The Labor Market Returns to a Community College Education for Noncompleting Students

In this study, I used data from California to estimate the returns to a community college education that does not result in a postsecondary credential. I found strong, positive returns to completed credits in career and technical education (CTE) fields that are closely linked to employment sectors that are not credential-intensive (sectors in which employment often does not require a college degree), such as public safety, skilled blue-collar trade and technical work, and accounting and bookkeeping, among others. In these sectors, students were able to convert the human capital acquired in their coursework into returns that far exceeded the cost of the coursework itself, making some noncompleting educational pathways a rational means of securing earnings gains. This finding is consistent with emerging research on skills-builder students and other segments of the community college student population who exhibit coherent patterns of course taking and enrollment that typically do not result in a postsecondary credential. Further investigations of high-return noncompleting pathways are warranted and could help colleges to target efforts to grow postsecondary completion opportunities for students through short-term certificates programs, while also aiding efforts to communicate to stakeholders the successes that cannot be measured by counting credentials or transfers.