1. Topic: Student Mobility
Student Educational Pathways: The changing landscape of student mobility among two- and four-year institutions
Michigan Student Success Network Meeting
Topic: Student Mobility
Don Hossler, Senior Consultant,
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center &
Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies,
Indiana University Bloomington

2. Plan
Myths and facts about the relationship between two- and four-year institutions
About the Clearinghouse Research Center
Pathways of Student Transfer & Mobility
Pathways of Degree Completion
Measuring Outcomes
Can’t talk as much as you or I might like about Michigan data because until recently not as many schools in Mich. Were members of NSC so can’t go back in time reliably

3. About the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
NSC: Institutions share data
NSC RC: Education community benefits
A unique view of higher education as a system
Student educational pathways unhidden
Network effect: more institutions sharing data strengthens institutional research and enhances our ability to provide national reports and institutional benchmarks.

4. Myths and Facts
Community college transfers are less successful than native students – depends on the institution, major, & student background characteristics
States should develop mandated transfer & articulation agreements to increase rates of transfer.- These appear to have little or no impact on transfer rates
Typical analysis of success only look at success of CC’s sending. What about differential success of receiving institutions?
Lack of good data - True
What do we know about Michigan? Not much, the lack of longitudinal data base up to now..
Baccalaureate success of transfers and rising 4-year college juniors T Melguizo, AC Dowd - The Teachers College Record, tcrecord.org; Transfer shock in an academic discipline: The relationship between students' majors and their academic performance BD Cejda, AJ Kaylor, KL Rewey - Community College Review, crw.sagepub.com; Academic performance of community college transfer students and" native" students at a large state university JCG Jr, AR Harrington - Community College Journal of Research …, Taylor & Francis;
Roska, J.  (2008) Credits, Time, and Attainment: Articulation Policies and Success After Transfer EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION AND POLICY ANALYSIS 30(3) ; Roksa. J.( 2009). Building bridges for student success: Are higher education articulation policies effective? The Teacher’s College Record.; Anderson, G. , Sun, J., & Alfonso, M.  (2006). Effectiveness of Statewide Articulation Agreements on the Probability of Transfer: A  Preliminary Policy Analysis.  The Review of Higher Education 29(3)
Analyzing the success of student transitions from 2- to 4-year institutions within a state, Ehrenberg & Smith. Economics of Education Review, 23(1), February 2004, Pages 11–28

5. Student Pathways:45% of 4-Yr Degrees Go to Students with Previous Enrollment in a 2-Year Institution
2010/11 degrees awarded
Not just, Wow, CC’s really contribute…
As you can see, in the state of Michigan 42% of all students who earn 4 year degrees have taken at least some CC classes.
Also, the pathways they take are complex

6. 15 Percent of Undergraduate Degrees Go to Students with Previous Enrollment in a Different State
2010/11 degrees awarded
In the case of Michigan, 8%

7. Example of Information Missing on Michigan
State
Total Completion Rate
First Completion at Starting Institution
First Completion at Different Institution (Anywhere in U.S.)
Still Enrolled (at Any Institution)
Not Enrolled (at Any Institution)
Four-Year
Two-Year
Pennsylvania
80.62
68.09
10.47
2.06
6.87
12.51
Large State

8. Up to 15% or more of fall-to-fall persistence takes place at a different institution
Why more….we don’t have all students so % could be higher
All starting students, from Signature Report #1
Think about retention at institution of origin vs. persistence anywhere

9. Transfer & Mobility: One-Third of Students Enroll in a Different Institution within 5 Years or Before Earning a Degree (whichever comes first)
Prevalence of Transfer and Mobility Among All Students in Entry Cohort, Fall 2006 N %
Transfers
923,196
33.1%
Non-Transfers
1,869,765
67.0%
Total
2,792,961
100.0%
This is a big number. 1 in 3 students enrolls in more than one institution before earning their first degree.
Very similar to B&B estimates for the 2003 entering cohort
(*) With all of our focus on the first year experience - Interesting question: what would the 5-yr transfer rate be among students who persisted beyond their first year? (i.e. remove from both numerator and denominator all students who had no enrollments anywhere after Aug ‘07.)
Jin’s dissertation – non-traditional students are at greatest risk of dropping out in the 3rd year – no the first
And when you think about these patterns in another way the insights are very interesting, indeed provocative – next slide

10. Five-Year Mobility & Transfer Rates by Sector & Level of Origin Institution
Note for-profits: low transfer rate does not imply high completion or retention.

