Postsecondary Finance and the Attainment of Community College Students

1
Postsecondary Finance and the Attainment of
Community College Students

• James Benson
• UW-Madison
• Department of Sociology/
• Interdisciplinary Training Program in the
  Education Sciences

2
Why Research State Policies and Community College
Students?

• Relatively little is known about the conditions
  and policies which promote success for community
  college students. Pascarella and Terenzini
  (1998) estimated that of the of the 2,600 studies
  they collected for their meta-review entitled How
  College Affects Students, less than 5 percent of
  the studies pertained directly to community
  college students.
• Disproportionately, community colleges are the
  point of entry to postsecondary education for
  first-generation, minority, and low-income
  students.
• Rates of success for community college students
  are low Depending on the sample, 15-25 percent
  of CC entrants complete an Associate degree, and
  20-25 percent will ever transfer to a 4-year
  institution. These low rates of success have
  large implications for educational equality, and
  the percentage of citizens with college degrees.

3
Extant Findings on Finance and Community College
Students

• Expenditures Some recent evidence (Gross and
  Goldhaber, 2009) that increased expenditures on
  student support services may promote transfer
  percent full-time faculty may be more important
  than instructional expenditures.
• Tuition Tuition pricing is negatively related to
  within-year persistence CC students may be more
  price-sensitive than 4-year students (St. John,
  1994)
• Financial Aid Community college students are
  much less likely to access FA mixed evidence on
  benefits of aid for CC students.

4
3 Pillars of Postsecondary Finance

• I. Direct government appropriations
• State appropriations
• Local and Federal government appropriations.
• II. Tuition revenues
• III. Financial Aid.
• Additional Props 4-year institutions
  increasingly rely on revenue from gifts,
  endowments, and additional operations.

5
Research Questions

• When considered together, which of the three
  pillars is most consistently associated with
  credit and degree attainment for community
  college students?
• When disaggregating expenditures, are instruction
  and student support more strongly associated with
  attainment than other outlays?
• When disaggregating revenues, are state
  appropriations more instrumental (for attainment)
  than other forms of support?

6
Student Data

• Two most recent cohorts from NCES s National
  Education Longitudinal Studies program
• HSB (Sophomore Cohort) followed from tenth grade
  (1980) through the Postsecondary Education
  Transcript Study (PETS 1993)
• NELS88 panel of tenth graders (1990) who were
  followed through PETS2000.
• Advantages of HSB-So and NELS88
• HS achievement data detailed SES measures and
  transcript-indicated PSE careers and outcome
  data.
• ELS2002 most recent, but PETS not available.

7
Finance Data

• Tuition Pricing, Expenditures and Revenues
• Higher Education General Information Survey,
  Basic Student Charges (HEGIS XVII, 1982-83), and
  Institutional Characteristics component, (HEGIS
  1983-84).
• Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
  (IPEDS) Finance and Institutional Characteristics
  components for 1992-93.
• Financial Aid National Association of State
  Student Grant and Aid Programs (NASSGAP) 15th
  and 25th Annual Surveys (final figures for
  1982-83 and 1992-93) State enrollment sums from
  Digest of Education Statistics.

8
Changes in Postsecondary Financing 1983-1993

• Tuition was the largest growth category (77
  2-year 67 4-year)
• Total government appropriations grew modestly
  (10 2-year 9 4-year)
• Financial aid grew the least (0-5 percent).

9
Expenditures

• Total expenditures grew moderately
• 17 2-year 26 4-year
• 4-year almost 3 times as large as 2-year.
• Instructional expenditures grew modestly
• 9 2-year 17 4-year
• Student support services grew moderately, albeit
  from a rather small base at 2-years
• 21 2-year 26 4-year
• Administrative expenses were static at 2-years,
  but not at 4-years
• 4-years increased research expenditures.

10
Revenues

• Total revenues grew moderately for 2-years (15
  percent) and substantially for 4-years (28
  percent), with the 4-year revenues exceeding 3
  times 2-year revenues.
• Revenues from state sources were stagnant.
• Tuition revenues were the largest growth area
  (42 2-year 60 4-year)
• 4-years substantially increased their reliance on
  gifts and endowments, and revenues from
  additional operations. These categories were much
  smaller for 2-years.

11
Research Method

• Pooled (2-cohort) OLS and Probit regressions of
  attainment outcomes (credits and degrees)
  including policy measures and a host of control
  measures for student and family attributes.
• Two-step estimation of policy effects using
  ordered probit model of postsecondary entrance
  sector combined with attainment outcome models
  (above).

12
Findings

• Three Pillars Model Government appropriations
  consistently positively associated with credit
  and degree attainment (Effect size 2 credits
  delta p0.03). Need-based aid associated with
  degree attainment (delta p0.02).
• Expenditures Model Instruction and student
  support not significantly related to attainment.
  Research and public service negatively associated
  with attainment (-2 credits delta p-0.04)
  Administration positively associated with degree
  attainment (delta p0.05).
• Revenues State appropriations consistently
  positively associated with attainments (2
  credits delta p0.02) tuition associated with
  degrees (delta p 0.03).

13
Conclusions

• State support, in the form of direct
  appropriations, is most consistently (positively)
  related to attainment need-based financial aid
  is positively related to degree completion.
• Tuition pricing does not appear to depress
  attainment for CC students, and tuition revenues
  may help with degree attainment.
• Instructional and student support expenditures
  are not (at least in this study) more important
  than other expenditures for attainment.