MAY 27, 2020 - TWO-YEAR COLLEGES MUST BECOME SINGULARLY-FOCUSED ON GRADUATING STUDENTS

Oct 15, 2026

May 27, 2020 briefing argues that two-year colleges should be singularly focused on degrees that combine strong academics with relevant skills to improve completion, enrollment, and retention. It summarizes evidence on low completion rates and unequal credential outcomes, highlights how women and people of color often leave with weaker professional-technical credentials, and explains how marketable skills can raise labor-market value for transfer-resistant graduates. The report reviews prior research, earnings trajectories by credential level, and guided pathways as a framework to close equity gaps and reduce time to degree.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

About this report

Completion and equity challenges

Transfer vs direct-to-work outcomes

Guided Pathways framework

Evidence from prior research and earnings gains

MAY 27, 2020 | 20-3 TWO-YEAR COLLEGES MUST BECOME SINGULARLY-FOCUSED ON GRADUATING STUDENTS WITH DEGREES THAT COMBINE ACADEMICS AND SKILLS: THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL REASONS BEHIND A TWO-YEAR DEGREE AND GREEN SHOOTS THAT OFFER EVIDENCE FOR HOW TO GRADUATE MORE STUDENTS WITH ONE Colleges are re-designing their program offerings to complete more students. An often-stated axiom for how two-year colleges can complete more students is to build backwards from success. However, not every credential we have counted as a success has proven equal to our goal for helping students become successful. We need to become singularly focused on degrees that combine strong academics and relevant skills and knowledge. This requires our separate missions to come together in ways they never have. We present green shoots as early signs for this starting to grow and we offer evidence for why degrees have never been so important if we want to enroll and retain more students. About this report Overall, too few students are completing two-year college. Those who complete are still starting off unequally. Women and people of color often complete with lesser professional-technical credentials, or leave with no credential at all. Students who earn certificates, too often start work behind in earnings and fall even further behind throughout their working lives never approaching the growth in lifetime earnings achieved with a professional-technical degree. About one-third of students earning academic degrees do not transfer, but rather go directly to work and find their degree has little value in the labor market. Research suggests they could have benefitted from having marketable skills added to their degree. In this brief, we review our own prior research for two-year college students’ post-college labor market outcomes. We present evidence from our research that two-year college professional technical degrees offer the highest immediate earnings and strongest growth over time. Many graduates who go to work in lowerpay sectors like education and health and human services will need even more than the two-year degree. They will need a bachelor’s degree. The Applied Baccalaureate (AB) was started about ten-years ago. We discuss its growing importance. We also pay attention to the two-year academic transfer degree. Our focus is employment outcomes for those graduates who earn an academic transfer degree, but do not transfer. The evidence we offer should serve as green shoots for how a singularly-focused mission aimed at degree attainment can happen. Guided Pathways, which started in Washington in 2016, is the context for this brief. Under the Guided Pathways framework, colleges re-design their degrees and offerings into structured pathways that align with students’ goals for further education and careers. Colleges support incoming students in choosing a program of study and developing an academic plan for a recommended program map created by faculty and advisors. Guided Pathways simplifies student decision-making and allows colleges to provide predictable schedules and frequent feedback so students can complete degrees efficiently. These actions should be implemented at scale to increase completions, reduce time to degree, and close equity gaps. Economists studying earnings have found that starting earnings are critical to the growing disparities in mobility and lifelong earnings that low-wage workers experience. Low early career earnings signal lower earnings later as well. We start by reviewing our findings in a 2015 report for employment outcomes for 90,000 students who left workforce programs between 2009 and 2013. In a particularly compelling finding for those students who began with at most a high school education, we found substantial differences in earnings gains associated with the level of credential they earned starting right after college and growing over time. Professionaltechnical degrees have the highest labor market outcomes ove

FAQs

Why does the report emphasize combining academics with skills in two-year degrees?

It argues that degrees combining strong academics and relevant skills better support student success, improve labor-market value, and help colleges complete more students while aligning missions.

What problems does the report identify with two-year college completion and credential outcomes?

It states too few students complete two-year college and that those who do complete may start unequally. It also notes that women and people of color often complete with lesser professional-technical credentials or leave without a credential.

How does Guided Pathways relate to improving degree attainment and equity gaps?

The report describes Guided Pathways as a framework that redesigns programs into structured pathways, supports students’ program choice and academic planning, and uses predictable schedules and frequent feedback to increase completions, reduce time to degree, and close equity gaps.

Oct 15, 2026

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