Adjusting College Costs for Noncredit Enrollments: An Issue for Data Geeks or Policy Makers?

Abstract

Objective: In the first study of its kind, the impact of excluding noncredit enrollments in calculations of spending in community colleges is explored. Noncredit enrollments are not reported to Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), but expenditures for these efforts are. This study corrects for this omission and provides new estimates of spending on community college students in four states. Method: Data on noncredit enrollments were made available from four states—New York, New Jersey, California, and North Carolina. Interviews with campus and state officials within each state helped us verify the findings. In addition, Delta Cost Project data were analyzed and adjusted to account for noncredit enrollments. Results: Our analysis indicates that the expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE) student measure, which researchers typically use, seriously overstates the resources that community colleges have to spend on educating students; however, great variations exist within and across states. Conclusion: Community colleges are underfunded to an even greater extent than standard IPEDS analyses indicate.

Keywords

community colleges noncredit enrollments community college spending

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

American Association of Community Colleges. (2017). Fast facts 2017. Washington DC: Author. Retrieved from https://www.aacc.nche.edu/research-trends/fast-facts/

Baum

Kurose

(2013). Community colleges in context: Exploring financing of two- and four-year institutions. In Baum

Kurose

Goldrick-Rab

Kinsley

Melguizo

Kosiewicz

(Eds.), Century Foundation Task Force. Bridging the higher education divide: Strengthening community colleges and restoring the American dream (pp. 73-108). New York, NY: Century Foundation Press.

Business Roundtable. (2009). Counting the hidden assets. Retrieved from http://businessroundtable.org/resources/counting-the-hidden-assets

California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. (2015). Preparing students for careers and college through noncredit enhanced funding: Fiscal Year 2014–15. Retrieved from http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/Portals/0/Reports/2015%20CDCP%20Report_FINAL_ADA.pdf

Cheslock

J. J.

Hughes

R. P.

(2011). Differences cross states in higher education finance policy. Journal of Education Finance, 36, 369-393.

Chiswick

B. R.

Miller

P. W.

(2012). Negative and positive assimilation, skill transferability, and linguistic distance. Journal of Human Capital, 6, 35-55. doi:10.1086/664794

Cronen

Murphy

(2013). Participation in noncredit occupational education and training. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.

D’Amico

M. M.

Morgan

G. B.

Katsinas

S. G.

Adair

J. L.

Miller

M. T.

(2017). A national analysis of noncredit community college education: Enrollment, funding, accountability, and contextual issues. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 41, 288-302. doi:10.1080/10668926.2016.1251349

D’Amico

M. M.

Morgan

G. B.

Robertson

Houchins

(2014). An exploration of noncredit community college enrollment. Journal of Continuing Higher Education, 62, 152-162. doi:10.1080/07377363.2014.953438

10.

Delta Cost Project. (n.d.). TCS online data dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.deltacostproject.org/delta-cost-project-database

11.

Desrochers

D. M.

Hurlburt

(2016). Trends in college spending 2003–2013. Washington, DC: Delta Cost Project, American Institutes for Research. Available from https://www.deltacostproject.org/

12.

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. (n.d.). Report and suggestions from IPEDS Technical Review Panel #22 Collecting Data on Noncredit Instructional Activity. Retrieved from https://edsurveys.rti.org/IPEDS_TRP_DOCS/prod/documents/TRP_22_Collecting_Data_on_Noncredit_Instructional_Activity.pdf

13.

Jenkins

Boswell

(2002). State policies on community college workforce development: Findings from a national survey. Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States, Center for Community College Policy.

14.

Kahlenberg

R. D.

(2015). How higher education funding shortchanges community colleges. Retrieved from https://tcf.org/content/report/how-higher-education-funding-shortchanges-community-colleges/

15.

Kolbe

Kelchen

(2017). Identifying new metrics using IPEDS data. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/pdf/npec/data/NPEC_Paper_New_IPEDS_Finance_Metrics_2017.pdf

16.

Milam

(2005). The role of noncredit courses in serving nontraditional learners. New Directions for Higher Education, 129, 55-68.

17.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). Table 317.20: Degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by control and level of institution and state or jurisdiction: 2014-15. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_317.20.asp?current=yes

18.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115D-1. Retrieved from http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/ Statutes/ PDF/ BySection/Chapter_115D/GS_115D-1.pdf

19.

New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education. (2013). Noncredit enrollment. Retrieved from http://nj.gov/ highereducation/ documents/ pdf/ statistics/ noncredit/ FY2013.pdf

20.

Oleksiw

C. A.

Kremidas

C. C.

Johnson-Lewis

Lekes

(2007). Community college noncredit occupational programming: A study of state policies and funding. St. Paul, MN: National Research Center for Career and Technical Education.

21.

Ralls

S. R.

(2014). North Carolina. In Friedel

J. N.

Killacky

Miller

Katsinas

(Eds.), Fifty state systems of community colleges: Mission, governance, funding, & accountability (4th ed., pp. 251-259). Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press.

22.

Romano

R. M.

Kirshstein

R. J.

D’Amico

M. D.

Hom

(2016). Adjusting college cost figures for non-credit enrollments. Retrieved from https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/sites/ilr.cornell.edu/files/CHERI%20WP176.pdf

23.

Romano

R. M.

Palmer

J. C.

(2016a). Financing community colleges: Where we are, where we’re going. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

24.

Romano

R. M.

Palmer

J. C.

(2016b). The community college and the business cycle. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 48(5), 52-57.

25.

Rouse

C. E.

(1998). Do two-year colleges increase overall educational attainment? Evidence from the states. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 17, 595-620.

26.

Scrivener

Weiss

M. J.

Ratledge

Rudd

Sommo

Fresques

(2015). Doubling graduation rates: Three-year effects of CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) for developmental education students. New York, NY: MDRC. Retrieved from http://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/doubling_graduation_rates_fr.pdf

27.

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2004). Public community colleges and technical schools: Most schools use both credit and noncredit programs for workforce development (GAO-05-04). Washington, DC: Author.

28.

Van Noy

Jacobs

. (2009). The outlook for noncredit workforce education. In Romano

R. M.

Kasper

(Eds.), Occupational outlook for community college students: New directions for community colleges (No. 146, pp. 53-62). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

29.

Van Noy

Jacobs

Korey

Bailey

Hughes

K. L

. (2008). Noncredit enrollment in workforce education: State policies and community college practices. Washington, DC: American Association of Community Colleges and Community College Research Center.

30.

Voorhees

R. A.

Milam

J. H.

(2005). The hidden college: Noncredit education in the United States. Available from http://www.voorheesgroup.org/

31.

Webber

D. A.

Ehrenberg

(2010, December). Do expenditures other than instructional expenditures affect graduation and persistence rates in American higher education? (NBER Working Paper No. 15216). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w15216

32.

Ran

(2015, September). Noncredit education in community college: Students, course enrollments, and academic outcomes (CCRC Working Paper No. 84). New York, NY: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. Available from http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu