Donna Ginther, University of Kansas - Is There a Community College Penalty in Obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree? 

Title: Is There a Community College Penalty in Obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree?  A Re-analysis Using Kansas Administrative Data

Abstract:

This paper uses a new instrumental variables technique to estimate whether students who start at a community college in the state of Kansas face a penalty (accumulate fewer credit hours and graduate at lower rates) compared to their peers who begin at a four-year institution. The study demonstrates that the classic direct distance instrument does not meet the exclusion restriction in the state of Kansas and instead introduces an instrument that has not yet been used in the education literature: the difference-in-distance instrument. The study shows that this instrument does meet the relevance requirement and the exclusion restriction. We find that community college students in Kansas do not face a penalty compared to their four-year institution peers. This result is largely at odds with the previous literature. Additional analysis indicates that complex pathways and remedial credits at community colleges contribute to the failure to complete a bachelor’s degree.

Presenter: Donna Ginther, University of Kansas

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