New Hope For Community College Transfers

Low-income students who transfer from community colleges to four-year colleges are less likely to get a degree than their wealthier peers, a new report shows. But in a sign of hope, their success varies dramatically by state and by college.“It means that demography is not destiny,” said Davis Jenkins, one of the report’s authors and a senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. “If we care about upward social mobility, then we need to pay attention to transfer students.”

Nationally, just 36 percent of low-income transfer students complete a B.A. compared with 44 percent of middle and upper income students.

For decades, the ability to earn a college degree has been determined largely by whether a student starts off poor. Most low-income students go to community college, so increasing the number who successfully transfer and get a bachelor’s degree could enable those low-income students to use higher education to get to the middle class.

Overall, only 14 percent of all students who entered a community college in 2007 transferred and then earned a four-year degree within six years, the report shows. (Some dropped out, some left college after earning their associate’s degree.) Among those who did transfer, on average 42 percent went on to get a bachelor’s degree within six years of starting at a community college.

Related: Underserved and overburdened, transfer students face an uphill battle to earn their degrees

Iowa also stood out as having one of the smallest gaps between rich and poor students who earned a bachelor’s degree – just one percentage point. Florida and Nebraska also had less disparity.

Meanwhile California, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia had a higher-than-average percentage of transfer students who earned B.A.s, but they had a lower-than-average percentage of low-income students getting a four-year degree. It appears that at least some of these states achieved high overall rates because of the strong performance of higher-income students, the report’s authors conclude.

The report did not offer specifics on why some states and colleges were successful – that will be examined in a report planned for May – but the authors said that the states with good results had solid partnerships between community and four-year colleges. They also had simple ways to transfer credits and they paid special attention to transfer students, in the same way some colleges orient and support freshmen in their first year.

Related: Federal study finds 40 percent of transfer students get no credit

The academic and social preparation provided by community colleges was clearly important. But the researchers said that the approach taken by the four-year colleges was equally, if not more, significant and could increase chances of success, regardless of where the student had started.

Public colleges and universities were more successful in general than nonprofit private ones, and both did much better than for-profit colleges, which had an 8 percent average graduation rate. Jenkins called their results “scandalous.” Selective colleges did the best.

The report paints a hopeful picture of what is possible if public policy shifts, since 70 percent of those students who do transfer go to four-year public colleges.

“Seeing the enormous variation suggests that colleges can dramatically improve,” said Josh Wyner, vice president and executive director of the college excellence program at the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit think tank. “There is a huge potential to increase the number of students who attain a baccalaureate degree.”

The report, released Tuesday, was produced by the CCRC at Teachers College (The Hechinger Report is an independent unit based at Teachers College), the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, and was funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust (which have also funded The Hechinger Report).

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Read more about Higher Education.