Publications by Thomas Bailey

This essay compares broad academic and vocational program goals, embodied skills, tasks, and jobs, with a focus primarily on community college students.

This short report provides a systematic accounting of the provision of humanities and liberal arts education at public colleges in the United States, including community colleges.

This paper identifies the effects of licenses on a set of labor market outcomes for the college-educated workforce using newly available national Current Population Survey data merged with data from the U.S. Department of Labor on state-level, occupation-specific licensing requirements.

In this article for Change: The Magazine for Higher Learning, CCRC Founding Director and Teachers College President Thomas Bailey outlines the tradeoff between degrees and short-term credentials offered to community college students and describes how the colleges themselves may be able to help resolve this conflict.

In CCRC's 2018 newsletter, Thomas Bailey discusses issues colleges should attend to as they implement guided pathways in order to ensure that these reforms help close equity gaps.

Using national, survey, and college-system-level datasets, this paper estimates the association between stackable credentials and earnings, finding weakly positive and inconsistent gains from these award combinations.

This chapter argues that substantially increasing college completion rates requires comprehensive institutional reform with a focus on measurable student success, an intentional and cohesive package of programmatic components, and a culture of evidence.

This paper addresses empirical challenges in identifying stackable credentials, distinguishes three types of stackable awards, and estimates the number of persons who earn such awards. It then discusses the utility of these awards in meeting labor market demands and needs of students.

This CAPSEE working paper reviews results from fixed effects models of the earnings gains from completing an associate degree and compares them with ordinary least squares model estimates.

In CCRC's 2017 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses how CAPSEE research has contributed to the understanding of the value of investing in a college education.

This CAPSEE working paper and accompanying brief review recent evidence from eight states on the labor market returns to credit accumulation, certificates, and associate degrees from community colleges using large-scale, statewide administrative datasets.

In this brief, the authors propose three measures of early academic momentum that colleges can use to gauge whether institutional reforms are improving student outcomes.

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.

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.

This chapter in the book Matching Students to Opportunity examines the matching process between students and college programs or majors, primarily in community colleges.

This report for The Century Foundation's College Completion Series lays out the open questions on how to reform developmental education.

In CCRC's 2016 newsletter, CCRC Director Thomas Bailey writes about the growth and influence of the guided pathways model.

The authors of this book argue that to substantially increase student completion, community colleges must engage in fundamental redesign and outline research-based strategies to help colleges achieve this goal.

This practitioner packet summarizes evidence supporting the guided pathways reform model, describes how one college implemented guided pathways, and offers tips for getting started on guided pathways reforms.

In CCRC's 2015 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey argues for comprehensive reform using a guided pathways approach.

In CCRC's 2014 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey argues that comprehensive reform has the potential to move the needle on college completion.

In CCRC's 2013 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses CCRC’s recent research on online education and nonacademic skills and argues that to maximize the potential of online learning, community colleges need to bolster supports for students and instructors.

In response to a journal article questioning CCRC’s claims about the effectiveness of developmental education, this essay discusses methodological concerns and other issues that may be a source of confusion.

This report discusses the development of FastStart, its program features, and student perspectives, and it presents findings from a quantitative analysis of the FastStart math program.

Thomas Bailey and Clive Belfield consider the role of community colleges, with particular attention to the benefits to workers (as measured by earnings) of certificates and degrees by field of study.

This book chapter discusses community college graduation goals that have been set by the Obama administration, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Lumina Foundation for Education.

In CCRC's 2012 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses CCRC’s research on developmental assessment and placement and how colleges might more effectively assess incoming students.

In CCRC's 2011 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses what we have learned about effective practices in community college from CCRC’s Assessment of Evidence Series.

This paper summarizes findings from eight working papers (the Assessment of Evidence Series) that synthesized research on strategies for improving outcomes for community college students, and makes four broad recommendations based on these findings.

This article reviews the existing literature on the economic and other benefits of attending community college and considers the methodological challenges associated with calculating earnings gains from attending a community college.

Prepared for the 2010 White House Summit on Community College, this brief discusses developmental education challenges and describes initiatives designed to improve remedial services.

This paper analyzes patterns of student progression through sequences of developmental education starting from initial referral.

This paper demonstrates that a close analysis of the studies of online learning included in a Department of Education meta-analysis reveals no trend in favor of the online course mode.

In CCRC's 2010 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey reviews CCRC's accomplishments since its founding in 1996.

Prepared for a Human Resources Development Group Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), this paper discusses a range of issues relevant to the community college mission of helping prepare a skilled workforce for jobs offering reasonable wages.

This guide for district administrators, teachers, and counselors aims to help schools and districts develop practices to increase access to higher education and details the research evidence informing its recommendations.

In CCRC's 2009 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses CCRC research that tracked the enrollment and progression of community college students into and through remediation, and outlines directions for reform.

This report provides detailed findings on state policies and community college practice from CCRC's study of community college noncredit workforce education.

This paper examines evidence on the effectiveness of developmental education and outlines a broad reform agenda for helping students with weak academic skills.

This paper describes how researchers used data on student characteristics and educational outcomes from several federal government sources to explore the legitimacy of the various ways that college effectiveness can be assessed by using measures of student success.

This study uses rigorous quantitative methods to examine the impact of dual enrollment participation on students in Florida and New York City.

In CCRC's 2008 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey reviews CCRC's research on dual enrollment and discusses findings that suggest participation in dual enrollment and career-technical dual enrollment is associated with a range of positive postsecondary outcomes.

