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Using Propensity Score Matching to Test the Community College Penalty Assumption
- The Review of Higher Education
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 38, Number 2, Winter 2015
- pp. 193-219
- 10.1353/rhe.2015.0013
- Article
- Additional Information
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Research studies have been ambivalent about whether enrolling in community college makes completing a bachelor’s degree less likely than directly enrolling in a four-year institution. This study uses propensity score matching with a posttreatment adjustment to determine the treatment effect associated with taking the community college to four-year college transfer pathway. Each transfer student was matched to a four-year college junior from the same high school who enrolled at an equally selective four-year college. We found no significant difference between transfers and native juniors, demonstrating the viability of the community college to four-year pathway. Policy implications are provided.