From Credentials to Careers: Measuring Economic Mobility at Dallas College

For many, college is a pathway to better employment opportunities and a more secure life. For community college students, who are often low-income, first-generation, or students of color, this hope feels even more urgent. 

“At Dallas College, like so many community colleges around the country, students enter our doors in the pursuit of economic opportunity,” says Navi Dhaliwal, an SDP Fellow at the  Research Institute at Dallas College in Texas. “Our college has always believed in its mission of transforming lives and communities, but we did not always have the data to assess how effectively we were doing that.” 

Dallas College, formally the Dallas County Community College District, consists of 7 campuses and serves over 120,000 students. For years, Dallas College measured success by looking at graduation and transfer rates. But leaders still couldn’t answer this question: Are our graduates earning enough to support themselves and their families? 

Dhaliwal’s capstone project set out to change that by building a new framework to track what happens to students after they leave, and focusing not just on employment, but on whether they are reaching a living, sustainable wage. 

Why traditional measures weren’t enough 

While Dallas College had access to wage data, it lived in state and federal reports that were released years after students graduated, pre‑aggregated, so staff couldn’t drill down into outcomes by program or student group. This was a barrier to collecting data insights for college leadership but also for those with day-to-day touchpoints with students. 

“There was no single ‘aha’ moment,” Dhaliwal notes. “Our leaders wanted to know how many of our graduates were being employed, the types of jobs they held, where we were succeeding, and how we could further improve outcomes for students. These were seemingly basic questions, but we did not have a process in place to track what happened to our students after they graduated and entered the labor market.” 

Finally, the college lacked shared definitions for some of their metrics, making them even harder to track. For example, without a definition for “financial success,” it was impossible to connect the dots across employment, income, and stability. 

Defining and measuring a living wage 

Before they could analyze the data, the team needed to come to agreement on what they were measuring and how. Dhaliwal and his team reviewed wage data sources and cost‑of‑living tools. They identified thresholds for what counted as a “good” income in Dallas, ranging from just below $40,000 to more than $70,000. 

To create a clear standard, they adopted a benchmark already used by the Commit Partnership, a local nonprofit and current SDP Partner: around $62,000 a year in Dallas. That figure represents what it takes to reasonably support a family in the region and became the college’s target for a living, sustainable wage. 

With that benchmark in place, they built a two-part system: a Living Wage Dashboard using long‑term state wage records and a First Destination Survey capturing graduates’ immediate plans and early earnings.  This gives Dallas College leadership the evidence they need to shape programs, supports, and strategy, while also serving students and external stakeholders who want a clearer picture of graduates’ economic outcomes.  

“We found that we had two major needs,” Dhaliwal explains. “First, we needed a timely way to find out what current students were doing immediately after graduation. Second, we needed stable data that could be used to inform our college’s long‑term strategy.” 

Two Tools: The Living Wage Dashboard and the First Destination Survey 

Using data from the Texas Education Research Center, the Living Wage Dashboard links Dallas College records to in‑state workforce data from 1992–2023, covering about 700,000 former students. 

The dashboard shows how wages grow over time after students graduate, which students reach the $62,000 living wage threshold, and differences in wages by credential, program, cohort, and demographic group. 

With this dashboard, Dallas College now has a historical baseline and a way to monitor progress on economic mobility year after year. 

But there was more to do. Long‑term wage data doesn’t show what happens right after graduation. To fill that gap, Dhaliwal’s team created a new First Destination Survey which was piloted in 2023–24 and fully launched in 2024–25. 

Recent graduates are asked whether they’re working, continuing their education, doing both, or still searching; what they are earning; whether their job is related to their field of study; and where they’re transferring if they’re pursuing a four‑year degree. More than 1,500 students responded in 2024–25, and over 500 wrote open‑ended comments. 

Additionally, the survey lets students request help, triggering outreach from career or transfer staff. It is both a measurement tool and a direct support mechanism. 

Making meaning out of the data 

The Dallas College team reviewed their results with an eye toward action. On the positive side, “More than 85% of graduates agreed or strongly agreed that their education was worth the cost in time and money, that they felt satisfied with Dallas College, and that they felt prepared for their next steps,” Dhaliwal reports. Student comments often highlighted strong relationships with faculty and the sense of a second chance. 

Yet early earnings sometimes lagged behind those optimistic sentiments. Average first‑year earnings were about $51,000, falling below the $62,000 living wage benchmark, and roughly one‑third of graduates reported working multiple jobs or in the gig economy. While long-term earnings data showed that two-thirds of graduates would eventually earn a living wage, the survey revealed that only about 35% of those planning to work full-time reported earning a living wage in their first job. 

This mismatch is pushing Dallas College to examine how to help more graduates reach living wages sooner, through stronger transfer pathways, better alignment between programs and in‑demand careers, and more targeted career services. 

Turning insight into lasting change 

The impact is already visible. Through the First Destination Survey alone, 150 current students received direct career or transfer support within a year following the survey submissions. Dallas College now produces an annual Career and Transfer Outcomes Report, bringing wage and destination data into leadership meetings, strategic planning, and public discussions. 

For Dhaliwal, the stakes go beyond any single dashboard. “Community college students are disproportionately first‑generation, working class, parents, and caregivers who follow nonlinear paths,” he says. “Yet even incremental progress – a credential, transfer, a first job with benefits, a wage increase – can shift a student’s economic trajectory.” 

By measuring those milestones and acting on what they learn, Dallas College is redefining success for their students. Success isn’t just crossing the graduation stage, it’s moving closer to a life with real economic security for students and their families.