Community Colleges and Minority Degree Attainment

May 2003–January 2005

This project examined the role of community colleges in promoting educational attainment among Blacks and Hispanics, using national and state databases on undergraduate students to understand the patterns and correlates of degree completion and transfer among Black and Hispanic students who enter higher education through community colleges.

CCRC’s analyses used data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study of 1996–2001 and National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data were used to estimate the effects of individual institutional characteristics on student outcomes. In addition, CCRC used findings from a study using student record information from the Washington State Community and Technical College System to track the educational attainment and earnings outcomes over five years of adult students entering the community college system for the first time.

This project was funded by the Ford Foundation.

Project Lead

Thomas Bailey