In the late 20th century, states began approving community colleges to offer four-year baccalaureate degrees, signifying the emergence of the community college baccalaureate (CCB) movement. From 1989 to 2007, 16 states included in this analysis had at least one community college that was authorized to grant baccalaureate degrees. In the early years, states offering CCBs saw modest expansion. By the turn of the century, the number of states authorizing community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees expanded rapidly. Rationale for the CCB included: increased demands for baccalaureate degrees and credentials; unmet workforce needs; need for increased access to affordable higher education options; baccalaureate training in all state regions; pressures to meet state and national completion goals; overcrowding, stricter admissions standards, and rising costs to students and taxpayers at traditional four-year institutions. The methodological technique of event history analysis was used to better understand the timing and occurrence of the adoption of the CCB. The particular specification for this analysis was the Extended Cox model, where the dependent variable was the binary adoption of the CCB and the independent variables were grouped into five rival sets of hypotheses drawn and distilled from the literature: regional diffusion, fiscal and socioeconomic factors, higher education demand, governance structures, and political factors. The analysis for this study was conducted using longitudinal panel data for 46 states from 1989 to 2007, and tested 17 hypotheses. Data were collected from a variety of state-level sources, including the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, U.S. Department of Labor, Education Commission of the States, Klarnar's data set, and Council of State Governments. This study presents empirical evidence that the likelihood of state adoption can be explained by several conditions external and internal to the state. Specifically, states with close proximity to previous CCB adopters, low tuition costs, low enrollment growth, low educational attainment rates, low labor force participation rates, consolidated governing board structures, board approval for CCB adoption, and non-Republican control of the legislature were more likely to adopt the CCB. I found negative relationships between CCB adoption and median income, tuition costs, and professionalized legislatures. Finally, there was no evidence to support the influence of fiscal health, university overcrowding, proximity to urban areas, previous adoption of articulation agreements, unemployment rates, community college-only boards, and Republican governors on CCB adoption. This study fills a gap in the literature by approaching the evolution and rise of the CCB from an empirical perspective. Building upon prior research, it adds a new way in which scholars and practitioners can think about the adoption of the CCB as a policy innovation in the U.S. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2014. / June 11, 2014. / Community College Baccalaureate Degrees, Event History Analysis, Policy Innovation / Includes bibliographical references. / David Tandberg, Professor Directing Dissertation; Frances Berry, University Representative; Shouping Hu, Committee Member; Toby Park, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_254439 |
| Contributors | Henderson, Carrie E. (authoraut), Tandberg, David (professor directing dissertation), Berry, Frances (university representative), Hu, Shouping (committee member), Park, Toby (committee member), Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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