Sonoma County Junior College District Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT): Are Community College Students Benefitting? KC Greaney and Jeanne Fadelli Office of Institutional Research Santa Rosa Junior College California Association for Institutional Research Annual Meeting, Concord November 9, 2017 Sonoma County Junior College District

ADTs: Established by SB1440 in 2010 The “Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act”: Authorized California Community Colleges (CCCs) to confer transfer associate degrees of no more than 60 required lower division units (ADTs) ADT transfer students given priority admission to a degree program “which has been deemed similar” at the California State University (CSU) The CSU major must not require more than 60 units Agreement nullified if student changes major or double majors at CSU Basically, the California State Legislature said: CCCs and CSUs! Thou shalt collaborate to make it possible for a community college student to get a two-year degree in two years, and transfer to the CSU and get a four-year degree within four years! Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADTs), mandated by Senate Bill 1440 in 2010, enabled the California Community Colleges and the California State University to collaborate on the creation of ADTs. The goal was to streamline the process for transfer students, to eliminate course repetition, and ultimately to allow transfer students to achieve their educational goals more efficiently. Seven years hence, we can begin to assess how well this innovation has served students. SRJC began awarding ADTs in 11/12 and awarded over 600 ADTs in 15/16.

SRJC: Context Santa Rosa Junior College Part of the California Community College System Large, multi-site, single college district Enrolls ~35,000 students per semester, 20K annual FTES Serves Sonoma County, mixed agriculture, urban, suburban Transfers approximately 1,500 students to 4-year colleges and universities annually Over half transfer to CSU Over half of those transfer to Sonoma State University Cal State Home

ADTs at SRJC SRJC awarded ADTs for the first time in 2012, and has awarded more every year since. 2017 data is not yet complete (does not include degrees awarded after the fall 2017 semester).

Time to Degree at SRJC Viz – hand outs. First time SRJC students only https://research.santarosa.edu/time-degree-matric

ADTs versus AA/AS* at SRJC Mean Time to Degree (years) 5.1 7.1 Median Time to Degree (years) 4.0 5.0 Average Units Completed 88.3 101.6 Average Units per Term 8.7 7.2 n 547 1,262 *Earned degree in 2016, and started at SRJC as a “First Time Freshman” I chose the most recent year of full data to illustrate differences. First-time students who pursue an ADT graduate more quickly, and with fewer cumulative units, than their counterparts who earn an AA/AS. ADT recipients are enroll in slightly more units per term than AA/AS recipients. At SRJC, the ratio of ADT recipients to AA/AS is approximately 1:2.5

Next Question: How do SRJC ADT Students Fare at the CSU? In order to minimize extraneous variables: ENVIRONMENT ADT INPUT: COHORT OUTPUT SRJC First Time Students Only CSU BA/BS Degree Attainment AA/AS Looking beyond internal data at SRJC…. So far, we have looked at degree recipients at SRJC, and looked retrospectively to figure out how long it took students to graduate, and how many units they earned on the way. In order to test whether ADTs result in faster overall time to degree at CSUs, we needed to look beyond internal data. Transfer without a degree

Associate Degree Transfer Research Parameters National Student Clearinghouse Student Tracker Student Enrollment (SE) data upload, June 2017 Cohort based study starting with 2009-10 cohort. First time freshmen (Enroll status = ‘1’) R&D’ed a Python script to restructure NSC output to have only one enrollment record for each institution that a student attended Created three separate files from Student Tracker then joined for one line of data Jeanne: Student Tracker SE – match by b day and name, not SSN; NSC detail Chaos to order presentation HSU; (Thanks to Ronald Lopez Ramirez from Evergreen Valley College)

Research Parameters continued State Universities State “CA” Certificate earners removed Degree Title – Like ‘Associate*’ Or Is Null College sequence ‘1’ for Santa Rosa Junior College; ‘2’ for CSU’s Class Level <> ‘M’ (Masters) Degree Title - Not Like ‘*Masters*’ Graduation date was used for end time at CSU and time to degree

Definitions Associate Degree Transfer: any student who graduated from SRJC with “transfer” in the Associate degree name Associate Degree: remaining associate degree earners Transfer: students who attended SRJC without earning a degree

Associate Degree Transfer study: cohort size 2009-10 292 students 2010-11 323 students 2011-12 242 students 2012-13 113 students Jeanne: Reminder about the cohort size - size decrease as the range of years decrease;

SRJC Cohort CSU Degree Earners Jeanne – SRJC’s 2010-10 cohort largest number of AD T degree earners, approximately 20%; 2012-13 cohort had the largest proportion of AD T degrees earners graduating from CSU at almost 40%

