Advancing Mobility via California Community College Baccalaureate Degrees? Applying Critical Perspectives to Center Racial Equity

• In Event: Advancing Critical Understandings of Community College Students

Abstract

Nationally, the quickly expanding community college baccalaureate (CCB) presents a new opportunity to concretely provide more accessible, affordable, and place-bound bachelor’s degrees to advance social mobility for racial and ethnically diverse students and to meet local workforce demands (Fulton, 2020; McKinney et al., 2013). This research project applies a critical quantitative and spatial perspective to analyze the extent that California’s CCB programs center racial equity. We analyze the local labor market conditions of where CCB programs are situated as a means to contextualize the academic access/success and economic outcomes of California’s CCB programs. On average, the CCB programs are a promising pathway to baccalaureate attainment and economic mobility for students of color and older students, but inequities exist.

Authors

• Cecilia Rios-Aguilar, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Marcela G. Cuellar, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author

• Davis Vo, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Hai Hoang, San Diego Mesa College
  Presenting Author

• Adrian H. Huerta, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author