In order for a state to improve community college completion rates, it needs clear measures for understanding exactly how its students are performing. Using data of three 8th grade cohorts (1996–1998) in Texas public schools, this report discusses how approximately only 20 percent of those 8th grade students completed a certificate or degree in Texas within six years, and how the indicators for measuring student success are not useful in improving this rate. To that end, this report offers a simple ratio as an unambiguous success indicator for tracking student progression toward improving postsecondary success in Texas.

The Achieving the Dream website offers a national longitudinal database, data notes, and research publications all targeted to improving student outcomes at community colleges. 

Jobs for the Future’s Breaking Through initiative is designed to help community colleges build programs that encourage low-skill adult students in pursuing career training and degree programs. In support of this goal, schools need to effectively gather and analyze data to determine program impacts. This toolkit provides a guide to data types and collection and analysis methods and outlines the common core data points that will help colleges ensure the usefulness of data collected. An appendix includes a larger map of data points to consider.

Features academic resources, community college finders,research, publications, and Fast Facts for higher education administrators and students worldwide.

Prepared by WestEd, this memo provides a synthesis of research on the effect AVID programs have on helping participating students graduate from high school and be prepared to succees in post secondary education.

Students in the U.S. understand the importance of a college education; 88% of eighth graders assume they will enter some sort of postsecondary program. Despite this high level of college aspiration, students often find the reality of the college entrance process and college-level coursework overwhelming. This report uses data from six states to explore how a lack of alignment between K–12 and postsecondary education contributes to misconceptions about what constitutes college readiness and how the college application process works. The authors discuss major points of disconnect, including assessments and curricular design, and offer recommendations for strengthening the ties between K–12 and postsecondary policies to build comprehensive P–16 systems.

This brief explores issues related to the college readiness gap, identifying less-selective and open-access institutions as the most likely to be impacted. The authors provide policy recommendations for statewide efforts targeted to these most vulnerable groups, including a model college readiness agenda involving various stakeholders from the institutions to the governor and the development of high standards of mastery in reading, writing, and math regardless of students’ postsecondary education plans.

Included in the goal of increasing college completion rates is the goal of improving high school graduation rates. Using longitudinal data, this study examines the impact of the Concurrent Courses Initiative (CCI)—an initiative that combined career and technical education and dual enrollment—on students’ high school GPA and graduation, as well as postsecondary enrollment, persistence, and credit accumulation. Initial findings show no difference in high school GPA, but a positive outcome in all other areas when compared to students who were not enrolled in a CCI program. 

Aiming to reduce the sequence of remedial coursework that underprepared students need to take, colleges explore alternative approaches to accelerate learning opportunities. This report assesses the effectiveness of developmental summer bridge programs as a strategy for college readiness preparation and improved student outcomes. Using data from eight developmental summer bridge programs in Texas, the study presents findings on the academic outcomes of students two years following their participation in the bridge program and implications for consideration.

For the underperforming high school student, traditional course offerings do little to support or inspire these students to graduate, much less continue successfully to college. This report examines a study that found career-focused dual enrollment students more likely to graduate from high school than non-participating students, earn more college credits, persist in postsecondary education, and less likely to enroll in developmental education courses. Based on the study, the report offers lessons from the field: recommendations for effective dual enrollment practices and related policies to expand the success observed for these underprepared students.

Postsecondary students are not completing college for an array of reasons, but one may be due to selecting an institution that is not a good match for the student from the start. Based on survey data of more than 600 students who attended or completed college, this second of three reports describes the perspectives that young adults have of their college-preparation experiences with their high school guidance counselors. The report’s survey findings generally indicate that students felt unknown to their high school counselors and did not feel as if they were given useful or sufficient advice to help them navigate the college application and selection process successfully. 

Key note speech on the pivital role of trustees delivered by Jamie P., Merisotis, President of Lumina Foundation for Education delivered to the Association of Community College Trustees Annual Leadership Congress in Sna Francisco on October 8, 2009.

Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) conducts projects and offers a variety of research-based resources related to the education of English language learners in a variety of settings, including: prekindergarten-Grade 12 programs, universities and community colleges, adult education programs, and workplace programs.

