or co-leads several active research strands at CCRC. She is a lead researcher on dual enrollment, where her work examines how participation in college coursework during high school shapes students’ subsequent postsecondary enrollment, completion, and earnings. Her recent publications include a national and state-by-state analysis of the postsecondary outcomes of dual enrollment students, and a report on how students’ combinations of dual enrollment, AP/IB, and CTE coursework explain postsecondary attainment and earnings trajectories. Her most recent work introduces a set of dual enrollment momentum metrics, validated with data from four states, that can help colleges and system leaders measure whether students are on track to postsecondary success, thereby supporting program improvement efforts.
Velasco is also a core contributor to CCRC’s transfer research portfolio. She led the 2024 edition of Tracking Transfer, which provides national and state-level data on community college and four-year institutional effectiveness in broadening bachelor’s degree attainment, disaggregated by race/ethnicity, neighborhood income, and age. Her current work examines community college transfer pathways to STEM bachelor’s degrees and graduate education.
Velasco holds a PhD in economics and education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an MA in economics from the Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia. Her research has been covered by Education Week, Forbes, The Hechinger Report, among other outlets. She has also contributed opinion writing to The Chronicle of Higher Education on how to boost community college transfer.