A bachelor’s degree is increasingly necessary for securing a job that pays a family-supporting wage, yet while most community college students aspire to transfer and complete a bachelor’s degree, too few make it through to this goal. And because community colleges enroll nearly 40% of undergraduates, including many students from low-income backgrounds and historically underrepresented groups with limited access to a bachelor’s degree, low levels of bachelor’s attainment among community college entrants contribute to disparities in bachelor’s attainment by income and race/ethnicity nationally. This report, along with the companion report on four-year institutional outcomes, is designed to be used by college, university, and state-system leaders to set clear goals for eliminating disparities and expanding transfer opportunity for all students who start at a community college with the dream of earning a bachelor’s degree.

A bachelor’s degree is increasingly necessary for securing a job that pays a family-supporting wage, yet while most community college students aspire to transfer and complete a bachelor’s degree, too few make it through to this goal. As is clear from the companion report on community college transfer outcomes, some responsibility for this lies with community colleges. But four-year institutions— which tend to have more financial resources to invest in student success—also need to do more to serve students who transfer from community colleges. These students make up a substantial proportion of four-year enrollments and tend to be more diverse in terms of family income, race, and age than students who start college at a four-year institution. Yet, as this report shows, although more than 80% of community college transfer students are retained into their second year, only about half complete a bachelor’s degree within four years after transferring, and completion rates are even lower for low-income, Black, Native American, and older students. This report, which provides first-of-its-kind data on four-year institution outcomes for community college transfer students, is designed to be used by university and state-system leaders to set clear goals for eliminating disparities and expanding transfer opportunities for all students who start at a community college with the dream of earning a bachelor’s degree.

Using National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data, this report presents national and state-by-state findings on the postsecondary enrollment and completion outcomes of high school students who began taking dual enrollment college courses in fall 2015, tracked up to four years after high school. The authors describe the size and significance of the dual enrollment population for postsecondary institutions and states and compare postsecondary outcomes among dual enrollees to outcomes of other recent high school graduates entering higher education without prior dual enrollment experience. Given previous research indicating that low-income, Black, and Hispanic high school students are severely underrepresented in dual enrollment coursework, the authors further disaggregate results for these subgroups to highlight the potential for dual enrollment to strengthen high-school-to-college-and-career transitions and increase equity for underserved communities.