The Returns to Education at Community Colleges: New Evidence

   This study uses nationally representative data from the Education Longitudinal 
   Survey (ELS) to update the literature on returns to community college 
   education, comparing the experiences of the ELS cohort that graduated 
   high school in 2004 with those of the National Education Longitudinal 
   Survey (NELS) cohort that graduated high school more than a decade 
   earlier, in 1992. 

   The author estimates that community college students from the 
   ELS cohort were more likely to be employed, and that those who were 
   earned about 21 percent more than comparable peers with only a high 
   school education. 

   This estimate is at least as large as that observed 
   for the NELS cohort, though there is some evidence that the value of an 
   associate's degree is smaller for the more recent cohort. The author compares 
   these results with those from the burgeoning body of research using 
   state administrative data to answer similar questions.