Related Publications

This study examined the outcomes of students participating in eight dual enrollment programs in California and found that dual enrollment can benefit underachieving students and those underrepresented in higher education. A practitioner brief and policy brief are also available.

Broadening the Benefits of Dual Enrollment: Reaching Underachieving and Underrepresented Students with Career-Focused Programs.

Based on a longer paper, this Brief reviews evidence on the effectiveness of developmental education and suggests a broad reform agenda for helping students with weak academic skills.

Rethinking Developmental Education in Community College (CCRC Brief No. 40)

This article examines evidence on the effectiveness of developmental education and outlines a broad reform agenda for helping students with weak academic skills.

Challenge and Opportunity: Rethinking the Role and Function of Developmental Education in Community College

This article describes findings that career and technical education (CTE) students who participated in dual enrollment courses had better educational outcomes than their classmates who did not participate.

Dual Enrollment Can Benefit a Broad Range of Students

This report is intended to inform educators, policymakers, administrators and researchers about current policies and practices that shape dual enrollment in California.

Dual Enrollment Policies and Practices: Earning College Credit in California High Schools

An increasing number of career and technical education (CTE) programs are providing dual enrollment opportunities to their students. This report examines the impact of dual enrollment participation for students in the State of Florida and in New York City.

The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States.

CCRC Brief No. 27 summarizes the final report from the Accelerating Student Success through Credit-Based Transition Programs study.

Pathways to College Access and Success (CCRC Brief No. 27)

A growing number of policymakers, education reform groups, and researchers argue that middle- and low-achieving high school students may benefit from participation in dual enrollment programs. This report looks at five programs to understand how credit-based transition programs can help middle- and low-achieving students enter and succeed in college.

Pathways to College Access and Success.

CCRC Brief No. 26, based on a longer report of the same title, examines how access to dual enrollment programs is influenced by state policies.

State Dual Enrollment Policies: Addressing Access and Quality (CCRC Brief No. 26).

This report analyzes dual enrollment legislation in all 50 states and examines whether these policies promote or inhibit the spread of dual enrollment programs.

State Dual Enrollment Policies: Addressing Access and Quality Report.

CCRC Brief No. 17 examines transitions from high school to college and includes a discussion of Tech Prep.

Dual Enrollment Programs: Easing Transitions from High School to College (CCRC Brief No. 17)

This report first reviews the coordination of high school exit and college entry standards and Tech Prep. The bulk of the paper is then devoted to a discussion of one rapidly growing and promising initiative, dual enrollment.

What Role Can Dual Enrollment Programs Play in Easing the Transition between High School and Postsecondary Education?

This eight-page brief describes the Getting Ready for Success Pilot Program designed by the College Success Foundation with support from MDRC. The program works to strengthen the college-readiness of low-income students in Tacoma, Washington.

Getting Ready for Success: Bridging the Gap Between High School and College in Tacoma, Washington

This interim report examines the experiences of the first 26 colleges to join the ambitious Achieving the Dream initiative.

Turning the Tide: Five Years of Achieving the Dream in Community Colleges

Prepared for the White House Summit on Community Colleges, this paper describes interventions with rigorous research evidence of effectiveness and offers thoughts on bringing such programs to scale.

Evaluating Programs for Community College Students: How Do We Know What Works?

Low-income parents at three community colleges in Ohio were offered a cash incentive, contingent on meeting academic benchmarks, to enhance their progress in school. For the first cohort, the performance-based scholarship program increased full-time enrollment and the number of credits attempted and earned, while reducing educational debt.

Rewarding Progress, Reducing Debt: Early Results from the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration in Ohio

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.

Investing in Change: How Much Do Achieving the Dream Colleges Spend—and from What Resources—to Become Data-Driven Institutions?

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.

Terms of Engagement: Men of Color Discuss Their Experiences in Community College

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.

Guiding Developmental Math Students to Campus Services: An Impact Evaluation of the Beacon Program at South Texas College

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.

Paying for College Success: An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration

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.

Building Student Success From the Ground Up: A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College.

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.

More Guidance, Better Results? Three-Year Effects of an Enhanced Student Services Program at Two Community Colleges

his 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.

Promoting Partnerships for Student Success: Lessons from the SSPIRE Initiative

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.

Getting Back on Track Effects of a Community College Program for Probationary Students.

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.

Rewarding Persistence Effects of a Performance-Based Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents

This report details an MDRC research study on learning communities that involved random assignment of 1,534 freshmen.

A Good Start: Two-Year Effects of a Freshmen Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College.

wo reports present the early results from MDRC's evaluation of the Opening Doors programs in Ohio. 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.

Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration in Ohio

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.

Emergency Financial Aid for Community College Students: Implementation and Early Lessons from the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund Programs

Funded by state welfare dollars, two community colleges in the 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.

Paying for Persistence: Early Results of a Louisiana Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents Attending Community College

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.

Learning Communities and Student Success in Postsecondary Education: A Background Paper.

Opening Doors Learning Communities is a program serving mostly low-income freshmen. This report provides an analysis of transcripts for the first group of students to enter the study in fall 2003.

Building Learning Communities: Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration at Kingsborough Community College

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.

Promoting Student Success in Community College and Beyond: The Opening Doors Demonstration

Available at: www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct1209/voices1209-btlong.shtml