Welcome to the new AACRAO website. While the site is live, development is ongoing, visitors can expect updates and new features in the weeks ahead.

Mobile Nav
Log in
Join
Get Involved

You must be logged in to view this content. Please login or learn more about joining AACRAO. If you have any questions or experience any issues logging in, please reach out to us atmembership@aacrao.org.

Log In Join

Topics

,

Article Type

Professional Proficiency

Article Abstract

Related Issue:

AACRAO partnered with a large public university in the southwestern United States to examine a multi-year data set and to complete a student survey in order to gain insights into variables that contribute to excess credit accumulation at graduation. Until state legislatures began to decrease funding for public colleges and universities, excess credit was not thought to be an issue worthy of discussion or consideration. One of the tactics to reduce full-time-equivalent-based budget funding was to cap the number of credits an institution was eligible to receive for budget allocation. Some states even decided to penalize students who earned credit above a maximum by charging them a higher tuition rate; some legislatures voted not to fund what they deemed excess credit.

Author(s)

kilgore@2xWendy Kilgore, Ph.D., is Director of Research and Managing Consultant for AACRAO with more than 20 years of experience as a higher education administrator and consultant in the United States and Canada.

Prior to her full-time work with AACRAO, Kilgore served as State Dean of Enrollment Services for the Colorado Community College System and Director of Admissions and Registrar for the Pima County Community College District.

crabtree@2xEmma Crabtree, M.A., is a doctoral candidate at University. She is studying community psychology and plans to pursue a job in program evaluation.

sharp@2xKen Sharp, Ph.D., is a higher education professional with more than 20 years of administrative experience at two- and four-year institutions. His administrative experience includes finance and administrative services, including financial management, budgeting, human resource management, information technology, facilities management, strategic planning, and project management. Dr. Sharp also has more than 20 years of teaching experience focusing on statistics, economics, and finance and has taught both online and face-to-face classes. Before transitioning to full-time teaching in 2015, Sharp served as Associate Dean of Finance and Administration at the University of Colorado Denver and served in director and associate director of finance and administration positions at the University of Colorado Denver and the Pima County Community College District.

References

Adelman, C. 1995. The New College Course Map and Transcript Files: Changes in Course Taking and Achievement. Washington, D.C.: National Inst. on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning.

Adelman, C. 2006. The Toolbox Revisted: Paths to Degree Completion from High School through College. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

Bass, J. 2017. Students Need More Information to Help Reduce Challenges in Transfering College Credits. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Bian, H. n.d. SPSS Discriminant Function Analysis. Greenville, NC: East Carolina University.

Complete College America. n.d. Data Dashboard. Indianapolis, IN.

Complete College America. 2011. Time Is the Enemy. Indianapolis, IN: Lumina Foundation.

Complete College America. 2017. Complete College America Common College Completion Metrics Technical Guide. Indianapolis, IN.

Community College Research Center. 2017. Building Transfer Student Success at Macomb Community College: A Report on Transfer and Degree Completion. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Cullinane, J. P. 2014. The path to timely completion: Supply- and demand-side analyses of time to bachelor’s degree completion. Ph.D. dissertation. Austin: The University of Texas.

Fink, J., D. Jenkins, E. Kopko, and X. Ran. 2018. Using Data Mining to Explore Why Community College Transfer Students Earn Bachelor’s Degrees with Excess Credits. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Kaikkonen, D. P. 2013. The Role of Transfer in the Attainment of Baccaluareate Degrees at Washington Public Bachelor’s Degree Institutions Class of 2011. Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.

Kramer II, D. A., and M. R. Holcomb. 2018. The costs and consequences of excess credit hour policies. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 40(1): 3–28.

National Center for Educational Statistics. 2017. Beginning College Students Who Change Their Majors Within Three Years of Enrollment.

NCES. See National Center for Educational Statistics.

Romano, R. L. 2011. Measuring the cost of a college degree: A case study of SUNY Community College. Community College Review. 39(3): 211–234.

Statistics Solutions. n.d. There’s Nothing Odd about the Odds Ratio: Interpreting Binary Logistic Regression.

Stern, K. P. 2009. The Role of Transfer in the Attainment of Bachelor’s Degree at Washinton Public Baccalaureate Institutions, Class of 2006. Olympia: Washington State University.

Volkwein, J. F., and W. G. Lorang. 1996. Characteristics of extenders: Full-time students who take light credit loads and graduate in more than four years. Research in Higher Education. 37(1): 43–68.

Zeidenberg, M. 2012. Valuable Learning or “Spinning Their Wheels”? Understanding Excess Credits Earned by Community College Associate Degreee Completers. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Related Posts

See all Posts