| Lindsey Malcom
University of California, Riverside
Structuring or equalizing opportunity: The relationship between community college pathways and outcomes for STEM baccalaureates
FINAL REPORT
This study contributes to our understanding of the community college pathways traversed by STEM bachelor's degree holders and the relationships between those pathways and educational and career outcomes. Using the sociological framework of status attainment theory and the method of propensity score analysis, data from the National Science Foundation's National Survey of Recent College Graduates (NSRCG) enhanced with institutional data from Barron's Selectivity Index were analyzed to understand the factors that increase the likelihood of earning an associate degree at a community college prior to attaining the STEM baccalaureate and to determine the relationship between this particular community college pathway and students' subsequent educational and career outcomes. The results of the logistic regression suggest that white and Asian women were more likely to employ community college pathways than their male counterparts; however, this was not the case for Latinos and African Americans. Among all racial/ethnic groups, students of lower socioeconomic status and nontraditionally aged students were significantly more likely to have earned an associate degree from a community college prior to earning the STEM bachelor's degree. Graduating from a high school in a state with strong transfer and articulation policies was not associated with the likelihood of employing community college pathways, except among Latinos.
All STEM baccalaureates that earned an associate degree at a community college were less likely to have majored in engineering relative to social science, however largest drop in probability occurred among Asian students. Latino and Asian STEM baccalaureates that attended community college were also less likely to major in the physical sciences relative to social science, whereas this was not the case for African Americans or whites. Latinos who earned an associate degree at a community college were also less likely to have majored in the biological sciences and mathematics. Results from the propensity score analysis further suggest that African American and Asian community college attendees who went on to earn the STEM B.S. degree were less likely to enroll in graduate school than their counterparts who did not earn an associate degree at a community college. This was not the case for Latinos and whites. There is also evidence that community college attendance has little association with STEM baccalaureates' sector of employment. These racial/ethnic differences in the relationship between educational pathways and outcomes highlight the need to consider interactions between students' social location and their educational experiences and outcomes.
This study suggests that associate degree programs at community colleges are acting as an access point to STEM bachelor's degrees for students-particularly for older students and those from an economically disadvantaged background. However, community college attendance does seem to limit access B.S. degrees in a number of math-intensive STEM fields as well as graduate school enrollment for some groups of students. The direct effects of community college attendance seem to dissipate for distal career outcomes, however, it is important to consider that even small initial disadvantages experienced by community college attendees in terms of degree field or graduate school attendance may indirectly affect educational and career outcomes.
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