Oregon students often experience challenges when transferring between a community college and a four-year institution. In recognition of this, The Ford Family Foundation commissioned a study of credit mobility and transfer outcomes in Oregon. In collaboration with Education Northwest, ECOnorthwest analyzed postsecondary experiences and outcomes for students in Oregon’s public institutions of higher education.
To inform the case study site selection, ECO used student-level data from the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) and the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) for regression modeling that predicted institution-level probabilities of transfer students earning bachelor’s degrees within six academic years of their first enrollment at an Oregon community college. In these transfer outcome models, the difference between actual and predicted rates served as a quantitative measure of each institution’s effect on a successful transfer outcome (completing a bachelor’s degree within six years of starting at community college).
The report findings highlight ways higher education institutions and policymakers in Oregon can continue to help shape and streamline students’ experiences as they transfer from two-year to four-year institutions. The study was presented at the Association for Public Policy and Management Fall 2021 Research Conference.