This essay describes the characteristics of community college students and discusses the role of the community college in increasing access to higher education by traditionally underserved students.

This book chapter reviews three dominant strategies to create academic linkages between high school and college—remediation, dual enrollment, and the high school/college alignment movement.

This paper reveals unique findings from a study that compared educational outcomes of older and traditional-age students.

In CCRC's 2007 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey argues that in order to improve, community colleges need to make better use of student data. He discusses CCRC's involvement in two national initiatives that emphasize the use of data to inform institutional decision making.

This working paper explores the impact of students' reasons for enrollment and educational expectations on their outcomes and, thus, on the performance of their college.

This working paper examines the validity of the Student Right-to-Know (SRK) graduation rates as measures of community college performance.

This chapter examines the extent to which career academies deliver on their promises.

This paper presents findings from CCRC's study on the experiences and educational outcomes of older and younger community college students.

This working paper presents a research model that CCRC has developed to better understand the effects of institutional characteristics on student outcomes.

This article discusses the use of regression analysis to evaluate public and private institutions serving vastly different populations.

In this book, CCRC researchers analyze how colleges have tried to improve their performance with respect to low-income students, students of color, and nontraditional students.

In CCRC's 2006 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses how attention to the postsecondary achievement of community college students has grown over the past 10 years and how that attention represents a shift from an exclusive focus on access and equity.

This paper discusses how economic, political, social, and demographic factors are changing in ways that will likely increase educational inequality in the United States and hamper productivity growth.

This report analyzes dual enrollment legislation in all 50 states and examines whether these policies promote or inhibit the spread of dual enrollment programs.

This article discusses the economic effects of a community college education using the latest available nationally representative dataset. The authors find substantial evidence that a community college education has positive effects on earnings among young workers, especially those who earn an associate degree.

The authors examine whether postsecondary occupational students, particularly sub-baccalaureate students, are more likely than other types of postsecondary students to achieve educational goals.

In CCRC's 2005 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses CCRC's research on the achievement and outcomes of underrepresented students at community colleges.

This report summarizes statistics on access and attainment in higher education, focusing on community college students, using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988.

This report presents a critical analysis of the state of the research on the effectiveness of specific practices in increasing persistence and completion at community colleges.

This paper examines institutional characteristics that affect the success of community college students as measured by the individual student probability of completing a certificate or degree or transferring to a baccalaureate institution.

This report summarizes the latest available national statistics on access and attainment by low-income and racial/ethnic minority community college students.

This report reviews the state of research on the determinants of student outcomes in community colleges and initiates a program of empirical research on institutional graduation rates.

This report estimates the returns to a sub-baccalaureate education in response to the debate centered on whether vocational education restricts access to a four-year college.

This brief presents a profile of the enrollment, demographic, and educational characteristics and educational goals of community college students in occupational programs.

This report examines the ability of the ATE projects and centers to have a significant and permanent influence on the host colleges and on the system of STEM education in general.

In CCRC's 2004 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses CCRC’s analyses of national survey data to identify demographic and educational characteristics of community college students, assess community college student outcomes, and determine the economic benefits of a community college education.

Using case study research conducted at eight community colleges in five states, this report examines the issue of, and controversy over, the ever-expanding missions of community colleges.

This report presents the findings of exploratory research designed to identify the characteristics of the outsourcing of instruction at community colleges and the forces that promote or block its spread.

Focusing on dual enrollment, Tech Prep, AP, IB, and middle college high schools, this report offers a comprehensive look at the evidence base on this rapidly growing group of education initiatives.

This book explores the potential for using work-based learning as part of a broad education reform strategy.

This article provides a researcher's perspective about classification systems for two-year colleges.

This paper discusses the process and impact of the ATE innovation from several different dimensions by examining instructional and institutional factors that affect the process of curriculum integration.

In CCRC's 2003 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses the fiscal crisis facing community colleges and reviews some of the findings from CCRC's national field study of community colleges and CCRC's research on the educational outcomes of community college occupational students.

This paper discusses the economic returns to education for African American and Hispanic students and the performance of community colleges in increasing college access for ethnic minority students.

This book examines the origins and early history of the American community college and the role played by Teachers College in that history.

This report is a quantitative analysis of postsecondary occupational education students using national datasets.

This article provides an overview of preexisting relationships between high school and colleges and discusses the promising initiative of dual enrollment.

This paper reports on a two-year research study jointly conducted by CCRC and National Center for Postsecondary Improvement that compares for-profit institutions with community colleges.

This chapter discusses the challenges of community colleges, trends leading to enrollment growth, and the controversy over mission expansion and offers suggestions for reform. A brief version is also available.

CCRC Brief No. 13 focuses on immigrant enrollment in community colleges and two-year associate degree programs in City University of New York (CUNY) senior colleges.

In CCRC's 2002 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses the growing national interest in community colleges and reviews CCRC research comparing for-profit colleges and community colleges.

This chapter, published in Perspectives on the Community College: A Journey of Discovery, features a revealing discussion about the new roles of community colleges.

In the inaugural edition of CCRC's newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses the mission of CCRC and the research it conducted during its first three years on the multiple missions of community colleges and the conditions under which individual students benefit most from community colleges.

This book chapter discusses the controversial issue of multiple missions of community colleges in the age of digital technology.

This paper outlines an agenda for research on postsecondary vocational education that can be carried out with existing data.

In this report and brief, the authors clarify the underlying assumptions of both sides in the community college multiple missions debate.

This book chapter, published by the American Youth Policy Forum, discusses shaky prospects for successful passages to productive adult lives.