Two new reports and an online dashboard from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teacher’s College, Columbia University, are part of an ambitious effort to tell the story of transfer students. These resources break down how many students are able to successfully transfer from a two-year institution to a four-year institution, with or without an associate degree or certificate, and how many of those transferred students are able to achieve a bachelor’s degree at the end of their journey.
Making two reports was a deliberate decision by the CCRC. One report was designed for community college leaders to read — the other was for four-year institutional leaders. Both of these institutional types have clear roles to play in improving transfer outcomes, said Dr. Tatiana Velasco Rodriguez, research associate at the CCRC.
Dr. Tatiana Velasco Rodriguez, research associate at the CCRC.
It’s a call to action because, while some transfer statistics have improved, overall, progress has remained stagnant.
“No state is doing well in terms of getting their community college students to transfer and complete,” said Velasco Rodriguez. “Not only are outcomes low, but they have been low for a while.”
This newest study focuses on the enrollment data available for the community college cohort entering in 2015, which allowed for six years to complete their journey toward a bachelor’s degree. In this cohort, only 16% earned a bachelor’s degree — that’s just two percentage points higher than the previous cohort studied, which entered college in 2007.
Just under one-third of students who begin at community college make the successful transfer to a four-year institution, and of those, only 48% earn a bachelor’s degree in six years. The numbers are even starker for students who are Black, Latinx, male, 25 years and older, or low-income.
