Research Questions, Data, and Methods

One of the key goals of this analysis is to better understand how earning an additional credential beyond the associate degree is related to earnings, employment, and pursuit of further education and who is benefiting from CCB degrees in Florida. Three main questions guided this descriptive analysis:

1. What are the demographic characteristics of FCS baccalaureate graduates? How do they compare to associate graduates in similar areas of study? Better understanding the demographics of CCB students overall and by area will shed light on the access to bachelor’s degrees provided by these programs, particularly when analyzed by race/ethnicity.
2. What are the employment outcomes of FCS baccalaureate graduates? How do their employment and/or continuing education rates vary by demographic group? Understanding how likely CCB graduates are to find work or pursue further education after graduating will illuminate how well these programs are connecting people to local economic opportunity, as well as if graduates’ employment outcomes vary by race, ethnicity, or gender.
3. What are the wage outcomes of FCS baccalaureate graduates, and how do wages vary by demographic group? How do baccalaureate graduates’ wages compare to those of associate of science graduates in similar areas of study? As credential requirements rise to the bachelor’s level in several occupations, analysis of wages for graduates of associate degree and corresponding bachelor’s degree programs in these areas of study can shed light on the relative payoff for pursuing a bachelor’s degree. Beyond questions of bachelor’s program access, analysis of variation in wage outcomes for both CCB and associate degree programs by demographic group can help identify areas of persistent income inequity.

In 2019, New America requested data from the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE or Department) regarding CCB students and their labor market outcomes. The Department shared aggregate data on associate and baccalaureate graduate outcomes in February 2020. FLDOE data cover 9,955 baccalaureate graduates and 24,933 associate of science graduates who earned their degrees in 2016–18. The data include graduates in 6-digit Classification of Instructional Programs or CIP categories in which there was an associate degree program in the FCS system with a matching 6-digit CIP code. For example, there are both associate degree and bachelor’s degree programs in respiratory therapy at FCS institutions; graduates of both levels of respiratory therapy program are included in the data used for this analysis. On the other hand, the supervision and management bachelor’s degree, which covers nearly one-third of CCB graduates in the state, is not included because there is no associate degree program in the FCS with a corresponding 6-digit CIP code. Data in cells with fewer than 10 graduates were suppressed. FLDOE aggregated these data into 2-digit CIP categories to reduce the likelihood of suppressed data; these 2-digit CIP categories indicate what I refer to moving forward as the field of study. The data analyzed here cover 42 percent of baccalaureate degrees conferred at FCS institutions in the given years.¹

Due to the large size of the nursing programs relative to other health care programs, the Department disaggregated data on nursing graduates to the more specific 6-digit CIP level, and I analyzed those separately from graduates of other allied health programs, which are smaller and include a variety of distinct occupations, such as radiation therapy and health care administration. In addition to data on overall outcomes by 2-digit CIP, FLDOE further disaggregated the outcomes data by race/ethnicity, gender, and age group in separate spreadsheets, precluding our team from running cross-tabulations between any two demographic groups (e.g., race/ethnicity and age group).

Outcomes included in the data and analyzed in this report include employment rate four quarters after graduation, mean annualized wages based on the fourth quarter after graduation, and share of graduates pursuing further education four quarters post-graduation.

Comparing the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of CCB graduating cohorts with that of state university graduates can be instructive to understand if, how, and in which sectors the CCB may be increasing access to baccalaureate education. However, given that CCB graduates are significantly older than university bachelor’s degree graduates, comparing earnings and employment between these groups presents challenges. Older graduates are likely to have more work experience and already hold an associate degree in a similar field. So, while CCB graduates may earn more than state university baccalaureate graduates one year post-graduation, that may be related to some extent to work experience and previous education credentials. We do not know the extent to which these factors explain outcomes.

Given these difficulties comparing labor market outcomes with university graduates, this analysis compares labor market outcomes of associate degree graduates with those in the same program areas at baccalaureate level. The benefit of this comparison is understanding how earning an additional credential beyond the associate degree is related to earnings, employment, and pursuit of further education. The limitation of this comparison is that associate and baccalaureate graduates may differ on characteristics that cannot be observed in this dataset, such as academic preparation or family income. Furthermore, by limiting our sample to graduates of FCS programs for which there is both an associate and a bachelor’s program, we exclude thousands of other FCS baccalaureate graduates in areas where associate and bachelor’s programs stack slightly less neatly. (See note 7 for additional information on bachelor’s programs of study not included in this analysis.)

To answer my research questions, I added graduates from 2016, 2017, and 2018 cohorts together and calculated shares of graduates in racial/ethnic groups, age groups, and genders from this total of the three available cohorts. I addressed the second and third sets of research questions by calculating the median value for a given area of study and, where relevant, demographic group for the three available cohorts. Wage data from FLDOE represent mean values. Therefore, wage data depicted in charts represent the median of mean values for a given area of study. For example, wage data reported for Black CCB graduates in nursing represent the median value of wages between the three years of data. Research questions related to employment and wages are explored overall and also through the lenses of race and gender.