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Policy Framework
A postsecondary credential has become increasingly important in the labor market, and college attendance has become more widespread. Unfortunately, college completion remains less common, particularly in community colleges, which serve many low-income students. Finding ways to increase the rates of persistence in school and of degree attainment among community college students is critical to improving their long-term economic prospects.
Recent research on student persistence has highlighted the importance of student “involvement,” namely in a college’s academic and social life — particularly during a student’s first year. ”Learning communities,” which emerged in the 1970s, are viewed by many practitioners and researchers as a promising strategy to promote student involvement and retention. Learning communities bring together small groups of students who take two or more linked courses that have mutually reinforcing themes and assignments. The learning communities seek to encourage peer relationships, intensify personal connections to faculty, and foster a deeper understanding of coursework.
Studies on learning communities have found that involved students and faculty had positive views of their experiences. Moreover, results from a learning communities evaluation at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY — part of MDRC’s Opening Doors demonstration — show that, relative to a control group of students in regular classes, students in the learning community moved more quickly through developmental English requirements, took and passed more courses, and earned more credits in their first semester. Two years later, they were also somewhat more likely to be enrolled in college.
As part of five-year grant from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education to the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR), MDRC and other NCPR research partners are conducting a multi-college demonstration of learning communities. The demonstration will build on the experiences of Kingsborough Community College, by testing variations of learning communities that have different foci (including developmental math and occupational instruction) and levels of curriculum integration.
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
The project is evaluating the effectiveness of learning communities as a strategy to improve a broad range of educational outcomes for academically under-prepared students, with a particular emphasis on completion of developmental (remedial) education requirements and persistence in college.
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
The demonstration is using a random assignment research design to compare the experiences and outcomes of students in the learning communities to those of students not participating in the programs. MDRC and its partners are using a variety of data sources, including students’ academic records, to determine the effects of the programs. Six community colleges are participating in the demonstration:
- The Community College of Baltimore County (Baltimore, Maryland)
- Hillsborough Community College (Tampa, Florida)
- Houston Community College (Houston, Texas)
- Kingsborough Community College (Brooklyn, New York)
- Merced College (Merced, California)
- Queensborough Community College (Queens, New York)
Study intake began in fall 2007 and was completed by the end of 2009. During this time, over 6,000 students across the six colleges participated in the demonstration. An implementation study was conducted to document how the learning communities programs were designed and operated and to describe the classroom experience from the perspective of teachers and students in the learning communities and regular college programs. Findings from the first year of implementation are scheduled to be published in early 2010. MDRC is also conducting a cost-benefit study of two of the six programs.
What's Next
The students in the demonstration are tracked for several semesters following the semester they entered the study, to measure the impact of learning communities on academic outcomes such as completing developmental education courses, accumulating credits, and persistence to subsequent semesters. Through 2011, a series of reports sharing the impact findings for each college’s program will be published as data on the full sample become available. A final report, including a synthesis of impact findings across the colleges and cross-college implementation lessons, will also be published in 2011.
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