11. Within the Mobile Students group, One-Quarter Moved More Than Once
Frequency of Transfer & Mobility, 2006–11 N %
Once
688,946
74.6%
Twice
156,638
17.0%
Three Times or More
77,613
8.4%
Total All Mobile Students
923,196
100.0%
So 8.2% of the full cohort transferred more than once.
The 25.4% overall average includes:
29% of transfers from 4-yr publics
31% from 4-yr Private Non-Profit
21% from 2-yr publics
(% who transferred more than once)
In particular, students who later returned to their home institution would be counted as transferring twice. So no more than ¼ of the students who left their starting institution, at most, ever returned within the five-year study period.

12. Destination Institution of Initial Mobility or Transfer
Two-year public institutions were the most frequent transfer destination for students starting at all types of institutions, even four-year institutions. Roughly half of all students who transferred from a four-year institution made a reverse-transfer by moving to a two-year institution. The single exception was for students who started at public two-year institutions and, even there, 38 percent of those who transferred simply moved to another two-year public. T&A agreements should not just focus on 2 to 4 year. These results also show the pervasive and integral role that community colleges play in student pathways, far beyond the impression given by looking only at initial enrollments.
NOTICE how relatively isolated the for-profit sector is – v. few students transfer into it and even fewer transfer out of it (< 20% acc to slide 12). Operates in its own world, with its own student populations – and yet, still have 45% of transfer-outs going to 2-yr publics.

13. Reverse Transfer and Mobility: These are Very Different Pathways
28%
Out of 1.2M students who started at 4-year institutions in fall 2005
Next slide: focuses on the purple – transferred for very different reasons, with very different results…
Note the reboots: Change of goals -- either stay in 4-yr or switched to a different 4-yr
17%

14. Key Takeaways: Mobility & Transfer
One-third of all students transfer at least once within five years – one half of the average institution’s enrollments
Of those who transfer:
Most prevalent destination was a public two-year (43 percent)
One-quarter of mobile students transfer or move more than once
Now we shift our focus to completion

15. Completion Rates: Cohort Distribution by Age and Enrollment Intensity 1.9 million students who entered college in fall, 2006
Enrollment intensity is briefly explained here but the presenter mentions that later in the presentation we’ll come back to this (the definition of enrollment intensity and its implications are discussed in more detail on Slide 9). Emphasize that part-time students is overall a small group (7%) but all mixed enrollment students had at least one part-time enrollment as well.
11/7/2018

16. National Completion Rate of 54% in 6 years
12% of the first-time students graduated at a different institution from where they started
11/7/2018

17. Six-Year Outcomes by Starting Institution
The 12% is consistent across all institution types (except for-profits)
And look at the 2-yr completions for 4-yr starters – change of goals, still a successful outcome?
11/7/2018

18. Outcomes of Students who Transferred from 2-yr to 4-yr Institutions, 4 years after transfer
Source:
Note: Students who transfer from CC to 4-yr are more likely to graduate if they have an AA degree, but most transfer without one (previous slide).
11/7/2018

19. Accountability & Institutional Practice
More than 1/5th of students who complete a degree somewhere else.
Metrics still focus on the single- institution
calls for tying federal student aid to institutional graduation rates?
Need to acknowledge IHE’s contribute success along multiple pathways?
We serve students better when we understand all student pathways.
What institutions do your students arrive from?
What institutions do they leave for?
How do they compare to trends for similar institutions?
Do you and/or your state have data to implement policies that lead to more success
Where’s the incentive for institutions to make all of higher education work better for students?
Trying to stop or reverse mobility isn’t going to help students succeed.

20. Final Takeaways
Without complete information on student enrollment pathways it is impossible to develop policies that will lead to desired outcomes.
Stop misclassifying as failures those students who persist or complete beyond the starting institution
Credit institutions for serving the needs of students who transfer or enroll part time
Sound institutional and state enrollment management efforts demand clear understanding of the enrollment pathways of students, including before they enter and after they leave an institution.
Students, institutions and policymakers need information about all pathways to student success, not just the traditional.

21. For more information on StudentTracker contact Travis at:
Thank You
Research Center Snapshots and Reports:
Don Hossler:
For more information on StudentTracker contact Travis at: