Browsing by Author "Riley Bahr, Peter"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Earnings of Community College Graduates in California
    Riley Bahr, Peter (Community College Research Center Teachers College, Columbia University, 2016-12-01)
    In this study, the author draws on longitudinal data for 1.1 million students in California to estimate the effects of community college credentials on students’ earnings, as compared with students who are not awarded a credential. In contrast to much of the recent work on this subject, which assumed that the effects of credentials on students’ earnings are constant over time, the author estimates the effects of credentials on the rate of change in students’ earnings and allow these effects to vary over time. The author finds substantial variability in returns by students’ race/ethnicity and gender. Black men and Black women experience especially strong returns to associate degrees and long-term certificates, relative to other students of the same gender but different race/ethnicity, and men of all racial/ethnic groups experience much stronger returns to short-term certificates than do women. The author also notes wide variation by field of study in returns to credentials.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The Labor Market Returns to a Community College Education for Non-Completing Students
    Riley Bahr, Peter (Community College Research Center Teachers College, Columbia University, 2016-12-01)
    In this study, the author uses data from California to estimate the returns to a community college education for students who do not complete postsecondary credentials. The author finds strong, positive returns to completed credits in career and technical education (CTE) fields that are closely linked to employment sectors that are not credential-intensive, such as public safety, skilled blue collar trade and technical work, and accounting and bookkeeping, among others. In these sectors, students are able to convert the human capital acquired in their coursework into returns that far exceed the cost of the coursework itself, making some non-completing educational pathways a rational means of securing earnings gains. These results are not without caveat, however, as the author also finds that the returns to credits are less consistent for Black and Asian students than they are for White and Hispanic students, and less consistent for female students than they are for male students, indicating the need for further investigation as well as attention to context in applying the results.