Measuring the Economic Benefits of Community College Attendance Using Community College, Unemployment Insurance, and State Agency Data. ERIC Digest.

This digest presents highlights from the Winter 1998 New Directions for Community Colleges volume titled "Determining the Economic Benefits of Attending Community College." The passage of the Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act (VATEA) in 1990 gave incentives to states to develop accountability measures. Attempts are being made in all states to measure performance and institutional value, although each state varies in its ability to collect data due to state laws and procedures. Some states have created links between Unemployment Insurance (UI) data and community college records to track student economic outcomes. This digest summarizes the tracking systems that have been developed by four states: Washington, North Carolina, Florida, and California. Each state system uses a combination of state employment and workforce data with college records to assess various measures of post-attendance success and progress. These states are working to communicate information on student outcomes to concerned constituencies to better understand the values of specific programs and institutions. Contains 12 references. (RDG)