Dual enrollment (DE) programs allow high school students to take college coursework and simultaneously earn both high school and college credit. These programs have become increasingly popular in recent decades, with roughly one-third of high school students taking at least one DE course. However, the financial implications of taking DE courses…

Many existing student persistence and retention studies overlooked the different types of departure (e.g., dropout, transfer) and aggregate them into a single departure variable, as a result, the estimates from these studies are spurious when one is interested in what student characteristics prompt dropout but not transfer. This can be especially…

The skilled technical workforce (STW) comprises workers in occupations that require significant science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) skills but not a bachelor's degree for entry. The United States had over 17 million STW workers in 2017, and is expected to be short about 3.4 million workers who are qualified for the available…

Postsecondary attainment is widely recognized as key to accessing living-wage careers--in addition to fulfilling workforce demands and elevating the United States' standing on the world stage. While much of the work to increase attainment rates has recognized the role of reengaging adults who have some college credit, but no degree or certificate,…

Evidence of inefficient course-taking patterns at community colleges has spurred policy conversations about how to ensure effective course sequences. Structural reforms, like guided pathways, seek to reduce major switching as a means to streamline student course taking and eliminate unnecessary credits. By placing students into broad fields of…

Objective: The purpose of our study was to identify the factors associated with federal loan default among a nationally-representative sample of community college students. The guiding research question was: For community college students who borrow federal loans, to what extent do demographic, academic, and enrollment characteristics relate to…

This research brief uses nationally representative data from the 2012/17 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/17) to examine post-college transitions of US undergraduates into the skilled technical workforce (STW), defined here as workers in a collection of occupations that require significant levels of science, technology,…

Student retention has garnered increased attentions in higher education. Drawing from various theoretical perspectives, researchers have developed multiple theoretical models to explain or predict student retention. Most models, however, were intended for traditional aged, full-time students at 4-year colleges or universities. The rapid growth of…

Given the explosion of theoretical and empirical interest in the STEM gender gap in recent years, almost exclusively focused on four-year colleges, this paper primarily investigates the following question: How does the nature of the gender gap differ among two- and four-year college students, if at all? This study seeks to answer the following…

Despite extensive efforts to increase the number of undergraduates majoring and persisting in science, math, engineering, and technology (STEM) fields, there is surprisingly little understanding of recent patterns of switching from these majors to those in other fields of study. In addition, little is known about whether the racial, class, and…

This report provides a "first look" at selected findings from the 2012/14 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:12/14). It is based on final data describing a nationally representative sample of undergraduates who entered postsecondary education for the first time during the 2011-12 academic year. BPS:12/14 covers the…

This report analyzed five databases to get a full picture of the different aspects and traits of Latinos in the workforce: (1) the Current Population Survey (CPS); (2) The American Community Survey (ACS); (3) the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS); (4) the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS); and (5) the…

This inquiry is an exploration of the educational trajectories of African American women community college students. We compare the persistence of African American women to African American men and to all women college students using the 1996/2001 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Survey and the 1993/2003 Baccalaureate and Beyond…

Developmental education has been cited as one of the most difficult issues facing community colleges. Despite the controversy and changes to educational policy regarding developmental education, there is a notable dearth of rigorous research measuring the causal effect of remediation on community college student outcomes. The present study uses…

The study utilized the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06) data set to examine persistence outcomes over a 3-year period across the national sample of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds at public 2-year institutions in the United States. More specifically, the purpose of our study was to investigate how…