Manuel S. González Canché

Social Media, Higher Education, and Community Colleges: A Research Synthesis and Implications for the Study of Two-Year Institutions

The boundaries between on-line and “real-world” communities are rapidly deteriorating, particularly for the generation of young people whose lives are pervaded by social media. For this generation, social media exchanges are a primary means of communication, social engagement, information seeking, and possibly, a central component of their identity and community-building. Given these realities, postsecondary educators should begin to seriously explore the potential to intentionally and strategically harness the power of these revolutionary transformations in technology use to better serve the needs of students to enhance their success. Therefore, this review of books, academic journals, higher education news, research reports, individual blogs and other online media on the use of social media technology (SMT) in higher education provides a baseline sense of current uses nationally, providing a descriptive overview of the social media phenomenon. Additionally, the review clarifies how colleges and college students use SMT and also challenges assumptions in two areas: how institutions can best exploit social media’s features and its impact on student outcomes. The review further provides a foundation to develop conceptual frameworks that would better capture the role and impact of SMT among colleges and college students, and community colleges in particular.

Community College Scientists and Salary Gap: Navigating Socioeconomic and Academic Stratification in the U.S. Higher Education System

ABSTRACTMore than 4 decades of research on community colleges has indicated that students who begin in these institutions realize lower levels of educational attainment than initial 4-year entrants. In terms of labor market outcomes, studies have overwhelmingly focused on comparing 2-year entrants to high school graduates who did not attend college. In contrast, this study concentrated on 2-year entrants who became scientists in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and compared their individual and professional characteristics and monetary compensation during a 10-year period to those of scientists who entered college in the 4-year sector. The data analyzed came from 2 National Science Foundation longitudinal and nationally representative samples of doctorate recipients. The analytic techniques relied on the instrumental variables approach for dynamic panel data and propensity score weighting. Findings consistently revealed that 2-year entrants came from lower-income backgrounds...ABSTRACT More than 4 decades of research on community colleges has indicated that students who begin in these institutions realize lower levels of educational attainment than initial 4-year entrants. In terms of labor market outcomes, studies have overwhelmingly focused on comparing 2-year entrants to high school graduates who did not attend college. In contrast, this study concentrated on 2-year entrants who became scientists in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and compared their individual and professional characteristics and monetary compensation during a 10-year period to those of scientists who entered college in the 4-year sector. The data analyzed came from 2 National Science Foundation longitudinal and nationally representative samples of doctorate recipients. The analytic techniques relied on the instrumental variables approach for dynamic panel data and propensity score weighting. Findings consistently revealed that 2-year entrants came from lower-income backgrounds and had lower mean salary and lower salary growth than their 4-year sector counterparts. Despite these negative salary-based effects, data showed that the 2-year sector has had an active function in the early formation of scientists. As the competition for science and technology development tightens worldwide, initiatives should identify understudied venues to increase the production of STEM graduates. Considering its scope, the 2-year sector could be one of them.

Is the Community College a Less Expensive Path Toward a Bachelor's Degree?: Public 2- and 4-year Colleges' Impact on Loan Debt

Policy makers and state representatives have claimed that, compared to the traditional path to a four-year degree, a course of study that begins in the 2-year sector provides a more affordable option. If this is true, then all else equal, 2-year students who obtained a 4-year degree would be expected to have acquired less student loan debt. To test these claims, this study examines the effect of initial enrollment in public 2- and 4-year institutions on education loan debt conditional upon bachelor’s degree completion. Two quasiexperimental techniques (Propensity Score Matching and Heckman Control Function) applied to official longitudinal loan data consistently revealed that similar 2- and 4-year students who obtained a bachelor’s degree had similar levels of debt and repayment. Among non-degree-completers, initial 4-year entrants had higher loan debt than 2-year students. These findings suggest that the 2-year path culminating in a 4-year degree is not less expensive in terms of loan debt. As such, initiatives that lead traditional 4-year students to the “cheaper” 2-year sector may crowd-out students who truly need to begin in these schools. In light of these results, studies analyzing the impact of the private and for-profit sectors should be conducted following the approach presented in this study.

Geographical Network Analysis and Spatial Econometrics as Tools to Enhance Our Understanding of Student Migration Patterns and Benefits in the U.S. Higher Education Network

This study measures the extent to which student outmigration outside the 4-year sector takes place and posits that the benefits from attracting non-resident students exist regardless of sector of enrollment. The study also provides empirical evidence about the relevance of employing geographical network analysis (GNA) and spatial econometrics in [higher] education research. When applied to student migration, GNA enabled the visualization and analysis of complex (virtuous cyclical) dynamics in non-resident student exchanges. Findings revealed that states’ preponderance in attract170 The Review of higheR educaTion Winter 2018 ing non-resident students is both explained by their propensity to export their resident students out-of-state while it simultaneously affected non-resident tuition variation.

