A comparison of community college responders and nonresponders to the VEDS student follow-up survey

This study compared a random sample of nonresponders (N=201) to the Vocational Education Data System's (VEDS) student follow-up survey to responders (N=1441) for 15 Massachusetts community colleges. The study was conducted because positive follow-up results for community colleges were challenged by officials due to low response rates (35.7 percent) and possible response bias.No significant differences were found between responders and nonresponders on 6 VEDS demographic and 5 VEDS dependent variables. Significant differences were found between responders and nonresponders on special needs status, degree of job relatedness, hourly wage of all graduates employed, and those graduates employed full-time in their area of training. All of the significant differences were in favor of the nonresponders. Therefore, if biased, the responder data are biased in the direction of underestimation of employment levels, average hourly wage, and other data rather than overestimation. A model is outlined to explain these results that distinguishes between the nominal and the effective population surveyed, and the results of this study are discussed in terms of this model, VEDS, and other surveys.