A guide to assist community college faculty, staff, and administrators as they begin their work to rethink and redesign their systems, programs, and instruction to improve student completion.

This case study investigates El Paso Community College’s first year of participation in the Achieving the Dream initiative, particularly their use of the ACCUPLACER test both as a placement assessment for incoming students and as part of a larger effort to guide high school students to college readiness. The authors interviewed EPCC personnel and held focus groups with students to explore how EPCC’s efforts impacted the school’s goals of decreasing the number of entering students who place into developmental courses and decreasing the time required to complete developmental coursework.

Communities Learning in Partnership (CLIP) is an online learning community for the seven cities selected for the nine-month planning phase of a new, multi-year initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Participating cities include: Dayton, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; Mesa, Ariz.; New York City; Phoenix; Riverside, Calif.; and San Francisco. Membership is required for participation. 

Colleges nationwide are developing structured pathways to help students who would otherwise struggle to complete college to enter credit programs that lead to credentials with high labor market value. States have an important role to play in adopting the right policies to support and sustain colleges’ efforts to build these pathways that offer students the structure and assistance they need. JFF’s Lara Couturier offers 10 high-leverage policy recommendations for states in her latest brief, Cornerstones of Completion . Policy topics range from faculty-led curricular alignment, to building CTE pathways, accelerating developmental ed, supporting college advising, and using real-time labor market information.

This report, prepared by REL West, finds that the high school program for college preparation begins in 9th grade and that making up missed preparatory courses and academic content is likely to be difficult for students who put off college preparatory work until later in their high school career.

When forging new territory, such as school reform, there is a dearth of good examples from which to learn. This paper profiles one Ohio early college high school that has a unique learning environment for providing STEM education. The author describes how partnerships with key funders from the onset, enabled the school to implement a sustainable model of operations, while a partnership with the local college supported rigorous, college-ready academic programs for students. The author also discusses innovative approaches that bridge the transition from high school to college with greater success.

The open admissions policy of community colleges means that there is a wide range of students who arrive prepared and unprepared and for different intentions. Based on interviews with developmental education instructors, this report examines the conception these instructors have of their students and their awareness of the factors that impact students’ academic performance. Given students’ heterogeneity and range of readiness, the authors identify five different kinds of developmental education students and offer recommendations to institutions for more differentiated services to address the varied needs of these students.

While dual enrollment programs historically have focused on high-achieving students, these programs can benefit underperforming students as well, particularly when integrated with a career focus. This report examines eight dual-enrollment partnerships in California that included a career-focused strategy for engaging struggling students. The authors describe each partnership and discuss the program variations among them, including the advantages and disadvantages of particular program features related to location, instructors and pedagogy, and course selection and content, among others. These findings are lessons to be considered when redesigning a dual enrollment program.

As the demand for dual enrollment programs such as early college high schools increases, it’s important to understand what goes into the design and implementation of high-quality programs. This guide is geared toward helping secondary schools navigate the process—from establishing a partnership with a postsecondary institution to sustaining program success—and provides links to additional resources.

This literature review identifies six practices consistently recommended for successfully transitioning high school students to college: rigor, relevance, alignment, realistic expectations, support for transitions, and articulated pathways. Each practice is described, as are benefits to secondary and postsecondary students, results of research, research-based recommendations, and implications for practice.

The dashboard’s purpose is to promote continuous improvement and hold the system and each of its 32 colleges and universities accountable by providing ongoing performance assessment. Currently, the dashboard reports data on six of 10 measures for each college and university and for the system as a whole. They are affordability, student persistence and completion rates, employment rate of graduates, licensure exam pass rates, facilities condition and percent change in enrollment. The dashboard also provides context for interpreting system and institutional performance with trend information, comments and direct comparisons.

While the GED increases educational and employment opportunities for high school dropouts, few of those who pass the exams and go on to college persist to earn a degree. In part, this can be linked to traditional GED preparation programs that focus on test preparation only. The authors of this guide explore the potential of a college-connected program model to improve success rates among GED earners by providing enhanced instruction in preparation for the test, bridge programs to help college-bound students build necessary skills, and academic supports during the first year of college.

A distillation of the paper of the same name, this presentation from the 2011 convention of the American Association of Community Colleges explores the importance of tracking student progress toward entry in coherent programs of study and provides an overview of effective practices to enact at each phase to improve students’ success.

High school students preparing for the next phase of their educational career are often in need of college guidance and academic support to help them successfully transition, but low-income students and first-generation college students need even more and extended forms of support to be successful. This early report describes a new college-readiness program between two high schools and a partnering local college that provides a system of multiple supports, including monetary incentives, targeted at low-income students as they transition out of high school to postsecondary institutions. In addition to discussing how the high school graduates fared after their first year of participation in the program, the author introduces the upcoming evaluation to better understand implementation and impact of the program.

This guide reviews the research literature on college access and makes five recommendations for how high schools and school districts, starting as early as 9th grade, can help students navigate their way to college. Recommendations include offering a college preparatory curriculum and assessing whether students are building the knowledge and skills needed for college.

Postsecondary institutions are faced with the tremendous challenge of how to improve student persistence. Open access institutions, which serve greater proportions of high-risk students, see even lower rates of retention and graduation than do selective institutions. Based on a study of four for-profit schools in Texas that had high graduation rates and low student loan default rates, this report describes what those institutions did to achieve such positive outcomes, particularly for these high-risk students. This study finds that among these institutions, a combination of key institutional practices aimed at retaining and graduating students along with establishment of a culture that emphasizes completion and job placement contributed to these schools’ abilities to support postsecondary student success.

The Early College High School Initiative introduces students to free, credit-bearing college-level course work while in high school and provides support in the college application and enrollment process. This report describes the history and outcomes of the Initiative to date. The authors offer details on the context of the Initiative’s origin, key program elements and success indicators, and its supporting partnerships. Profiles of specific sites provide more in-depth snapshots.

The CCRC Assessment of Evidence Series consists of working papers that provide evidence-based recommendations in eight major topics impacting college completion. This introduction provides a brief explanation of findings within each topic as well as an exploration of how four aspects of organizational redesign—simplifying bureaucracies, engaging faculty, curriculum alignment, and data use—serve as unifying themes for the series.

This report describes the efforts of one school district on the Texas-Mexico border that implemented dual enrollment and career pathway programs districtwide and successfully turned around a district known for high dropout rates and high populations of low-income students and second language learners who did not go on to college. The author describes how the district created rigorous career pathways and a range of early college options, and then explores the instructional changes in the classrooms implemented to prepare students for the challenges of college-level work.

Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS) is a national dissemination an dprofessional development system, providing information on literacy research, practice, and resources.

This memo is second in a series of eight memos responding to questions regarding student service delivery methods and structures.

Memo 2 addesses the question: Does research provide information on the effectiveness of using college paraprofessionals and instructional faculty to provide orientation and counseling to students? If so, are there any negative consequences to students? Does expanded access to these services (i.e., orientation and counseling provided by paraprofessionals or instructional faculty) help improve student success?

This memo is eighth in a series of eight memos responding to questions regarding student service delivery methods and structures.

 Memo 8 addresses the question: How could technology be used to provide quality support services to students?

Our nation has increasing labor market demands and is relying on community colleges to help educate more students to fill the workforce gaps. In order to provide a successful education for a broader population, community colleges need to expand what’s working on a bigger scale; however, they need to do it in a sustainable way. After examining common barriers to scaling up institutional practices using traditional, less effective approaches, this guide suggests a framework—a different organizational approach—that community colleges might consider for scaling up existing programs. The guide offers a systematic approach to assessing institutional readiness for change, followed by a detailed, five-step process for moving forward that includes helpful tools, case examples, and discussions on what to anticipate.

There currently exists a significant economic gap in college access; while 52% of middle and upper income students earn postsecondary degrees, only 11% of students from the lowest-income families do. Well-designed dual enrollment programs can help close this gap, introducing college-level work to students otherwise unlikely to pursue postsecondary education and helping to build a coherent P–16 education system. This guide provides an overview of current cutting-edge dual enrollment programs, and a detailed review of the principles for designing a high-quality program. These principles also serve as the foundation for an included self-assessment tool.

