Upward Transfer of Community College Students: A Multiyear Analysis

The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation centered on community college students in Texas, was to determine the degree to which changes had occurred in upward transfer rates. The first specific purpose was to establish the degree to which changes had occurred in upward transfer rates for Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White community college students in the 2015-2016 academic year through the 2020-2021 academic year. A second purpose was to determine which changes existed in upward transfer rates for Pell grant recipients, non-Pell grant recipients, and low-income community college students in the 2015-2016 academic year through the 2020-2021 academic year. The final purpose of this study was to ascertain the extent to which changes had occurred in upward transfer rates for first-generation community college students in the 2015-2016 academic year through the 2020-2021 academic year. METHOD A causal-comparative research design was present for all three studies. Archival data from a public community college in Texas were obtained and analyzed for the 2015-2016 academic year through the 2020-2021 academic year. FINDINGS The overall trend of upward transfer rates of students at this one community college from the 2015-2016 academic year to the 2020-2021 academic year was the presence of similar upward transfer rates by student ethnicity/race. Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White students transferred at almost the same rates. Similarly, the upward transfer rates as a function of socioeconomic status were similar for both Pell grant recipients and non-Pell grant recipients. The overall trend in upward transfer rates as a function of first-generation status was also the presence of similar upward transfer rates for both first-generation and non-first-generation students. Contrary to other researchers, however, underrepresented students did not have lower upward transfer rates than their counterparts based on their race/ethnicity, economic status, or first-generation status. A progressive decline in upward transfer rates was observed for all groups from the 2015-2016 academic year to the 2019-2020 academic year. Finally, community college students upward transfer rates for all groups declined dramatically by up to 30 percentage points from the 2019-2020 academic year to the 2020-2021 academic year.