Estimating the Value of a New Postsecondary Credential: An Audit Study of Community College Bachelor’s Degrees

In this pilot resume audit study, we will submit fictitious applications to real job postings, experimentally assigning the institution attended, degree awarded, and applicant race and ethnicity. We will focus on two ECE CCB programs and the returns to these degrees in their associated local labor markets. The Dallas College Bachelor of Applied Science (BAS) in Early Childhood Education and Teaching and the North Seattle College BAS in Early Childhood Education present two similar programs situated in geographically unique labor markets that allow us to better explore heterogeneity across several axes. Although both Texas and Washington introduced CCB legislation nearly 20 years ago, Washington offers more than triple the number of CCB programs. In both states, the ECE CCB is relatively new. These conditions will allow us to understand the value of a truly “new” credential in the eyes of employers across settings that vary in general familiarity with CCBs. We will pair the resume audit study with a post-experiment employer survey to further explore employer recognition, understanding of degrees, and credentials.

We will submit resumes to jobs located in the largest metropolitan area in each state near the selected CCB institutions: in Texas, applications will be submitted to jobs in Dallas; in Washington, to jobs in Seattle. Job searches will encompass a 25-mile radius around the city in question. We will identify open positions by searching once per day for a period of several weeks for vacancies to identify eligible jobs. We will collect the job title, employer name, location, salary, benefits information (if given), and any other information provided by the posting before submitting our randomly generated set of resumes.

2025-06-16

2025-12-31

Callback rates

We consider "callbacks" to include any form of positive employer follow-up, including email responses.

Fictitious applications will be sent to two types of jobs: those that require an AA or below, and those that require a BA. When applying to jobs that require an AA or below, we will send three resumes that vary by degree type: an associate’s degree, a CCBA, and a BA from a nearby open-access public four-year institution. When applying to jobs that require a BA, we will send two resumes that vary by degree type: a CCBA, and BA from an open-access four-year. This will allow us to estimate heterogeneity across jobs with different education requirements. We will also vary applicants’ perceived race and ethnicity (as signaled by their name) to estimate how employer discrimination may interact with differential returns to degree type.

Not available

Randomization done in office by a computer

Resume/fictitious applicant

No

6000-12000

6000-12000

Applications will be sent to two types of jobs: those that require an AA or below, and those that require a BA. When applying to jobs that require an AA or below, we will send three resumes that vary by degree type: an associate’s degree, a CCBA, and a BA from a nearby open-access public four-year institution. When applying to jobs that require a BA, we will send two resumes that vary by degree type: a CCBA, and BA from an open-access four-year. The number of total applications submitted will be constrained by the number of available job openings but given our power calculations we aim to send a minimum of 6,000 resumes across the two states.

To conduct our audit study with adequate power to detect effects with 95% confidence based on the approximate point estimates in the existing literature (including Darolia et al., 2014 and Deming et al., 2016) we aim to send at least 6,000 resumes. Our power calculations use the following parameters: based on prior audit studies, we assume a baseline callback rate of 8% and aim to detect differences of 3-4 percentage points between degree types, with a power of 0.80 and a significance level of 0.05 (using Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons between the three-degree types). For our proposed study, detecting a minimum effect size of 4 percentage points would require applying to 2,278 different job openings– with AA, CCBA, and traditional BA resumes – for a total of 6,834 applications. To detect a smaller effect size of 3 percentage points while maintaining 80% power, these sample sizes would need to increase by approximately 78%, requiring 4,054 applications per degree type and 12,162 applications total. Note that detecting differences in callback rates across degrees is the focus of this pilot, but that we will also randomize perceived race and ethnicity (Black, Hispanic, and White) across resume submissions. Race-ethnicity by degree interaction effects will be detectable at a slightly higher level given the proposed number of resumes submitted. The final number of applications sent will be constrained by the number of available job openings, but given these power calculations we aim to send a minimum of 6,000 resumes across the two states.