\n<\/p>\n
Community college baccalaureate degrees tend to earn graduates more than associate degrees but less than bachelor\u2019s degrees from traditional four-year colleges, with substantial variation by field, according to recent research highlighted by the Brookings Institute in a brief released Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The report, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research earlier this year, drew on data from the U.S. Census Bureau\u2019s Postsecondary Employment Outcomes program, which includes 10 of the 24 states that allow community college baccalaureate degrees, tracking earnings outcomes for about 13,000 community college baccalaureate graduates one year after graduation. <\/p>\n
The analysis found that community college baccalaureate degrees paid off relative to associate degrees. Graduates of those programs earned between $4,000 and $9,000 more than associate degree holders who attended the same community colleges and earned degrees in the same field of study, the research analysis found. But they earned about $2,000 less than graduates from four-year colleges or universities in the same state, field and graduation cohort.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean community college baccalaureate degrees don\u2019t pay off, said Camila Morales, assistant professor of economics at the University of Texas at Dallas and a co-author of the report.<\/p>\n
For one thing, field of study made a big difference; in some fields, community college baccalaureate graduates earned equivalent amounts or outpaced their four-year college counterparts, the report found. For example, community college baccalaureate graduates in nursing earned salaries on par with four-year college graduates. And criminal justice graduates from community colleges earned more on average than their peers who attended four-year institutions. But in computer and information science, community college baccalaureate degree earners lagged significantly behind graduates in the same programs from four-year institutions. The report suggested that employers might care less about the type of institution in a tight labor market or for more direct pathways to careers, like nursing programs, than for more open fields that can lead to a wide range of industries. <\/p>\n
Morales also pointed out that community college baccalaureate programs are lower cost. The report analyzed tuition costs in three states and found that these programs cost $14,000 less on average than traditional bachelor\u2019s degrees.<\/p>\n
Community colleges \u201care offering this middle ground, middle path for students who might not be able to access the four-year institutions but can get those kinds of degrees at the two-year colleges for a cheaper price and, in some instances, for some fields, get returns that are similar,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Debra Bragg, president of Bragg and Associates, a consulting group focused on student success, and a researcher on community college baccalaureate degrees, questioned some of the results. She noted that the database used in the report doesn\u2019t include Florida and Washington, which together account for 70\u00a0percent of community college baccalaureate degree graduates nationwide. As a result, the field-by-field analysis in particular is based on very few programs relative to the roughly 800 that exist across the country, so she\u2019d take those findings with a grain of salt, she said.<\/p>\n
She found the overall findings\u2014that community college baccalaureate degree earners make more than associate degree earners but less than bachelor\u2019s degrees earners\u2014are fairly consistent with studies at the state level. But she also emphasized that community college baccalaureate degree students are often choosing these programs over not continuing college at all.<\/p>\n
Not all students have \u201cthe opportunity to make choices,\u201d Bragg said. For many community college students who go on to these programs, \u201cit\u2019s not the choice between get this bachelor\u2019s or go to the expensive university down the road. When you really look at the students who enroll in these programs, a lot have never even thought about getting a bachelor\u2019s degree.\u201d<\/p>\n
These are also often adult learners who don\u2019t want to relocate, she added. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them will say, \u2018I realize I could probably go somewhere else and make more money, but that\u2019s not what I want to do. I want to stay here. I\u00a0want to be closer to my family,\u2019\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Co-author Kalena Cortes, Verlin and Howard Kruse \u201952 Founders Professor at Texas A&M University, said she and other researchers are currently conducting audit studies that look at labor markets in other states. But she believes the NBER research can be a jumping-off point for state lawmakers considering starting community college baccalaureate programs and which fields to pursue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I were a state that was thinking of doing this, I would be basically thinking to myself\u00a0\u2026 which programs seem that there\u2019s a demand for [them] and it\u2019s gone well? And are those same programs, the same needs for my own labor market?\u201d Cortes said. For example, \u201cyou always need nurses.\u201d But \u201crolling out a whole menu without even thinking about this, that would not be the strategy to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Community college baccalaureate degrees tend to earn graduates more than associate degrees but less than bachelor\u2019s degrees from traditional four-year colleges, with substantial variation by field, according to recent research highlighted by the Brookings Institute in a brief released Tuesday. The report, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research earlier this year, drew on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[24092,535,534,1040],"class_list":{"0":"post-47869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-baccalaureates","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-pay"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}