The transfer between two-year and four-year colleges is a critical path to baccalaureate attainment. Yet students face a number of barriers in transfer pathways, including a lack of coherent coordination and articulation between their community colleges and four-year institutions, resulting in excess units and increased time to degree. In this paper we evaluate the impact of California's Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, which aimed to create a more seamless pathway between the California Community Colleges and the California State University. We investigate whether the reform effort met its intended goal of improving baccalaureate receipt, and greater efficiency in earning these degrees, among community college transfer students. We tease out plausibly causal effects of the policy by leveraging the exogenous variation in the timing of the implementation of the reform in different campuses and fields of study. We find an overall positive effect on bachelor's degree attainment. This increase is driven entirely by increased transfer rather than an increased probability of earning a BA/BS conditional on transfer. We find only suggestive evidence that the policy led to greater efficiency (i.e., fewer units at graduation) in BA/BS receipt for transfer students. These findings are broadly consistent across student subgroups.

中文翻译：

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改善社区大学向学士学位的转学途径：加州副学士学位对转学的影响

在两年制和四年制大学之间转学是获得学士学位的关键途径。然而，学生在转学途径上面临着许多障碍，包括他们的社区学院和四年制机构之间缺乏连贯的协调和衔接，导致学分过多和获得学位的时间增加。在本文中，我们评估了加州学生转学成就改革法案的影响，该法案旨在在加州社区学院和加州州立大学之间建立更加无缝的途径。我们调查改革工作是否达到了提高社区大学转学生获得学士学位的预期目标，并提高了获得这些学位的效率。我们通过利用不同校园和研究领域实施改革的时间的外生差异，梳理出政策的合理因果效应。我们发现对学士学位的获得有总体上的积极影响。这种增长完全是由转学的增加驱动的，而不是在转学的条件下获得文学学士/理学学士的可能性增加。我们仅发现暗示性证据表明该政策提高了转学生 BA/BS 收据的效率（即毕业时学分减少）。这些发现在学生亚组中大体一致。这种增长完全是由转学的增加驱动的，而不是在转学的条件下获得文学学士/理学学士的可能性增加。我们仅发现暗示性证据表明该政策提高了转学生 BA/BS 收据的效率（即毕业时学分减少）。这些发现在学生亚组中大体一致。这种增长完全是由转学的增加驱动的，而不是在转学的条件下获得文学学士/理学学士的可能性增加。我们仅发现暗示性证据表明该政策提高了转学生 BA/BS 收据的效率（即毕业时学分减少）。这些发现在学生亚组中大体一致。