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...for differences among the two groups. Previous studies did not, however, examine whether age and full-time enrollment are factors in persistence. This study seeks to determine if the established pattern is valid when examining only "traditional" students.
Introduction
The objective of this study is to determine if institutional type has a net effect on baccalaureate degree attainment of traditional-aged students. This study defines traditional students as those under the age of 19 at high school graduation who enroll directly, on a full-time basis, into college the following fall term. The significance of this study is to explore the equity of opportunity for baccalaureate attainment for traditional students by institutional type. The null hypothesis claims that no statistically significant difference exists regarding traditional students' baccalaureate degree completion based upon institutional type (two-year or four-year institutions) at initial matriculation.
Research that relies on data from National Center for Education Statistics 1972 National Longitudinal study indicates that the net effect of enrolling at a two-year college instead of a four-year college reduces a student's probability of obtaining a baccalaureate degree. Estimates of the forgone probability range from 11% to 19% (Nunley and Breneman, 1988; Anderson, 1984; Velez, 1985). After reviewing the research regarding the net effects of educational achievement by type of institution, Dougherty (1992) argues that findings hold even when researchers rely on different sources of national data. He concludes:
In sum, the poorer outcomes encountered by baccalaureate aspirants entering community colleges rather than four-year colleges cannot be attributed only to the fact that the former entrants are generally of more modest backgrounds, abilities, and aspirations. Even when we compare students with similar traits, we find that baccalaureate aspirants entering the community college are still significantly less likely to realize their hopes. This is an institutional effect that cannot be explained by differences in student characteristics. (p. 191-192)
In contrast to existing studies, the present study restrictively selects observations by including only traditional students and eliminating "experimenters" from the analysis. Grubb (1991) defines experimenters as students who earn fewer than 12 equivalent semester hours of college credit throughout their college careers; this study excludes such students from the analysis and extends the exclusion to all students enrolled part-time at both two-year and four-year institutions. While most existing studies include only baccalaureate degree aspirants or those enrolled in academic programs, they fail to control for age, as well as remove experimenters and part-time students from the analysis. This study uses a narrow selection of students in order to provide a valid comparison of a group of students loosely defined as traditional. This study finds that initial matriculation at a two-year college reduces traditional students' net probability of earning a baccalaureate degree, although the effect is much less than what the current literature suggests. Furthermore, while this study concludes that institutional type is important in explaining baccalaureate degree attainment, its importance is secondary to several other independent variables included in the model.
Literature
Much of the existing literature on community colleges addresses those institutions' role in baccalaureate attainment, examining the degree to which community colleges facilitate or hinder students in their aspirations to earn a bachelor's degree. Brint and Karabel (1989) claim that educational leaders of well-known universities helped to create public junior colleges with the purpose of diverting students away from their elite institutions, thereby creating the historical conditions for an institutional effect hindering baccalaureate attainment. Brint and Karabel argue that junior colleges (and eventually community colleges) fail to provide the same degree of upward mobility for their students as do four-year institutions. Although four-year institutions did not divest the first two years of instruction, they did, however, become more exclusive. As the number of two-year colleges grew, admission requirements at four-year institutions became more stringent (Zwerling, 1976; Levine, 1986), increasing the enrollments of less-qualified students at two-year institutions. Furthermore, community colleges' post-World War II emphasis on vocational training, with strong support from the federal government and many foundations, further diverted students from attaining the baccalaureate degree (Brint & Karabel, 1989).
Although impressive, Brint and Karabel's (1989) argument is not definitive. It stresses their theme of anticipatory subordination rather than an historical interpretation of the events in the development of the public junior college (Hutcheson, 1999). Brint and Karabel define anticipatory subordination as the condition that the junior college is structurally subordinate to industry and the university and therefore serves the anticipated needs of industry and the university through primarily terminal education. Brint and Karabel's reliance on only two states, as well as their reliance on the opinions of relatively few educational leaders, casts doubts on their conclusions. They provide a comprehensive review of foundation activities, government task force reports, and the American Association of Junior Colleges (AAJC) policy but acknowledge that from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s the proportion of two-year college students in vocational program was never greater than one third of all two-year college students. Thus Brint and Karabel presume that two-year colleges fail to act with much, if any, independence from industry and four-year institutions and serve to hinder students' baccalaureate attainment historically and in the present. In contrast, Frye (1993) concludes in his historical investigation of public junior colleges that students actively resisted terminal education, as did public junior college presidents, faculty members, and staff members.
While Brint and Karabel (1989) focus on the institutional constraints on baccalaureate attainment, Cohen and Brawer (1996) argue that individual access and upward mobility are the key issues in equity...
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