Nearby College Enrollment and Geographical Skills Mismatch: (Re)conceptualizing Student Out-Migration in the American Higher Education System

ABSTRACT Student out-migration is a well-studied topic covering more than 40 years of research. This literature has typically equated student out-migration to out-of-state enrollment and has classified all college attendance taking place in students’ state of residence as in-state enrollment. This study argues that failing to capture students’ out-migration within their states of residence may overestimate the positive returns of “out-migrating” by underestimating the effect of attending college “in state.” Accordingly, the purpose of the study was 2-fold. First, it relied on geographical network analysis to offer a framework that disaggregated the sole measure of in-state enrollment into (a) nearby college enrollment and (b) within-state out-migration. Second, it tested the impact of these newly proposed conceptualizations of students’ out-migration decisions on educational and financial outcomes. With the use of the Education Longitudinal Study (2002:12) and other individual-, institution-, geographic-, and state-level indicators, findings indicated that the typical in-state versus out-of-state definition exaggerates the assumed benefits of “migrating.” Indeed, within-state out-migrants attained similar academic and salary-based results while incurring significantly lower undergraduate loan debt compared with students who out-migrated out of state. The study offers evidence of geographical skills mismatch associated with students’ worsened outcomes when enrolling in their 5 closest options and offers a framework to minimize such a mismatch.

Financial Benefits of Rapid Student Loan Repayment: An Analytic Framework Employing Two Decades of Data

This study analyzes the benefits of rapid student loan repayment, defined here as borrowers who repaid their cumulative undergraduate loan debt in half the time of the expected repayment cycle (10 years). Drawing from data on borrowers in two nationally representative samples, I first explain the analytic framework employed to identify rapid loan repayers, then examine whether rapid loan repayment is associated with financial benefits in terms of salary, homeownership, and non–poverty level, identifying how rapid loan repayers differ from their non–rapid loan repayer and nonborrower counterparts. Results show salary benefits associated with rapid loan repayment and indicate that among rapid loan repayers, cumulative loan debt generally did not surpass

The Effect of Participating in Indiana's Twenty-first Century Scholars Program on College Enrollments

15,000. These findings suggest that policy-makers may consider the adoption of shorter repayment plans with clear eligibility cutoff amounts as an alternative to the more common 10-year fixed plan.This study analyzes the benefits of rapid student loan repayment, defined here as borrowers who repaid their cumulative undergraduate loan debt in half the time of the expected repayment cycle (10 years). Drawing from data on borrowers in two nationally representative samples, I first explain the analytic framework employed to identify rapid loan repayers, then examine whether rapid loan repayment is associated with financial benefits in terms of salary, homeownership, and non–poverty level, identifying how rapid loan repayers differ from their non–rapid loan repayer and nonborrower counterparts. Results show salary benefits associated with rapid loan repayment and indicate that among rapid loan repayers, cumulative loan debt generally did not surpass

On-Campus Housing’s Impact on Degree Completion and Upward Transfer in the Community College Sector: A Comprehensive Quasi-Experimental Analysis

15,000. These findings suggest that policy-makers may consider the adoption of shorter repayment plans with clear eligibility cutoff amounts as an alternative to the more common 10-year fixed plan.

Reassessing the Two-Year Sector’s Role in the Amelioration of a Persistent Socioeconomic Gap: A Proposed Analytical Framework for the Study of Community College Effects in the Big and Geocoded Data and Quasi-Experimental Era

Our study adds to prior work on Indiana’s Twenty-first Century Scholars(TFCS) program by focusing on whether participating in—rather than completing—the program affects the likelihood of students going to college and where they initially enrolled. We first employ binary and multinomial logistic regression to obtain estimates of the impact of the program without controlling for self-selection into the program and find that signing up for the TFCS program has a relatively small effect on whether students go to college and where they enroll. We then used alternative statistical approaches to reduce the bias due to self-selection into the TFCS program. Although the estimated program effects after accounting for self-selection were larger than in the earlier models, they were still notably smaller than reported in prior studies of the program.

Early Evaluation Findings From the Instructional Conversation Study: Culturally Responsive Teaching Outcomes for Diverse Learners in Elementary School:

ABSTRACT The college student persistence literature has indicated that on-campus housing positively affects student persistence. This evidence, however, has largely been based on the experiences of students at 4-year institutions—not community colleges. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature by comprehensively evaluating the impact of both living at and simply attending a community college that offers on-campus housing options on (a) associate degree completion, (b) transfer to a 4-year institution, and (c) bachelor’s degree completion. Drawing data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and the accompanying Postsecondary Education Transcript Study and using propensity score analysis with doubly robust estimation techniques, we found living in on-campus housing significantly increased the probability of both upward transfer and bachelor’s degree completion with no effects on associate degree completion. Despite these findings, we refrain from suggesting that all community colleges use limited financial resources to construct new or additional on-campus housing options, especially when considering the heterogeneity of their student bodies. Rather we recommend that community colleges with on-campus housing strive to identify direct-from-high school students who intend to transfer and incentivize them to live on campus while offering additional opportunities to promote social integration beyond on-campus housing for all students.