Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

In 2005, the state general assembly in Ohio enacted reforms of its Articulation and Transfer Policy with House Bill 95. Originally approved in 1990, the policy updates sought to address persistent barriers to bachelor degree attainment by further improving the transfer experiences of community college students. Most notably, a new course equivalency system was implemented to ensure the transfer of credits across public institutions. In collaboration with panels of discipline-specific faculty, the Ohio Board of Regents defined learning outcome standards for universally transferrable (UT) coursework across 38 specific majors (Tafel, 2010). Courses submitted for review by Ohio colleges were determined by the panels to serve the purpose of course equivalency if they matched the new benchmarks. Therefore, students who took classes with this distinction would be able to transfer the credits for these courses with greater certainty.

I hypothesize that students who took UT courses had improved persistence and degree attainment outcomes compared to transfers who did not if these students were able to retain more of their credits. Indeed, Monaghan and Attewell (2015) show that the odds of attaining a bachelor’s degree are 2.5 times greater for students who successfully transfer all of their credits compared to those who do not. Improved outcomes may be especially pronounced for students from low-income backgrounds and students of color who are often disadvantaged in the transfer process (Person, Rosenbaum, & Deil-Amen, 2006; Hagedorn, Cypers, & Lester, J., 2006). However, because community colleges often serve as feeder-schools for local four-year colleges that may have bilateral articulation agreements in place, the effect of taking UT coursework may also vary by the institution where a transfer student chooses to matriculate.

To facilitate this investigation, I use longitudinal administrative data of the students who transferred to an Ohio four-college in 2007. Because the availability of equivalent coursework varied across community colleges and majors, there was variation in the number of universally-accepted credits earned between students who transferred, but despite some variation in the offer of UT courses, there may still be unobserved differences between the students who enrolled in these courses compared to those who did not. To reduce some of the bias resulting from selection, I use Coarsened Exact Matching to balance the group of transfer students treated with UT courses and the control group of transfers who were not. CEM simulates a randomization process by generating a control group that is matched to the group of students receiving the treatment. I will then explore variation in the effect of UT coursework by fitting a random-intercepts multilevel model using the CEM-matched sample.

This study seeks to further our understanding of the role statewide articulation policies play in reducing transfer-relating barriers. By improving students’ access to transferable, college-level coursework and by mandating participation among all public colleges within a state, the policy in Ohio may offer students more flexibility concerning where their credits would be accepted and thus improve post-transfer success.