Using Data Mining to Explore Why Community College Transfer Students Earn Bachelor’s Degrees With Excess Credits

Community college transfer students encounter challenges progressing toward a bachelor’s degree, leading to widespread transfer credit loss. This in turn may lower students’ chances of credential completion and increase the time and costs for students, their families, and taxpayers. In this study we review three definitions of credit transfer inefficiency—credit transferability, credit applicability, and excess credits among completers—focusing on the last to examine why students who start at a community college and transfer to a four-year institution so often end up with excess credits that do not count toward a bachelor’s degree. To shed light on credit transfer inefficiency, we examine the course-taking behaviors of community college transfer students who earn bachelor’s degrees with numerous excess credits compared with transfer students who earn bachelor’s degrees with few excess credits. We employ data-mining techniques to analyze student transcripts from two state systems, enabling us to examine a large number of variables that could explain the variation in students’ excess credits at graduation. These variables include not only student demographics but also the types and timing of courses taken. Overall, we find more excess credits associated with several factors, including taking larger proportions of 100and 200-level courses and smaller proportions of 300-level courses throughout students’ progression toward completion, and taking 100-level courses in any subject—and specifically 100-level math courses— immediately after transferring to a four-year institution. Findings suggest that institutions could help students reduce credit transfer inefficiency by encouraging them to explore and choose a bachelor’s degree major early on so they can take the required lower division (100and 200-level) courses at the community college, thereby enabling them to take mostly upper division 300and 400-level courses in their desired major field once they transfer to a four-year institution.

[1]  Davis Jenkins,et al.  Can Community Colleges Afford to Improve Completion? Measuring the Costs and Efficiency Effects of College Reforms , 2013 .

[2]  Stephen J. Handel,et al.  The Promise of the Transfer Pathway: Opportunity and Challenge for Community College Students Seeking the Baccalaureate Degree. Summary of Empirical Analyses, Policy Reflections and Recommendations. , 2012 .

[3]  David B. Monaghan,et al.  The Community College Route to the Bachelor’s Degree , 2015 .

[4]  Davis Jenkins,et al.  Takes Two to Tango: Essential Practices of Highly Effective Transfer Partnerships , 2017 .

[5]  Clifford Adelman,et al.  Moving into Town--and Moving On: The Community College in the Lives of Traditional-Age Students. , 2005 .

[6]  Paul Attewell,et al.  Data Mining for the Social Sciences , 2015 .

[7]  Debra D. Bragg,et al.  Two-Year College Mathematics and Student Progression in STEM Programs of Study , 2011 .

[8]  Davis Jenkins,et al.  Using Longitudinal Data to Increase Community College Student Success: A Guide to Measuring Milestone and Momentum Point Attainment. CCRC Research Tools No. 2. , 2008 .

[9]  Shanna Smith Jaggars,et al.  A Longitudinal Analysis of Community College Pathways to Computer Science Bachelor’s Degrees , 2016 .

[10]  Davis Jenkins,et al.  Momentum: The Academic and Economic Value of a 15-Credit First-Semester Course Load for College Students in Tennessee , 2016 .

[11]  Davis Jenkins,et al.  Tracking Transfer: New Measures of Institutional and State Effectiveness in Helping Community College Students Attain Bachelor’s Degrees , 2016 .

[12]  GAO-17-574, Accessible Version, HIGHER EDUCATION: Students Need More Information to Help Reduce Challenges in Transferring College Credits , 2018 .

[13]  S. Simone.  Transferability of Postsecondary Credit Following Student Transfer or Coenrollment. Statistical Analysis Report. NCES 2014-163. , 2014 .

[14]  Davis Jenkins,et al.  Is It Really Cheaper to Start at a Community College? The Consequences of Inefficient Transfer for Community College Students Seeking Bachelor’s Degrees , 2017 .

[15]  L. Hagedorn,et al.  Using transcripts in analyses: Directions and opportunities , 2008 .

[16]  C. Adelman.  Executive Summary: The Toolbox Revisited--Paths to Degree Completion from High School through College. , 2006 .

[17]  Rachel B. Baker.  The Effects of Structured Transfer Pathways in Community Colleges , 2016 .

[18]  Transcript Analyses as a Tool to Understand Community College Student Academic Behaviors. , 2005 .

[19]  Clifford P. Harbour,et al.  Redesigning America’s Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success , 2016 .

[20]  Christopher Mazzeo,et al.  Improving Credit Mobility for Community College Transfer Students , 2016 .

[21]  Davis Jenkins,et al.  The Transfer Playbook: Essential Practices for Two- and Four-Year Colleges , 2016 .

[22]  P. Bahr,et al.  The Deconstructive Approach to Understanding Community College Students’ Pathways and Outcomes , 2013 .

[23]  Gary P Jacobson,et al.  Time is the Enemy , 2019, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[24]  Juan Carlos Calcagno,et al.  Stepping Stones to a Degree: The Impact of Enrollment Pathways and Milestones on Community College Student Outcomes , 2006 .

[25]  Xueli Wang.  Course-Taking Patterns of Community College Students Beginning in STEM: Using Data Mining Techniques to Reveal Viable STEM Transfer Pathways , 2016 .

[26]  P. Bartels.  Transfer Report , 2003 .

[27]  Jennifer Page Cullinane,et al.  The path to timely completion : supply- and demand-side analyses of time to bachelor's degree completion , 2014 .