The assessments that determine course placement are a small piece of the college admissions process, but they can significantly impact students’ long-term success. This report examines assessment and placement policies in the California community college system, using interviews with counselors, matriculation officers, and students to compare policymakers’ intent to students’ real experiences. Based on findings that show a majority of students feeling unprepared for and confused by the assessment, counseling, and course placement processes, the authors offer several recommendations for reform. These include increasing the transparency of the process, engaging early outreach strategies to introduce middle and high school students to assessments, and developing innovative methods of  measuring and raising students’ readiness for college-level coursework.

The authors present two contrasting case studies of Chicago elementary schools to show the impact of strong leadership on the reform process and building a dedicated community of educators. The cases highlight the importance of not only dedicated administrators and faculty, but also of a coherent plan for improvement that is clearly communicated to stakeholders.

This brief, drawn from a longer report of the same title, identifies and discusses the features of credit-based transition programs that seem most promising in meeting the needs of middle- and low-achieving students. In particular, the authors focus on the importance of providing a wide range of students with access to college-level course work and comprehensive college-preparatory support services, as well as conducting regular analysis of student performance data and the perceived benefits of participation.

In this era of community college reform, college leaders are focused on increasing student success, but their efforts to create change are not always supported by current policy conditions. Based on the collaboration of California community college chief executive officers and members of their boards of trustees, this report captures their evidence-based recommendations and proposes a new policy agenda that creates conditions conducive to reform. The agenda comprises a breadth of specific recommendations for changes in local policies and practices as well as changes in state policy — given the political and economic climate — that are needed for community colleges to improve student success.

Students who begin college taking credit-bearing coursework are more likely to reach completion than students who begin taking remedial classes. This study examines 133 Texas college readiness partnership programs, which are designed to prepare high school students for college-level work. In addition to categorizing the programs into one of two types — those focused on academic subjects and those focused on college knowledge — the report describes features of these programs, targeted students, and intended outcomes. The authors discuss key characteristics of the partnerships between high schools and colleges toward identifying promising practices to better support the pathway for college-bound students.

Since higher education funding is based on student enrollment rather than student success, there is little incentive for colleges and universities to improve, much less measure, student outcomes. Aware of the need for higher education to change its focus, this study analyzed the higher education accountability systems of all fifty states to uncover the kind of information a state gathers about its colleges and students, and how it uses the information to make colleges and students more successful. The report describes the current state of higher education accountability — highlighting best practices already in use — and offers a set of guidelines for designing a model state higher education accountability system.

Community colleges are currently faced with the challenge of raising their graduation rates while dealing with budget cuts. To increase student achievement without requiring large amounts of additional funding, schools need to be particularly attentive to their organizational practices. Drawing postsecondary, K–12, and non-education sector research, this report examines the practices commonly seen in high-performing organizations, including functional alignment, use of data in improvement efforts, and employee engagement and training. The author focuses his recommendations on those practices that support a continuous cycle of improvement.

While the Latino population in the United States continues to grow, college completion rates remain low for Latino students. Improving degree attainment among Latinos is vital to reaching the nation’s educational goals. To that end, this guide outlines recommended actions and areas for consideration for policymakers at the community, college, state, and federal levels.

Too many students enter community college needing developmental education, and many are at risk of leaving school before ever reaching college-level coursework. This brief describes how 15 states participating in the Achieving the Dream initiative have concentrated their efforts to change state policy in four broad strategies aimed at improving outcomes for underprepared students: preventative strategies, assessment and placement, implementation and evaluation of program innovation, and performance measurement and incentives. Collins shares results and lessons learned from the innovations and promising practices of high-performing institutions and the critical role that state policy plays in developing the conditions that support change.

As funding for financial aid diminishes, states need to leverage their resources to best support student success. Prepared for Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Vision Project, this report examines existing financial aid policies currently in place in various states to improve college access and success. The author categorizes financial aid policies into three distinct models — entitlement programs, programs targeted to low-income students, and programs that reward certain behaviors — and describes them for Massachusetts’ consideration in its desire and effort to improve college success and degree completion through student financial aid reform.

