Title:

Measuring Efficiency in the Community College Sector

Author(s):

Belfield, Clive

Date:

2012

Type:

Working papers

Department:

Community College Research Center

Permanent URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:13087

Series:

CCRC Working Paper

Part Number:

43

Notes:

http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/

Publisher:

Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University

Publisher Location:

New York

Abstract:

Community colleges are increasingly being pressed to demonstrate efficiency and improve productivity even as these concepts are not clearly defined and require a significant set of assumptions to determine. This paper sets out a preferred economic definition of efficiency: fiscal and social cost per degree. It then assesses the validity of using IPEDS data to calculate efficiency for the community college system. Using IPEDS, I estimate the fiscal cost per associate degree at $52,900 for comprehensive community colleges and $42,740 for vocational colleges (in 2008 dollars); the social costs per degree are $71,610 and $56,930, respectively. The community college sector has become more efficient over time: fiscal and social costs per degree are lower in real terms in 2008 than they were in 1987. However, two issues are important to the validity of IPEDS: the ability to adjust for differences in student ability and the way that transfer patterns are incorporated. This paper addresses both of them.

Subject(s):

Community college education

Item views:

48

Metadata:

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