In this 2016 study, we see that only 30% of community college students are failing to graduate or transfer. As we read:
A new study conducted by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Cal State Sacramento and reported by the Los Angeles Times found that the large majority of community college students failed to obtain a degree or transfer to a four-year institution. These students typically dropped out – some with a significant amount of debt and no degree to help them. In addition, only 40% of community college students achieved sufficient credit hours in school to boost their potential in the workforce.
National numbers show disparities in class and race. We read:
Nationally, just 36 percent of low-income transfer students complete a B.A. compared with 44 percent of middle and upper income students.
For decades, the ability to earn a college degree has been determined largely by whether a student starts off poor. Most low-income students go to community college, so increasing the number who successfully transfer and get a bachelor’s degree could enable those low-income students to use higher education to get to the middle class.
Overall, only 14 percent of all students who entered a community college in 2007 transferred and then earned a four-year degree within six years, the report shows. (Some dropped out, some left college after earning their associate’s degree.) Among those who did transfer, on average 42 percent went on to get a bachelor’s degree within six years of starting at a community college.
But the results varied greatly by state – from just 13 percent in South Dakota to 49 percent in Washington and Iowa.
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