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.

This brief examines how former students perceive the value of the student loan debt they incurred while attending Dallas College, with particular attention to differences between credential completers and non-completers. Using survey responses from more than 200 alumni who enrolled between 2009-10 and 2019-20 and borrowed to attend the College, the analysis explores the relationship between completion status, debt levels, income, and perceptions of whether student debt, and the Dallas College ed