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Capacity and Flexibility in Community College CTE Programs: Program Offerings and Student Success

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  • Michel Grosz

    (Federal Trade Commission)

  • Michal Kurlaender

    (University of California, Davis)

  • Ann Stevens

    (University of Texas at Austin)

Abstract

This article asks whether small changes to community college courses and programs can help improve student outcomes. We use administrative data from the California Community College system, including millions of student records and detailed course-level information for most career-technical education programs in the state. We construct a summary measure of each program’s flexibility, incorporating many components of the availability and scheduling of its courses. We show considerable variation in this flexibility measure across programs and over time. An increase in a program’s flexibility is associated with increases in enrollment and completions, but not with changes in its completion rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Michel Grosz & Michal Kurlaender & Ann Stevens, 2022. "Capacity and Flexibility in Community College CTE Programs: Program Offerings and Student Success," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(1), pages 140-188, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reihed:v:63:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11162-021-09645-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11162-021-09645-9
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