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Higher Education |
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Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Reading
An Impact Study at Hillsborough Community College
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Published with the National Center for Postsecondary Research
2010. Michael J. Weiss, Mary G. Visher, and Heather Wathington with Jed Teres and Emily Schneider.
A random assignment study of learning communities that linked a developmental reading course and a “college success” course finds that faculty collaboration and curricular integration increased over time. Overall, the program had no impact on students’ academic success, but evidence suggests that it had some positive effects for the last cohort of students in the study.
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Investing in Change
How Much Do Achieving the Dream Colleges Spend — and from What Resources — to Become Data-Driven Institutions?
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2010. Elizabeth M. Zachry and Erin Coghlan.
This report analyzes the experiences of five community colleges that participate in Lumina Foundation’s Achieving the Dream initiative and the investments they made in implementing an institutional improvement process aimed at increasing students’ success. The report examines how, where, and with what resources these colleges supported their reforms, as well as the key activities driving their overall expenditures.
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Scaling Up Learning Communities
The Experience of Six Community Colleges
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Published with the National Center for Postsecondary Research
2010. Mary Visher, Emily Schneider, Heather Wathington, and Herbert Collado.
Learning communities, which enroll groups of students together in coordinated classes, are increasingly being used to help developmental-level students succeed. This report on the Learning Communities Demonstration, a large-scale, random assignment evaluation, describes the strategies that six community colleges used and the challenges they faced in scaling up their programs.
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Terms of Engagement
Men of Color Discuss Their Experiences in Community College
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2010. Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, Herbert Collado, Kasey Martin, and Alma Castro, with Thomas Brock and Genevieve Orr.
This report takes an in-depth look at the perceptions and experiences of 87 African-American, Hispanic, and Native American men who were enrolled in developmental math courses at four community colleges. The study explores how the students’ experiences in their high schools and communities, as well as their identities as men of color, influenced their decision to go to college and their engagement in school.
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Case Studies of Three Community Colleges
The Policy and Practice of Assessing and Placing Students in Developmental Education Courses
Working Paper
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Published with the National Center for Postsecondary Research
2010. Stephanie Safran and Mary G. Visher
This paper reports on case studies conducted at three community colleges to learn about how the colleges assess students for placement in developmental education courses. The case studies identify several problems and challenges, including lack of consensus about the standard for college-level work, the high-stakes nature of the assessments, and the minimal relationship between assessment for placement and diagnosis for instruction.
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Guiding Developmental Math Students to Campus Services
An Impact Evaluation of the Beacon Program at South Texas College
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2010. Mary G. Visher, Kristin F. Butcher, and Oscar S. Cerna, with Dan Cullinan and Emily Schneider.
Created as part of the national Achieving the Dream initiative, a “light touch” intervention targeting students enrolled in lower-level math courses increased the number of students using campus tutoring and academic services. While the program has not improved math class pass rates or persistence in college overall, it has had positive effects for part-time and developmental students.
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Paying for College Success
An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration
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2009. Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, Paulette Cha, Monica Cuevas, Amanda Grossman, Reshma Patel, and Colleen Sommo.
This policy brief describes a demonstration launched by MDRC in four states in 2008 to evaluate whether performance-based scholarships — paid contingent on attaining academic benchmarks — are an effective way to improve persistence and academic success among low-income college students. The demonstration builds on positive results from an earlier MDRC study in Louisiana.
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Building Student Success From the Ground Up
A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College
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2009. Elizabeth Zachry and Genevieve Orr.
Achieving the Dream teaches community colleges to use student data to improve programming and student success. Since participating, Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina has become a data-driven, success-oriented institution and has seen promising trends in student achievement. This study offers lessons for other colleges undertaking similar institutional reform.
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More Guidance, Better Results?
Three-Year Effects of an Enhanced Student Services Program at Two Community Colleges
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2009. Susan Scrivener and Michael J. Weiss, with Jedediah J. Teres.
In this program, low-income students received enhanced student services and were eligible for a modest stipend for two semesters. The program improved academic outcomes in the second semester and registration in the semester after that, but these effects did not persist in subsequent semesters.
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Promoting Partnerships for Student Success
Lessons from the SSPIRE Initiative
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2009. Evan Weissman, Oscar Cerna, Christian Geckeler, Emily Schneider, Derek V. Price, and Thomas J. Smith.
This report describes how community colleges in California that participated in the Student Support Partnership Integrating Resources and Education (SSPIRE) initiative took steps to better serve low-income and underprepared students by integrating student support services with academic instruction.
