With nearly half of all students in higher education not earning a degree, colleges and universities refine strategies to increase retention rates and to address specific needs determined by their student demographics. This study investigates the retention rates for full- and part-time students at public community colleges by degrees of urbanization (i.e., city, suburb, town, and rural), and the differences in retention rates between and among these differing institutions. The authors present the findings regarding retention rates and recommend further research to examine the causes.

There is a need for understanding if promising practices that appear to work for the general student population are effective in increasing access and success in postsecondary education for low-income and underrepresented students. This report addresses accelerated learning options and how they might improve rates of college enrollment, persistence, and graduation for underserved students. However, there is a need to improve data collection and data reporting systems across states to understand how underserved students would benefit from accelerated learning programs. Among the recommendations in this report is a call for policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and external funding groups to improve collaboration and evidence-based research to begin efforts to improve student outcomes through accelerated learning options.

Without sufficient financial aid, many community college students cannot begin their postsecondary education, much less sustain it to complete a certificate or degree. This report describes how at a particular meeting in early 2012, postsecondary reform leaders, policymakers, and financial aid experts collaborated to understand how existing federal financial aid policies act as a barrier to institutional and statewide innovation for low-income students. Using case studies, the report describes the reform efforts of two states—Virginia and Washington—to describe obstacles encountered with federal policy and how these states developed workarounds and unique solutions to ensuring that low-income students have funds to complete their education. The author outlines next steps for states, as identified by those participants who are leading the conversation in financial aid policy reform. 

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. 

Often unaware of financial aid resources and employment services available on campus, many community college students struggle to get the support they need and end up leaving, never attaining their degree or certificate. This documentation study examines how integrated service delivery, specifically the Center for Working Families (CWF) bundled approach, is being implemented at ten community colleges to achieve improved postsecondary outcomes for low-income students. The authors discuss the diverse ways that these community colleges have deployed the CWF approach, while presenting key findings on implementation and lessons related to data tracking, bundling of services, and sustainability. Using case studies and brief descriptions, the report describes each of the ten community colleges’ CWF program or implementation process. 

It’s believed that an education requiring less than one year of study has little economic value, but certificates are overlooked as a pathway that can lead to employment or a higher-level credential. This report describes how certificates can positively influence long-term income earnings, especially when a certificate holder works in the field of study or in fields with high-demand occupations. Using longitudinal data, the report discusses certificate-earning trends, the demographics on who is earning them, and the states that award the most certificates.

Without a postsecondary degree, otherwise employable adults are not able to be part of the workforce that would contribute to sustaining a thriving economy. This brief examines New Jersey’s existing policies, programs, and initiatives toward providing better and flexible options and support services to those postsecondary students who are just short of their degree or certificate. The authors discuss current initiatives aimed at reengaging adult students and suggest policy recommendations to strengthen state efforts to increase degree completion rates in the Garden State, with a focus on systems alignment and goal setting, student recruitment and retention, tuition funding, student supports, and flexible delivery options.

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.

Students believe that a college degree or certificate will improve their employment opportunities and income-earning potential. In this report, longitudinal data shows that more students are borrowing funds to attend college, but are dropping out before completion. The author discusses who the borrowers are, the unemployment rates between borrowers and non-borrowers, and the education sector that is seeing the highest increases in borrowing and dropping out.

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.

California postsecondary students are earning degrees at low rates, and degree attainment is even lower for students of color. This report uses cohort data of California Community College students and tracks their progress over six years, modeling how data-driven decision making can increase student success, especially for Latino students, the state’s fastest growing population. While the report describes key findings indicating low completion rates and great racial/ethnic disparities, the authors also present recommendations for improving institutional practices and state policy on data use to track student milestones toward efforts to increase student success.

The high dropout rate of Latino high school students means that Latino students are not enrolling in college, earning degrees, nor participating in the economy at the rate they should be. Based on the research, this report identifies six effective, replicable programs that have reduced dropout rates and have increased college attendance and student performance. Additionally, the authors describe other college attendance/dropout prevention programs that are used in California for improving outcomes of Latino students and present common program themes found among them.

States are considering the use of financial incentives to encourage students to complete a postsecondary credential. In this February 2012 interview with Dr. Richard Freeland, Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts, Freeland discusses how state policy in the Commonwealth is aiming to increase postsecondary completion for low-income students and to close the racial achievement gap in postsecondary attainment. In his interview, Freeland describes the Vision Project, a pilot project in which Massachusetts public institutions of higher education develop a concrete proposal, based on promising practices and recommendations, for experimenting with the use of financial aid to improve college access and success for students in need.

