The Impact of COVID-19 on Community College Enrollment and Student Success: Evidence from California Administrative Data

33 Pages Posted: 25 May 2022 Last revised: 14 Jul 2022

See all articles by George Bulman

George Bulman

University of California, Santa Cruz - Department of Economics

Robert W. Fairlie

UCLA; National Bureau of Economic Research

Multiple version iconThere are 4 versions of this paper

Abstract

This paper examines how the pandemic impacted the enrollment patterns, fields of study, and academic outcomes of students in the California Community College System, the largest higher-education system in the country. Enrollment dropped precipitously during the pandemic - the total number of enrolled students fell by 11 percent from fall 2019 to fall 2020 and by another 7 percent from fall 2020 to fall 2021. The California Community College system lost nearly 300,000 students over this period. Our analysis reveals that enrollment reductions were largest among Black/African-American and Latinx students, and were larger among continuing students than first-time students. We find no evidence that having a large online presence prior to the pandemic protected colleges from these negative effects. Enrollment changes were substantial across a wide range of fields and were large for both vocational courses and academic courses that can be transferred to four-year institutions. In terms of course performance, changes in completion rates, withdrawal rates, and grades primarily occurred in the spring of 2020. These findings of the effects of the pandemic at community colleges have implications for policy, impending budgetary pressures, and future research.

Keywords: pandemic, COVID-19, coronavirus, community college, enrollment, grades, completion, students of color, Black students, Latinx students

JEL Classification: I23, I21

Suggested Citation

Bulman, George and Fairlie, Robert W., The Impact of COVID-19 on Community College Enrollment and Student Success: Evidence from California Administrative Data. IZA Discussion Paper No. 15424, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4114769

George Bulman (Contact Author)

University of California, Santa Cruz - Department of Economics ( email )

Santa Cruz, CA 95064
United States

Robert W. Fairlie

UCLA ( email )

405 Hilgard Avenue
Box 951361
Los Angeles, CA 90095
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.nber.org/people/robert_fairlie?page=1&perPage=50

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