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Getting Back on Track
Effects of a Community College Program for Probationary Students
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2009. Susan Scrivener, Colleen Sommo, and Herbert Collado.
Rates of graduation and degree completion at community colleges remain distressingly low. This report evaluates two versions of a program designed to help probationary students at community college succeed in school. One version increased the average number of credits earned, the proportion of students who earned a grade point average of “C” or higher, and the proportion who moved off probation.
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Rewarding Persistence
Effects of a Performance-Based Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents
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2009. Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, Thomas Brock, Allen LeBlanc, Christina Paxson, Cecilia Elena Rouse, and Lisa Barrow.
This report describes the impacts of a performance-based scholarship program with a counseling component on academic success and persistence among low-income parents. Students who participated in the program, which was operated at two New Orleans-area colleges as part of MDRC’s multisite Opening Doors demonstration, were more likely to stay in school, get higher grades, and earn more credits.
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Promising Instructional Reforms in Developmental Education
A Case Study of Three Achieving the Dream Colleges
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2008. Elizabeth M. Zachry with Emily Schneider.
This report examines the experiences of three of the 83 colleges currently involved in the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count project, an initiative of Lumina Foundation for Education, and their efforts to improve instruction in developmental education classrooms.
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Helping Community College Students Cope with Financial Emergencies
Lessons from the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund Emergency Financial Aid Programs
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2008. Christian Geckeler with Carrie Beach, Michael Pih, and Leo Yan.
For low-income students, education can be easily derailed by a temporary financial emergency, like the loss of a job or a car repair. This final report offers lessons from two programs created by Lumina Foundation for Education that provide emergency grants or loans to help students at risk of dropping out. Eleven community colleges participated in Dreamkeepers, and 26 tribal colleges or universities participated in Angel Fund.
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The Learning Communities Demonstration
Rationale, Sites, and Research Design
Working Paper
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Published with the National Center for Postsecondary Research
2008. Mary G. Visher, Heather Wathington, Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, and Emily Schneider,with Oscar Cerna, Christine Sansone, and Michelle Ware.
Launched in 2007 by MDRC and the National Center for Postsecondary Research, the Learning Communities Demonstration is testing models of this promising approach in six community colleges in five states. This report describes the research design, including information about the colleges and their models, the random assignment process, data sources, analysis plans, and reporting schedule.
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A Good Start
Two-Year Effects of a Freshmen Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College
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2008. Susan Scrivener, Dan Bloom, Allen LeBlanc, Christina Paxson, Cecilia Elena Rouse, and Colleen Sommo, with Jenny Au, Jedediah J. Teres, and Susan Yeh.
Freshmen in a “learning community” at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY, moved more quickly through developmental English requirements, took and passed more courses, and earned more credits in their first semester than students in a control group. Two years later, they were also somewhat more likely to be enrolled in college.
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Helping Low-Wage Workers Persist in Education Programs
Lessons from Research on Welfare Training Programs and Two Promising Community College Strategies
Working Paper
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2008. Lashawn Richburg-Hayes.
This working paper, prepared for a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, reviews what is known about education acquisition by low-wage workers and highlights promising strategies being tested at several community colleges.
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Building a Culture of Evidence for Community College Student Success
Early Progress in the Achieving the Dream Initiative
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2007. Thomas Brock, Davis Jenkins, Todd Ellwein, Jennifer Miller, Susan Gooden, Kasey Martin, Casey MacGregor, and Michael Pih, with Bethany Miller and Christian Geckeler.
Achieving the Dream is a multiyear, national initiative, launched by Lumina Foundation for Education, to help community college students stay in school and succeed. The 83 participating colleges commit to collecting and analyzing data to improve student outcomes, particularly for low-income students and students of color. This baseline report describes the early progress that the first 27 colleges have made after just one year of implementation.
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Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration in Ohio
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Two reports present the early results from MDRC’s evaluation of the Opening Doors programs at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio, and Owens Community College in Toledo. The two-semester programs offered enhanced advising services and a modest scholarship to low-income students to encourage them to stay in school and earn credentials.
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Emergency Financial Aid for Community College Students
Implementation and Early Lessons from the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund Programs
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2007. Lande Ajose, Casey MacGregor, and Leo Yan, with Michael Pih.
The report describes early findings from MDRC’s evaluation of the Dreamkeepers Emergency Financial Aid Program and the Angel Fund Program, two pilot programs for community college students who are at risk of dropping out because of unexpected financial crises.