The more developmental courses students must take, the less likely they are to earn a degree or credential. This paper examines how developmental summer bridge programs, designed to provide recent high school graduates with remedial instruction in reading, writing, or math, along with an introduction to college, may support students in their transition from high school to college. Researchers study the effectiveness of a developmental summer bridge program model implemented at eight Texas colleges and describe students’ progression through developmental education, student success in college-level courses, and persistence into the second year of college. Among the early findings, the evidence suggests that summer bridge program students had improved success rates in entry-level college courses in math and writing.

One population of postsecondary students who leave school before completion is adult learners. This report describes a six-state project aimed at raising educational attainment levels by focusing on identifying and eliminating barriers that keep adults with prior college credit from completing their postsecondary degrees. The report discusses how these states used data to identify ready adults and formed workgroups to examine and tackle state and institutional policy and practice barriers in five areas:  data, academic affairs, student services, financing and financial aid, and communications and outreach. The authors present a state-by-state profile describing the role that state governance structure and institutional context played in addressing barriers, as well as recommendations and promising strategies each state employed. Overall findings and recommendations conclude the report.

Students receiving financial aid for their postsecondary education can budget their expenses with the anticipation of tuition, books, and living expenses; however, for a low-income student facing an unforeseen financial crisis, the unplanned expenses and lack of funds may lead to dropping out of school. This report evaluates two Lumina Foundation for Education emergency financial aid programs — the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund — created to assist students at community colleges or tribal colleges and universities who are at risk of dropping out because of unexpected financial crises. The two programs are evaluated for how they are designed and implemented at the participating colleges and universities, focusing on the most frequent reasons students request financial help, eligibility parameters schools use for awarding grants, characteristics of aid recipients, impact on student retention, and fundraising capacities. Based on the data of the 37 Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund colleges, the authors capture challenges that the participating institutions faced and present lessons learned and recommendations for colleges interested in instituting similar emergency financial aid programs.

Far too many community college students, especially developmental education students, are at risk of failing, and thus at greater risk of not earning a living wage or advancing through job opportunities. This policy brief examines the challenges of developmental education and the efforts that states can pursue to increase the success of students enrolled in remedial courses, leading to improved rates of transition to credit-bearing courses. The authors recommend that state policymakers consider policy changes affecting data systems, assessment and placement, concurrent developmental and college-level course taking, financial aid eligibility, support services, and funding for new models of delivery. These recommendations are discussed along with brief examples of what a few states have done to increase student transition out of developmental education.

Offering financial aid incentives to students who graduate high school early may allow states to reduce their overall spending on education, but such policies need to be carefully designed to make sure they offer long-term benefits to students. This brief outlines the factors that policymakers need to address to ensure that early graduation incentives provide real impact in improving college readiness and access for the most in-need students. The authors provide an overview of the current programs in eleven states.

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.

Many job seekers do not have the resources or time to dedicate to a two- or four-year college degree before entering the job market. In these cases, it is important that there are alternative paths available for those looking to learn skills and improve their employment opportunities. This program summary describes the key features of Career First, an alternative postsecondary pathway developed to meet the needs of low-income, underprepared high school graduates interested in quality employment opportunities in high-demand industries.

Students who have been raised in homes where English is not the dominant language, who have attended U.S. high schools, and who speak more fluently compared with more recent immigrants, have academic needs that are different from native-born English speakers and other groups of students learning English, yet their unique circumstances aren’t considered in how they are assessed and placed in their postsecondary courses. This report explores language-related policies, practices, and instructional options that U.S.-educated language minority students encounter in California community colleges, and how information concerning assessments, placements, and course sequences are communicated to them. Researchers discuss findings from an analysis of college websites, interviews with community college staff and administrators, and site visits, and offer recommendations for improving access and success for U.S.-educated language minority students. This report is the first of three focused on the practices and implications of community college ESL and English placement tests on U.S.-educated language minority students and promising practices for meeting their needs.

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.

Based on survey data of more than 600 young adults, this final report of three examines the perspectives of students who completed college, students who didn’t finish college, and those who never attended to better understand the supports and barriers that influenced their higher education choices and outcomes. The report discusses key findings that reveal a group of young adults who may not understand the growing importance of an education for a changing workforce and are unaware of financial resources available to them. The authors present implications and questions for policymakers, especially related to financial aid. 

