2005 Reports

What We Know About Community College Low-Income and Minority Student Outcomes: Descriptive Statistics from National Surveys

Bailey, Thomas R.; Jenkins, Paul Davis; Leinbach, D. Timothy

This report summarizes the latest available national statistics on access and attainment by low income and minority community college students. The data come from the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) annual surveys of all postsecondary educational institutions, and the NCES Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study 1996-2001 (BPS:96/01). The IPEDS data provide longitudinal trend statistics of actual enrollments and degrees awarded by institution type and student characteristics between 1992 and 2002. From this we learn about the overall enrollment rates of minorities, the total number of types of credentials earned by race/ethnicity, and we compare the rates across institution types to assess the relative achievement of students at community colleges. We also estimate the rate of degree attainment relative to the rate of enrollment by race/ethnicity at different types of institutions. For national data on patterns of enrollment by student income and program type, we need to look at survey datasets such as BPS:96/01. The authors use data from BPS:96/01 to describe enrollment patterns and completion rates by minority and low-income student characteristics. In contrast to IPEDS, BPS:96/01 provides us with achievement rates (degree and certificate attainment and transfer to baccalaureate institutions) for different types of students after six years, since beginning their postsecondary enrollment and across all institutions in which they enrolled during that time period.