The Returns to Degree Completion at CUNY’s Community Colleges

Drawing on more than a decade of data, this report examines earnings returns for CUNY community college associate degree program entrants, showing substantial long-run gains from degree completion and distinguishing between terminal associate degree completion and pathways involving bachelor’s attainment.
Who Rides Out the Storm? The Immediate Post-College Transition and Its Role in Socioeconomic Earnings Gaps

Using administrative data from a large, urban, public college system, this paper documents large gaps in earnings five years after graduation by SES and the extent to which differences in the first job transition can explain these gaps.
State Policy for Expanding Access to High-Demand Jobs: The Role of G3, GO Virginia, and Virginia’s Community Colleges

This ARCC Network brief examines two statewide workforce-focused initiatives, G3 and GO Virginia. The authors present a snapshot of how these initiatives interact on the ground and describe opportunities for more deliberate and strategic efforts to better align their goals and investments.
What’s the Value of a Master’s Degree?

Using administrative data from Ohio, this Third Way brief compares master’s degree completers’ earnings before and after graduate school and finds that, on average, earning a master’s degree increases earnings, though returns vary by field and student demographics.
Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead? Evaluating the Effects of Virginia’s Workforce-Targeted Free College Program

Using two quasi-experimental methods, this paper estimates the causal impact of Virginia’s Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead initiative on financial aid and academic outcomes of community college students.