The effect of community colleges on changing students’ educational aspirations

• Published in: Economics of education review 2004-02, Vol.23 (1), p.95-102
• Main Authors: Leigh, Duane E., Gill, Andrew M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Aspiration; Access to Education; Community Colleges; Comparative Analysis; Demand for schooling; Economically Disadvantaged; Economics; Educational Attainment; Educational Change; Educational Demand; Educational economics; Family Characteristics; Two Year College Students
• ISSN: 0272-7757; 1873-7382
• DOI: 10.1016/S0272-7757(03)00063-3

The education literature provides numerous estimates of community college diversion and democratization effects measured in terms of educational attainment. Kane and Rouse [J Econ Pers 13 (1999) 64] suggest testing for diversion by comparing the impacts of two-year and four-year colleges on the changes in educational aspirations that underlie actual years of schooling completed. Using NLSY data, we obtain community college “differential aspirations effect” estimates that range from as high as −0.68 of a year to as low as our preferred estimate of −0.43 of a year. We put these estimates in perspective by showing that they are less than half of the conventionally measured diversion effect estimated for our sample. Regarding democratization, we find that attending a community college results in a substantial expansion in the educational aspirations of students (our “incremental aspirations effect”), regardless of their family backgrounds and race and ethnicity.