This report describes the Strengthening Pre-Collegiate Education in Community Colleges initiative, which is designed to introduce innovation to the teaching and learning of developmental education in the community college classroom. Currently underway at 11 California community colleges, the initiative encourages a data-driven culture in which educators work together to improve student learning. To address the challenges facing students who may not believe themselves to be “college material,” the initiative includes a variety of student supports, including learning communities, tutoring, and explicit instruction.

Archive of WestEd/Public Agenda's Student Focus Group Training Webinar: January 10, 2012.

By allowing students to take college classes and earn college credit while still in high school, credit-based transition programs (CBTPs) may improve student access to college. While policymakers support their expansion, there are currently no theoretical models for guiding CBTP programs. Based on a study of five CBTPs, the authors describe how the programs attempt to meet the needs of a wide range of learners, identifying features that appear to best prepare middle- and low-achieving students for postsecondary success, such as curricular pathways and support services. The authors propose a conceptual model that shows the interrelationship between coursework, support services, knowledge about college, and motivation, and encourage state policies that include support for these components.

As large proportions of students arrive to college — especially community colleges — unprepared for the rigor of college-level coursework, states are turning to assessments as a critical tool for increasing college readiness. This report describes how Florida’s Division of Colleges partnered with K–12 using the state’s rich K–20 longitudinal student data to design and implement a new 11th grade college placement test that simultaneously places students in remedial or college-level courses and measures high school students’ college readiness. Based on interviews conducted for this case study, the author discusses the changes made at both the secondary and postsecondary levels statewide, reflecting an alignment of standards, ownership of the issues by faculty, and a collaboration across these two sectors to reduce remediation and accelerate developmental instruction.

Funders, organizations, and colleges want new models for how to improve postsecondary success rates, but working alone, they are limited by their own capacity, knowledge, and existing systems. This report describes the successful collaboration between a community-based organization (CBO) and a New York City community college focused on improving the college success rates of underrepresented, postsecondary students. Bringing their resources and strengths, the two partners provided a comprehensive support system to the underperforming students that helped in their academic, and social and developmental preparation for college. The authors describe how the collaboration began, key components of the initiative, and lessons learned for future endeavors between CBOs and postsecondary institutions.

The City College of New York's English Language Institute offers a five-level program developed with students' needs in mind. The program incorporates practical conversation, reading, writing, grammar, and pronunciation at every level.

A November 2010 meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges provided the opportunity for members to focus on four major completion-related topics: commitment, accountability for outcomes, toolkits, and overcoming obstacles. This report summarizes the meeting sessions, including the key points raised, suggestions for improvement, and examples of work currently being done.

This publication compiles research from various authors on eight subtopics regarding financial aid, including loans, tax issues, and persistence rates. Authors used existing data to evaluate the effectiveness of policies, defining effectiveness as it relates to an increase in enrollment rates without compromising the quality of the institution. Bringing these works together is meant to encourage the design of more effective student aid policies and reform of the federal student aid system.

In the U.S., K–12 and postsecondary education are disjointed, creating barriers that hinder students — especially lesser-prepared students — from successfully navigating the transition to and through higher education. Based on a four-state study that analyzed K–16 educational governance and state policies in areas such as finance, curricula and assessment, accountability, and data systems, this report proposes a set of policy levers for states interested in K–16 reform. In addition to providing examples of the steps several states have taken to move the K–16 agenda forward, the authors also offer recommendations to help states formalize current approaches into more effective, sustainable, and long-term governance structures and policies for improving success opportunities for students.

In an effort to reform education, schools often reinvent the wheel or modify available programs to accommodate school needs. This report examines how eight schools implemented the AVID program model with strict fidelity and describes the schoolwide impact of AVID across the schools. The authors recommend additional program features and present individual school profiles describing each school’s AVID program, including its program history, operations, schoolwide impact, and student outcomes.

The Puente Project is a national award-winning program with the mission to increase the number of educationally disadvantaged students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn college degrees and return to the community as mentors and leaders to future generations. The program is interdisciplinary in approach, with writing, counseling and mentoring components.

The Completion by Design initiative supports four states — Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas — in developing and implementing a completion-focused policy agenda informed by data on student outcomes. This publication describes how Jobs for the Future (JFF) is helping the lead organization in each state change its college-completion state policy and capacity-building efforts. In addition to discussing JFF’s three-part change strategy for how it helps these states accelerate institutional change efforts, this publication presents an overview of key policies supporting the Completion by Design framework as well as the Completion by Design state policy calendar.

