Washington Monthly - September/October 2019 - 38

community had suspected: there was a pool of local adults
interested in becoming teachers but, for a variety of reasons,
not enrolling (or not completing) the programs at St. Martin's, UW-Tacoma, or online.
Reluctant to turn anyone away, the college created two
cohorts, for a total of fifty-three students; this June, fortyfive of the original students graduated on time.
"The program will give us a stable pipeline of teachers
who are from the community and plan to stay here" said Connie Smejkal, the dean of instruction overseeing the program.

T

he biggest barrier to spreading this model to other
states is the resistance of existing public four-year colleges. A recent survey revealed that 70 percent of public university presidents consider efforts by community colleges to grant bachelor's degrees "mission creep." A majority
also rejected the notion that community colleges are well positioned to increase access to students for whom public baccalaureates are inaccessible due to cost or geography.
Underlying this skepticism, however, are more prosaic concerns around enrollments and funding. When states
consider plans for letting community colleges award bachelor's degrees, public universities are first in line to try to stop
them. When universities are unable to fend off authorizing
legislation, they often use their influence to limit the types
of degrees that can be offered to niche fields or require extensive pilot projects, or both. In Michigan, for example, community colleges were only able to secure authority to award
bachelor's degrees in four fields: concrete technology, maritime studies, energy production, and culinary arts. In California, where public universities are over-enrolled and twoto-four-year transfer processes are notoriously weak, the
community college system was only able to eke out authority for fifteen pilot baccalaureate programs, many in narrow
fields like "Equine and Ranch Management."
To be clear, blurring the lines between community colleges and universities is not without risks. Community college leaders themselves worry that expanding into the baccalaureate market might distract from their historic focus
serving students otherwise unable to attend four-year universities, like low-income students, underprepared students, and adult learners. Another legitimate concern is that
the emphasis on affordability might come at the expense of
quality. In Washington, the colleges are required to charge
about the same for any upper-division courses as a student
would pay at a public university, making the overall cost of
the bachelor's degree the same regardless of whether students transfer. But in states without similar safeguards, including Florida, community college baccalaureates could undercut university offerings even as state legislatures continue to disinvest from higher education.
The case of Washington, however, suggests that community college bachelor's programs need not undermine the
other goals of public higher education. Data collected by the
State Board for Community and Technical Colleges on stu38

September/October 2019

dent demographics and outcomes strongly suggests that the
programs are adding to the state's overall degree attainment,
rather than simply rearranging the existing student population. More than 3,000 students have completed baccalaureate degree programs at community colleges in Washington
since 2010, and they are more economically diverse than students in associate's degree programs, who, in turn, are more
diverse than undergraduates in public universities. At an average of thirty-two years old, community college applied baccalaureate students are also significantly older than the average transfer student. The programs appear to be serving a
population whose needs would otherwise be unmet.
If we use post-graduation outcomes as a proxy for degree quality, there is also good news. Students in fields like
health care and education tend to do well right out of the
gate, likely because they are using the degrees to advance in
their existing careers. Graduates of business programs take
longer to make good money, suggesting that students are
embarking on new careers. In short, applied baccalaureate
graduates appear to enjoy many of the same economic and
social benefits that come with a traditional college degree.

M

elissa Curry's son started his freshman year at Washington State this fall, where he also plans to study
computer science. Curry earns too much for him to
qualify for financial aid, but she has no complaints. "That's
how it's supposed to work," she says.
While that might be true, it too rarely does. The overwhelming majority of students who start at a community college with the intention of completing a bachelor's degree don't, putting them at a severe disadvantage in today's
economy. Curry is doing her part to change that. Green River's first graduate to break into Microsoft has made sure she
wasn't the last, keeping an eye out for internship opportunities and job openings. So far, four more Green River graduates have made the improbable journey from first-generation
community college student to a full-time job at Microsoft.
The challenge of getting more students to the finish
line of a bachelor's degree has vexed higher education for decades. The two-plus-two transfer models have improved but
still leave more students behind than not. Online universities continue to enroll millions of students, but graduate far
fewer. Bachelor's programs like those offered through Washington's community colleges will never achieve the scale
that universities can provide, particularly online. But when
they are well designed and supported through smart policy,
they are likely to graduate a much higher share of the students who enroll in them and set them up for success in their
local economy.
And if that's not the mission of the community college,
what is?

Mary Alice McCarthy is the director of the Center on Education and
Skills at New America. Debra Bragg is the director of the University of
Washington's Community College Research Initiative.
Washington Monthly - September/October 2019

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