Eric Rolfhus

Many studies show a strong link between earning a college degree and receiving higher wages (for example, Carnevale, Jayasundera, & Gulish, 2015). Consequently, a large body of research is published each year analyzing indicators of progress toward increased college enrollment and completion (for example, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2014). Such studies typically follow first-time, full-time college freshmen for three years to measure progress toward a t...

In recent years Tennessee policymakers have focused on improving the college outcomes of high school graduates. For example, the Tennessee Promise scholarship established in 2014 offers two years of community or technical college free to eligible high school graduates (Tennessee Promise, 2015). Given such policy developments, it is important to document college outcomes among Tennessee high school graduates and to provide baseline information for future comparisons. The study presented in thi...