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Baccalaureate Attainment and College Persistence of Community College Transfer Students at Four-Year Institutions

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Abstract

Studying factors that predict bachelor’s degree attainment has generated considerable empirical interest over the past few decades. Relatively few studies, however, have focused on community college transfer students and the unique factors that predict their educational outcomes. Utilizing the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and Postsecondary Education Transcript Study, this research tested logistic regression models to predict baccalaureate attainment and college persistence among high school graduates of 1992 who attended community colleges first and eventually transferred to four-year institutions. Results indicate that the probability of attaining a bachelor’s degree among these students is significantly associated with gender, SES, high school curriculum, educational expectation upon entering college, GPA earned from community colleges, college involvement, and math remediation. Perceived locus of control and community college GPA are significant predictors of persistence. Implications for policy and future research are also discussed.

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Notes

  1. This information is available in the fully-documented Electronic Code Book (ECB) that accompanies the PETS data CD.

  2. Applying alternative methods such as mean substitution to address missing data did not produce substantially different results.

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Acknowledgements

This study is based upon work supported by the Association for Institutional Research, the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Science Foundation, and the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative, under Association for Institutional Research Grant Number 07–417.

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  1. The Ohio State University, 520 Mahoning Court, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Xueli Wang

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Correspondence to Xueli Wang.

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Table 6 Reliability coefficients and factor loadings for locus of control and self-concept
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Wang, X. Baccalaureate Attainment and College Persistence of Community College Transfer Students at Four-Year Institutions. Res High Educ 50, 570–588 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-009-9133-z

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