Completions in Oregon Community Colleges

It's not something a lot of people know, but enrollment at the nation's community colleges is actually counter-cyclical with the economy: That is, when the economy is bad, enrollment at community colleges tends to increase, and when it gets better, enrollment falls.  Economists might call this a "negative beta industry."

It's the case in Oregon, too, and people at four-year colleges are very interested in how enrollment at community colleges is shaking out.  So I downloaded this data from the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Committee to see just how things have changed.

There are two views here, using the tabs across the top.  The first shows the change in awards by degree (AA or AS, mostly) programs over time: Numbers on top, and percentage change since the first year selected on the bottom.  You can limit the view by any combination of community colleges and student ethnicity, and you can include any range of years from the data set.

The second tab shows change, broken out by ethnicity.  For the sake of clarity, I de-selected "multi-racial," since the percentage change is enormous, based on a small number.  You can put it back in if you'd like.

You can also limit the view to just degree completions or certificate completions if you like, and it's there you'll see the effect of the economy: When it's bad, community colleges show a rapid increase in technical, career focused completions, while degree completions grow more slowly.  But even that increase tells a tale, I think.

Let me know what you see happening Out Here in Oregon.