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Policy Framework
Too many students enter college without sufficient skills in English and math to succeed — which forces them to take developmental (or remedial) education courses. Across the nation, roughly 30 percent of entering freshman students enroll in developmental math or English courses. Among community college students, enrollment in developmental education doubles to about 60-70 percent. These students will need to spend more time in college — and expend more money on classes and books — before they can earn a certificate or a degree. Not surprisingly, these students are less likely than others to persist through the completion of a degree.
As colleges and policymakers seek to lessen the time students spend in developmental education and to make the time they do spend more rewarding, summer bridge programs have emerged as a potentially promising strategy. These programs — which occur in the summer between high school graduation and fall matriculation in college — offer students accelerated, focused learning opportunities that can help them acquire sufficient knowledge to reduce the need for remediation and better prepare them for college success. Despite the increased popularity of summer bridge programs across the country, little empirical research on their outcomes or impacts has been conducted.
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
As a part of the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR), MDRC and its research partners are conducting a rigorous multi-college study, led by the Community College Research Center (CCRC), of developmental summer bridge programs in Texas. Many of these programs are coordinated and funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
With funding from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education, Houston Endowment, and the Ford Foundation, the study is designed to produce rigorous evidence of the programs’ impacts and answer several policy-relevant questions:
- Do developmental summer bridge programs help reduce the need for students to participate in remedial education?
- Do they help students make a successful transition to college in the fall?
- Do they help students earn better grades and earn more college-level credits in their freshman year?
- Do they help students persist to their second year?
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
Eight colleges and universities throughout Texas are participating in the study. Each of the sites implemented a program that included an intensive academic experience for recent high school graduates, with four to six weeks of remedial coursework during the summer of 2009. The programs incorporated pedagogical strategies, such as accelerated and contextualized learning; included lessons on college knowledge to help prepare students for the social and academic rigors of college; and provided stipends of roughly $400 to students who participated and successfully completed the summer program. The eight sites are:
- El Paso Community College, El Paso
- Lone Star College–CyFair, near Houston
- Lone Star College–Kingwood, near Houston
- Palo Alto College, San Antonio
- San Antonio College, San Antonio
- South Texas College, McAllen
- St. Philip’s College, San Antonio
- Texas A&M International University, Laredo
The study is using a random assignment research design to compare students enrolled in the developmental summer bridge programs with a control group of students not participating in the programs. MDRC, along with its NCPR partners, is using a variety of quantitative data sources, including students’ academic records, data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and other administrative data to determine the impacts of the programs.
The research also includes an implementation study to understand how the developmental summer bridge programs were designed and operated. Qualitative data, including interviews, focus groups, and a program group survey, are being used to determine how and why (or why not) the programs have an effect on student success.
What's Next
In the spring of 2009, the eight sites recruited and randomly assigned students, and, in the summer of 2009, about 800 students were offered program services. Student data will be collected for 18 months following the summer intervention. In mid-2010, implementation and early impact findings will be published. A final report on longer-term program impacts will be published in 2011.
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