ERIC Number: EJ1106496
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1934-5747
EISSN: N/A
Examining the Earnings Trajectories of Community College Students Using a Piecewise Growth Curve Modeling Approach
Jaggars, Shanna Smith; Xu, Di
Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, v9 n3 p445-471 2016
Policymakers have become increasingly concerned with measuring--and holding colleges accountable for--students' labor market outcomes. In this article we introduce a piecewise growth curve approach to analyzing community college students' labor market outcomes, and we discuss how this approach differs from two popular econometric approaches: Mincerian and individual fixed-effects models. Our results suggest that three assumptions underpinning econometric approaches--that across-student variation is constant across time, that the model specifies a counterfactual that is appropriate for all members of the sample, and that the impacts of a given award are fixed across time--may not be well founded. We then highlight how insights gained from the growth curve approach can be used to strengthen evolving econometric analyses of labor market returns.
Descriptors: Community Colleges, Two Year College Students, Outcomes of Education, Wages, Salaries, Labor Market, Economic Factors, Equations (Mathematics), Student Records, Student Characteristics, Statistical Analysis, Educational Attainment
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Two Year Colleges; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Virginia
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305C110011