Here are some new resources and news for the field of higher education.
College Completion Rates Recover After Slide — Overall national college completion rates are rising after a two-year slide, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which tracks 97 percent of all college enrollments. (Inside Higher Ed, December 5)
Goodbye to Summer Vacation? The Effects of Summer Enrollment on College and Employment Outcomes — This paper examines how enrolling in summer credits can impact college outcomes and the mechanisms by which it may do so. Based on an analysis of one state’s public higher education data, the author found that summer enrollees had higher bachelor’s degree completion rates than summer non-enrollees. Summer enrollees returned to college at a higher rate and completed more credits in the following fall without compromising their grade point averages. Students with lower first-term grade point averages benefitted more from summer enrollment. When summer enrollees reached the labor market, they had higher employment rates six years after initial enrollment. Conditional on employment, earnings were equivalent among summer enrollees and non-enrollees. These findings indicate that summer enrollment benefits students through retention, which leads to higher rates of completion and employment. They suggest that colleges may want to seek opportunities for increasing summer enrollment, and they have implications for the current method of Pell Grant allocation, which privileges the fall and spring terms over the summer term. (Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment)
Community College Student Success May Be Improved by One-Stop Social Services, Study Finds — The study examines the participation of four community college systems in the Single Stop U.S.A. Community College Initiative. The study finds that students participating in the program were more likely to persist in attending community college. (Phys.org, November 30)
12 Cities to Work On Pathway Plans — NLC is starting a two-year effort to address a major challenge facing cities, ensuring that all residents have access and support to earn industry-valued certificates and degrees with the ultimate goal of gaining meaningful employment. (Community College Daily, November 28)