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Enhancing Student Services at Lorain County Community College
Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration in Ohio
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2007. Susan Scrivener and Jenny Au.
This report describes early results from MDRC’s evaluation of the Opening Doors program at Lorain Country Community College in Elyria, Ohio. The program provided enhanced student services and a modest scholarship to low-income students to encourage them to stay in school and earn credentials.
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Enhancing Student Services at Owens Community College
Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration in Ohio
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2007. Susan Scrivener and Michael Pih.
This report presents the early results from MDRC’s evaluation of the Opening Doors program at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio. The two-semester program offered intensive student advising services and a modest scholarship to low-income students to encourage them to stay in school and earn credentials.
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A Whole ’Nother World
Students Navigating Community College
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2006. Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, Herbert Collado, and Barbara Ray.
For this study, MDRC interviewed students at two colleges that are part of the Opening Doors Demonstration, a program to help community college students remain in school and succeed. The students spoke about their experiences on and off campus and the factors that help or hinder their progress in school.
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Paying for Persistence
Early Results of a Louisiana Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents Attending Community College
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2006. Thomas Brock and Lashawn Richburg-Hayes
Funded by state welfare dollars, two community colleges in the New Orleans area offered performance-based scholarships and enhanced counseling to low-income parents, as part of MDRC’s Opening Doors demonstration. These early findings show the program had significant positive effects on academic achievement and rates of retention.
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Learning Communities and Student Success in Postsecondary Education
A Background Paper
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2005. Derek V. Price with Malisa Lee.
Interest in learning communities at colleges and universities is growing, as is early evidence of their impact on student success. This paper reviews the history, theory, and research on learning communities, describes how they operate, and proposes a multicollege demonstration project to build more conclusive evidence of their effectiveness.
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Building Learning Communities
Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration at Kingsborough Community College
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2005. Dan Bloom and Colleen Sommo.
Opening Doors Learning Communities, a program serving mostly low-income freshmen at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY, improved course and test pass rates, particularly in English.
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Promoting Student Success in Community College and Beyond
The Opening Doors Demonstration
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2005. Thomas Brock, Allen LeBlanc, with Casey MacGregor.
The Opening Doors Demonstration is designed to show how community colleges can help more low-income students remain in school and improve other outcomes, including degree attainment, labor market success, and personal and social well-being.
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Support Success
Services That May Help Low-Income Students Succeed in Community College
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2004. Rogéair Purnell and Susan Blank with Susan Scrivener and Reishma Seupersad.
Community colleges can pursue many strategies for enhancing student services, including offering “one-stop shopping,” which provides students with multiple services at the same time and place.
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Money Matters
How Financial Aid Affects Nontraditional Students in Community Colleges
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2003. Victoria Choitz, Rebecca Widom.
Examining federal, state, and institutional programs, the paper presents a framework for understanding challenges to securing comprehensive financial assistance for low-income working students.
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Changing Courses
Instructional Innovations That Help Low-Income Students Succeed in Community College
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2003. Richard Kazis, Marty Liebowitz.
This paper looks at curricular and program redesign strategies currently used by community colleges to speed nontraditional students’ advancement from lower levels of skill into credential programs and to shorten the time commitment required to earn a credential.
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Supporting CalWORKs Students at California Community Colleges
An Exploratory Focus Group Study
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2003. Laura Nelson, Rogéair Purnell.
The Opening Doors initiative is designed to help low-wage workers, at-risk youth, and recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) earn college credentials as the pathway to better jobs and higher earnings. Concentrating on a program implemented in California, this report supplements efforts from an earlier Opening Doors focus group study to gain insights from low-income students on the factors that affect their ability to enroll in school and earn a college credential while balancing work and parenting responsibilities.
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Opening Doors
Students' Perspectives on Juggling Work, Family, and College
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2002. Lisa Matus-Grossman, Susan Gooden with Melissa Wavelet, Melisa Diaz, Reishma Seupersad.
The latest report from the Opening Doors project explores how to help low-wage workers move toward career advancement and higher wages by enrolling in and completing community college programs.
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Welfare Reform and Community Colleges
A Policy and Research Context
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2002. Thomas Brock, Lisa Matus-Grossman, Gayle Hamilton.
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Opening Doors to Earning Credentials
Impressions of Community College Access and Retention from Low-Wage Workers
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2001. Lisa Matus-Grossman, Susan Tinsley Gooden.
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Opening Doors
Expanding Educational Opportunities for Low-Income Workers
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Published with the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.
2001. Susan Golonka, Lisa Matus-Grossman.
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