Cohort Time at SRJC by ADT, AD, and Transfer Jeanne: AD T spend more time at SRJC;

Cohort Time to Degree at SRJC Jeanne: AD T take longer to earn degree – 2009-10 starting AD T program in 2011-12;

SRJC Cohort time to degree at CSU Jeanne – Transfer students take longer to graduate from CSU; Average number of years for AD T earners to graduate from CSU is usually less than AD; approximately 5% complete their BD in one year after transfer – i.e. X,F,SP,X CSU Undergraduate Outcome Report 2016 avg time for all CCC transfers to CSU has decreased slightly over past years remaining close to 3 years

SRJC Cohort Length from First Enrollment to CSU Graduation Jeanne: The longer the range, larger span of difference; Though transfer take longer at CSU to graduate the length of college enrollment is less time.

SRJC Cohort ADT Comparison Sonoma State University and all other CSU’s Avg at SRJC* Avg Time to SRJC Deg Avg Time to CSU Grad Avg time from First enrl to CSU Grad 2009_10 42 4.92 4.29 1.97 6.43 2010_11 43 4.01 3.28 1.84 5.52 2011_12 39 3.75 2.79 1.80 5.04 2012_13 24 3.16 2.67 1.82 4.78 *Avg time longer at SRJC compared to degree because students stay or enroll concurrently at SRJC after getting a degree. All other CSU's combined 19 4.31 3.90 2.00 6.09 25 3.43 3.30 2.21 5.74 26 2.88 2.68 1.88 4.89 21 2.86 2.43 1.78 4.55 *Avg time longer at SRJC compared to degree because students stay at SRJC after getting a degree. Jeanne: SSU largest transfer college; longer average time at SRJC – concurrent studies? – less time at SSU;

SRJC Cohort Associate Degree (AD) Comparison: SSU and all other CSU’s Sonoma State University AD N Avg at SRJC* Avg Time to SRJC Deg Avg Time to CSU Grad Avg time from First enrl to CSU Grad 2009_10 68 4.86 3.66 1.88 6.17 2010_11 59 3.91 3.18 2.00 5.72 2011_12 35 3.48 2.66 1.74 4.87 2012_13 18 2.72 2.31 1.72 4.47 *Avg time longer at SRJC compared to degree because students stay or enroll concurrently at SRJC after getting a degree. All other CSU's combined 65 3.78 3.07 2.15 4.39 52 3.37 2.87 2.16 5.45 26 2.95 2.51 6 2.38 2.29 1.79 4.34 Jeanne: SSU AD transfers longer time at SRJC, less time at SSU but longer length from first enroll to CSU graduate;

SRJC Cohort Transfer Comparison SSU and all other CSU’s Sonoma State University Transfer N Avg at SRJC* Avg Time to SRJC Deg Avg Time to CSU Grad Avg time from First enrl to CSU Grad 2009_10 35 4.66 ─ 2.24 5.87 2010_11 41 3.80 2.22 5.57 2011_12 44 3.12 2.08 4.86 2012_13 19 2.30 2.27 4.22 *Avg time longer at SRJC compared to degree because students stay or enroll concurrently at SRJC after getting a degree. All other CSU's combined 63 3.45 2.68 6.36 103 2.82 5.40 72 2.23 2.70 5.02 25 1.71 2.77 4.25 Jeanne: again longer time at SRJC; less time to grad at SSU

Conclusions At SRJC, ADT recipients overall take significantly less time to graduate, and complete fewer units than AA/AS recipients This indicates success of the ADT initiative to streamline and make more efficient associate degree attainment Looking at cohorts of First Time Freshmen, who transfer to the CSU, the story changes: ADT recipients spend similar or more time at SRJC (compared to AA/AS) However, ADT recipients who transfer to CSU spend less time at the CSU The result is a similar time to BA/BS attainment for SRJC ADT and AA/AS recipients SRJC students who transfer prior to earning any Associate Degree: Spend less time at SRJC, more time at the CSU but less time overall enrollment – from first enrolled to CSU graduation

Lingering Questions Why are first-time SRJC students amassing extra units prior to earning the ADT and transferring to the CSU? Who are the students earning ADTs who do not transfer to the CSU? And why earn a degree articulated with CSU and not transfer to a CSU? What are the motivations for students to transfer to a CSU without earning an Associate degree? Do we need to do a better job informing students that transferring without an Associate degree results in more time at the CSU? Perhaps because it is the shortest path to a degree.