Pandemic Impact on Community College Students and Their Pathways to a Baccalaureate

• In Event: COVID-19 and Community Colleges: Can Timely Research Accelerate Their Recovery and Support Racially Minoritized Students?

Abstract

Despite ongoing recovery efforts of the higher education community to regain pre-pandemic normalcy, lingering COVID-19 impacts continue to make navigating transfer options difficult for students (Figure 1). Community colleges are the most-affected sector, with unprecedented declines in freshmen, continuing students, and adult learners. This had an effect on transfer enrollment across higher education, and a distinctive effect on upward transfers from community colleges into four-year institutions, with equity implications for low income and racially minoritized students who rely on the transfer pathway as a more affordable route to bachelor’s degree attainment.

In this paper, we delineate the pandemic’s lasting impacts on equity gaps across student demographics and institutional characteristics by taking a closer look at upward transfer enrollment during and after the pandemic and outcomes for pandemic-impacted community college entering cohorts. Specifically, we ask the following research questions:

(1) How did transfer opportunities and pathways shift during the pandemic?;
(2) Which student populations were affected the most by these changes in transfer from community colleges?; and
(3) How has the pandemic influenced post-transfer outcomes for upward transfer students?

We present longitudinal findings on transfer enrollment patterns pre- and post-pandemic using enrollment and completion data from a national data source. Results are disaggregated by academic year, student demographics, starting sector, transfer pathway, and different types of community colleges, among other variables. Upward transfer enrollments are also tracked by income quintiles, a proxy for students’ socioeconomic origins. In addition, this paper discusses what percent of entering community college students reach transfer and completion milestones within six years, providing early insights into outcomes for later pandemic-impacted cohorts who may still be enrolled today.

Results show upward transfer is the only type of transfer that had not started to grow by fall 2022 (Figure 2). In particular, the pandemic reduced upward transfer among women, older students, and urban and transfer-focused community colleges. Nonetheless, six-year baccalaureate degree attainment rates improved for community college starters transferring to four-year institutions even during their pandemic-impacted years (Figure 3). The final paper and presentation will elaborate these findings and provide latest updates on transfer and mobility for community college students.

This research based on timely, detailed data only available will help educational leaders and policymakers to identify the areas of support needed to accelerate the pandemic recovery for community colleges and their students.

Author

• Hee Sun Kim, National Student Clearinghouse