| James Benson
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Community colleges and the students that attend them: Did late twentieth century state policies improve success?
This dissertation will examine the effects of state education policies enacted during the late twentieth century on the success of community college students. Success is defined broadly, and includes persistence as well as academic success. Drawing primarily on research from within the discipline of sociology, but also from work within the broader realm of education and policy analysis, this proposal seeks to examine the effectiveness of three types of state policies, including those pertaining to: preparation for college, including policies aimed at improving the high school curriculum and encouraging effort among high school students; articulation, especially policies aimed at easing the process of transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions; and college financing, including policies that provide need-based financial aid to students who attend community colleges, and direct funding to community colleges.
The late twentieth century was an extraordinary period of change along each of these policy dimensions, in tandem with a cultural shift among leaders and the general population which increasingly emphasizes the importance of postsecondary education. Given this growing focus on the importance of college attainment, there is a substantial need for rigorous research that can effectively identify strategies for improving success among college students. Although, by necessity, this is an observational study, the analytical strategy for this dissertation was designed in order to maximize causal inference in the interpretation of results. The relationship between policies and success will be modeled hierarchically, with students nested within states. Corrections will be made to account for selection into community colleges. Multinomial logistic regression will facilitate simultaneous estimation of the relationships between state policies and three different forms of student success.
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