Stepping Stones to a Degree: The Impact of Enrollment Pathways and Milestones on Community College Student Outcomes

摘要

Current research offers only a limited picture of whether enrollment in remediation and the reaching of particular enrollment milestones have different effects on the graduation rates of older and traditional-age students. CCRC Brief No. 32 reports on a new study that begins to fill this research gap. Using longitudinal unit record transcript data on a cohort of first-time community college students in Florida, the study sought to determine whether remedial pathways, such as enrolling in a developmental math course, and enrollment milestones, such as completing a certain number of credits or a certain portion of a given program, had the same impact on the conditional probability of graduating for older students as they did for younger students. The study presents a model for analyzing student enrollment patterns and milestones, findings based on the Florida student cohort, and implications for practice.