Degree completion isn’t an accurate measure of a community college’s quality, says Peter Bahr

Watkins’ article discussed the topic of community college degree completers versus those students who attend for skill-building coursework only—and how these different student types are not accounted for in community college policymaking. Citing work by Bahr, she explained that he closely studies skill-building students and that he is critical of policymakers defining success in terms of credential completion only.

In Bahr’s 2016 study, “The labor market returns to a community college Education for non-completing students,” he stated that community college students who do not complete a credential are incorrectly presumed to be a relatively homogenous group. In actuality, he said, “The members of this group are far from homogenous with respect to the ways that they use the community college…. In contradiction to popular notions, students who leave community college without a credential have not necessarily failed to achieve their goals or dropped out.”

Instead of solely measuring student success based on credential attainment, Bahr argues that job earnings and employment retention are also valuable measures. Gains in these areas, he explained, often occur outside of the community college completion framework. He added, “Examining non-completion pathways and better measuring employment outcomes can help colleges develop stronger programs that reflect the diverse goals of their students.”

Bahr’s previous research in California indicated that “about one in six students in California’s community college are highly successful non-completers.” According to his findings, this means that nearly 17 percent of the students who might be considered “failures” were actually found to be “highly successful” in the workforce.