Many community college students, including those at Dallas College, enroll with the aspiration of earning a bachelor’s degree. In most cases, this means that the student hopes to earn credits at the community college, transfer to a four-year university, and ultimately earn their degree.

This brief examines nearly 100,000 first-time-in-college students between 2014 and 2023 at Dallas College to identify which variables are significantly associated with retention, defined as re-enrollment during fall of the following academic year. Our analysis finds demographic differences, momentum flags, and early course enrollment are key predictors, offering a foundation of insights to inform Dallas College’s Smart Start plan and first-year experience initiatives.

Dallas College, like other community colleges, aspires to be a place where all people, no matter their age, income, or background, have an equal opportunity to learn and advance their lives. With this open access mission, the College serves students who range from dual-enrolled high schoolers to working adults with children of their own.

Education is often framed as a ladder for socioeconomic mobility, but for many underserved families, the steps are fragile or completely missing. Dallas College, like many community colleges, is uniquely positioned to build a ladder for a broader range of student populations through flexible entry points to postsecondary education, affordable tuition, and stackable credentials in high demand fields, allowing students to build career skills progressively.

In recent years, Dallas-area school districts, colleges and universities like Dallas College, and organizations like Commit, Dallas County Promise, and Economic Mobility Systems have all sought to increase the number of young people enrolled in higher education, in hopes that more youth will develop skills and earn credentials that help them earn living wages, support themselves and their families, and achieve upward economic mobility.

Finding Their Next: Career & Transfer Outcomes (2025) presents Dallas College’s first annual analysis of where graduates go, what they earn, and how they rise after earning a credential. Using new data from the First Destination Survey, which asks students about their post-college plans within the first few months after completing a credential, this report offers a detailed picture of how Dallas College graduates transition to work and further education.

Community colleges continue to experience declining enrollment, and the most overlooked losses occur before students reach the census date when official enrollment is counted. Conducted by RAND in conjunction with the Research Institute at Dallas College, this research underscores the significance of this early phase in the context of Texas, California, and Kentucky.

This report examines whether participation in general dual credit coursework improves long-term postsecondary outcomes for underserved student populations in the Dallas region. The study tracks 20,858 students who graduated from 22 Dallas-area independent school districts in 2011 and follows their educational outcomes for up to ten years after high school graduation.

In this report, the Research Institute at Dallas College uses two data sources to examine how postsecondary education shapes student wage outcomes. First, we analyze outcomes at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) using a national cross-section of public data from the Equitable Value Explorer (EVE).

Longstanding research on dual credit substantiates that participation yields immediate benefits, such as high school achievement and college preparedness, and longer-term benefits, such as an increased likelihood of enrolling in college and completing a degree. However, research does not extensively examine the relationship between dual credit participation and more distal outcomes such as earnings and living wage attainment.