Designed to bridge the gap between available financial aid and actual education costs and to provide financial incentive for academic achievement, Louisiana’s Opening Doors program awards performance-based scholarships to low-income students. These awards are supplemental to traditional forms of financial aid and contingent on the student maintaining a 2.0 GPA for the semester the award is granted. This evaluation reports out on early outcomes of the program, comparing the progress and performance of qualifying students who were randomly assigned to receive Opening Doors scholarships and counseling against those receiving only traditional financial aid and counseling.

The 21st century economy calls for a new generation of workers who have postsecondary degrees, yet the U.S. is falling behind other nations in producing a population with this requirement. This report discusses the need for a community college redesign to meet the demands of a changing workforce and to ensure that individuals have greater opportunities for postsecondary success. The report suggests a framework for reimagining community colleges and describes essential crosscutting elements in transforming institutions. It also offers seven recommendations centered on students’ educational experiences, institutional roles, and incentives for student and institutional success, as well as a set of implementation strategies accompanying each recommendation.

For too many postsecondary students, remedial courses act more as a barrier than a support to attaining their degree or credential. Using data on college readiness, this report describes how the current developmental education model is failing to move students along on a successful path to completion. The report proposes specific practices for better preparing students for college-level work before they begin college and a new model in which, in lieu of remedial courses, all students enroll in first-year college courses that include embedded tutoring and support. The report presents 33 state profiles, each showing demographics of students in need of remediation and the rates at which students are completing remediation and college in that state.

Unlike traditional merit scholarships that reward students for past academic successes, performance-based scholarships provide financial aid on the contingency of the student maintaining satisfactory grades after receiving the award. Using existing data from three community colleges in Ohio, this paper looks at the effectiveness of using this type of financial aid as an incentive for low-income students without a strong academic history.

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.

This summary brief of the longer report, Referral, Enrollment, and Completion of Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges, focuses on the relationship between referrals to developmental education and actual enrollment, students’ progress through their developmental course sequences, and the demographic and institutional characteristics impacting student progress. The authors use longitudinal data from the Achieving the Dream initiative alongside data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 to examine the course-taking patterns and progress of various student populations. The brief includes school-level recommendations for improving student progress through developmental course sequences.

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.

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.

In the past twenty years, many school reform models have been initiated to improve college preparation, access, and success for underserved students. This paper examines the predictors of college-going behavior and how they have been addressed within the high school reform movement. The authors review and analyze a variety of school reform initiatives including AVID, Talent Development High Schools, International Baccalaureate, Project GRAD, and GEAR UP, among others. The authors extrapolate promising practices from existing reform initiatives and make recommendations for addressing the predictors of college-going behavior. Among the predictors, the authors find that academic rigor and strong social and academic support are the most crucial predictors of a student’s successful enrollment in, and completion of, postsecondary education.

This report examines data from dual enrollment career and technical education programs in Florida and New York, finding positive effects on participating students’ high school graduation and college persistence rates. Recommendations for further improving the positive impact of dual enrollment programs include loosening eligibility requirements and providing courses for free to low-income students.

This publication is intended as a supplement to the main study report, Passing the Torch: Strategies for Innovation in Community College ESL by Chisman and Crandall. It presents in-depth profiles of the five college programs whose adult ESL services were studied and found to be innovative and successful in terms of learning gains, student retention, and transitions to further education. Specifically, each profile addresses ESL programs, noncredit ESL program characteristics, special program features, use of technology, articulation and transitions, faculty, management, finance and program effectiveness.

Efforts to improve high school and college graduation rates for low-income students and students of color are undermined by students’ placement into a less rigorous career-ready educational track that leaves them underprepared for postsecondary programs or the skilled workforce. Using data from a six-year audit of student transcripts, the Education Trust –West identifies specific factors that negatively impact educational equity and offers recommendations for reforming both college- and career-track curricula in high schools.

As demand for an educated workforce increases, effective high school-to-college pathways are needed to improve college and career readiness. This policy brief describes dual enrollment initiatives that seven states are enacting to provide more high school students — high- and low-achieving students — with opportunities to take college courses while completing high school. The authors introduce a web tool and offers six design principles for helping state leaders shape research-based policies on this key strategy.

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 the success of college completion and transfer rates requires new innovations aimed exactly at those efforts. This report profiles five California community colleges that have implemented practices or programs focused on completion and transfer to a four-year university or the workforce. Additionally, this report presents four commonalities, based on the work of these community colleges, that serve as a framework for any effort to improve student success: information matters, working together, supporting students outside the classroom, and college leaders are key.