Fast Facts about postsecondary complied from various reputable sources.

Developed over two years with the assistance of more than 400 faculty and staff members from research universities, this report provides a detailed guideline of necessary skills in six areas of study: English, mathematics, second languages, natural sciences, social sciences, and the arts. For each subject area, the report also provides a set of recommended standards that can be used to determine skill mastery. The report notes that skills should be acquired as part of a larger learning experience that sharpens cognitive skills.

Using existing research, the authors evaluate the evidence base of four different models for addressing the needs of remedial students— preventative interventions (e.g., dual enrollment and bridge programs), acceleration, contextualized instruction, and supplemental supports. For each program type, they include examples of successful implementation.

Research on college completion seldom includes controls to examine the effect of various institutional policies on student completion rates or how policies’ effectiveness change over time. In this study, researchers used longitudinal transcript data to examine the relationship between institutions and graduation probability. They then ranked similar community colleges on their success in graduating minority students and held interviews with personnel from six schools (three high-impact and three low-impact colleges) to determine which policies contribute to the schools’ completion rates.

Improving college attendance and persistence is critical to the goal of improving student success rates. This report examines the college-going behaviors of students enrolled in dual enrollment programs — a strategy that can help lesser prepared students get ready for college. Based on studies, the report describes positive outcomes for students in dual enrollment programs and the benefits students experience from taking dual enrollment courses.

The traditional use of placement exams for incoming college students may actually act as a barrier to college completion, misassigning students into developmental education who really don’t need remediation. Using information from a Jobs for the Future convening, involving state officials and community college leaders along with interviews and analysis, this report examines how emerging research is challenging assumptions about placement tests as an accurate data source for determining college readiness. The author describes innovative approaches that some states are taking with placement exams and presents them in three broad categories: Downplaying the tests, Changing the tests, and Supporting students around the tests. Lastly, the author discusses key issues of cost, time, and validity as related to reforming the use of placement tests.

This report explores “degree productivity” improvement through a synthesis of research, an analysis of systemwide datasets, and detailed studies of high-performing institutions. Based on these sources and observations, the authors suggest the following five practices, in conjunction with essential elements, for increasing productivity without reducing the quality or access to education:

1. Systematically enabling students to reach graduation through reforms such as structured pathways to graduation, effective student supports and placement, and preparing students for post-study work.
2. Reduce nonproductive credits by improving developmental education and tutoring, implementing policies for tracking and intervening to support student progress and completion, and aligning transfer policies.
3. Redesign the delivery of instruction by leveraging technology to become more cost-effective, providing course mentors to augment online teaching materials, and including a full summer semester to the academic calendar year.
4. Provide more efficient core supports and services by implementing cost-saving measures such as converting from a paper-based to an electronic system and providing self-service online systems for administering financial aid.
5. Optimize non-core services and maintaining only mission-critical, non-core services.

For all institutions to increase their degree of productivity to the levels achieved by the highlighted high- performing institutions, the authors suggest the following steps for institutions as well as policymakers:

1. Honest self-assessments conducted by higher education institutions to compare their overall productivity and performance on the five identified practices to those of highly productive institutions. Moreover, institutions must assess the will and skill of leadership and management to pursue systemwide change.
2. Improve statewide performance measurement, data gathering, and benchmarking to improve the tracking of institutional progress. Without this in place, states and institutions cannot be held accountable for their progress.
3. Make productivity in higher education a priority in state and federal policy. While they should not dictate how to increase productivity, grants and policies should support innovative strategies and the sharing of best practices.

Students arrive at community colleges with college-ready status determined by a placement test; however, many of these students, along with their peers in developmental education, are still not completing college successfully. Perhaps, then, college readiness support should not focus only on academics. Based on interview data from a previous study, this paper addresses the non-academic expectations of community college students and the unspoken role they are expected to exhibit to successfully navigate and complete their academic programs. The authors provide a description of the community college student role and the specific components of the role. Aiming for transparency for students, the authors offer student strategies within each component for playing out the new role.