This evaluation examines the efficacy of an eight-week, accelerated college connections program designed to prepare out-of-school youth for entry to community college. Program participants received support from coaches in core subject areas including math, English, reading, career exploration, academic advising, and college success. The program showed positive impacts on participants, with more than 80% enrolling in credit-bearing college courses.

This case study describes the progress of the Virginia Community College System’s (VCCS) participation in Achieving the Dream. Using the resources and framework provided by the initiative, VCCS increased their capacity for data collection and analysis across all 23 campuses and used the data to frame conversations with instructors and examination of policies. Based on their experience, VCCS highlights several key factors in their effort, including building a committed and supportive leadership team, the implementation of a strong statewide data system, and making student success the focus of all policy decisions.

While use of student data at community colleges has historically been limited to required federal reporting, schools are now exploring methods of using data to identify areas of student weakness, progress, and growth in order to strengthen the delivery and support of learning. This report describes the experiences of four community colleges working to build a culture of evidence-based decision-making by implementing strategies for improved data use. Other institutions can use the lessons learned by these colleges as a model for strengthening their organization and use of institutional data.

The Student Support Partnership Integrating Resource and Education (SSPIRE) initiative requires participating schools to develop linked student support programs, use data to refine and improve efforts, and identify ways to sustain the programs. This report describes the efforts of nine California community colleges to implement four integrated services—learning communities, “drop-in” study center, summer math program, and case management programs. The authors present lessons learned from these “well-implemented” programs.

Cabrillo College’s Digital Bridge Academy (DBA) is a curriculum-integrated student support program that provides at-risk students with a two-week intensive skills course followed by a full semester’s coursework with linked services. This report examines the impact of the program on student persistence and success. Two models of the program were examined: the accelerated model included a college-credit English course, while the non-accelerated included a developmental English course. Using comparative analysis, researchers found that DBA students, regardless of the version of the program they were in, earned more college credits overall and had higher one-semester persistence rates than comparison students. The program did not show an impact on two-semester persistence or transfer credits.

The more time students spend in a developmental course sequence, the less likely they are to progress to college-level work. This report uses existing research to explore models of acceleration designed to move students more quickly through developmental education. These models included compressed courses, paired developmental and college-level courses, and college-level courses linked to supplemental support. With findings available that show benefits linked to each course type, the author offers recommendations for working through the structural and pedagogical reform processes, from issues of assessment, placement, and curricular alignment to dealing with faculty resistance and recruiting students to newly designed course programs.

In 2003, MDRC launched the Opening Doors Demonstration, partnering with six community colleges to develop and evaluate a variety of programs designed to improve student persistence and completion rates. This brief provides summary descriptions of the implemented programs—performance-based scholarships, freshman learning communities, academic counseling, coordinated student support services—and their effects as observed through at least two years of random assignment evaluation.

The Best Practice Web site provides information to help college leaders develop innovative solutions to challenges which face their institutions. The Web site may be utilized to learn about new techniques, improve processes, create new programs, make current programs more effective and enhance outreach. 

ALP is in innovative approach to basic writing programs that accelerates basic writing students through their developmental writing course and ENG 101 in one semester. ALP builds on the strengths of earlier approaches such as mainstreaming, studios, learning communities, and bridge programs. It is showing great promise in improving the success rates of students. This site highlights Baltimore's programs and offers various materials and resources on the ALP program.

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 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.

This memo from The Bridgespan Group highlights background materials on the change management process to support teams establishing the governance and meeting cadence for the planning year. This memo also summarizes key lessons learned from experience leading large-scale change management initiatives in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Addressed are the four functions relevant to any change effort: 1) team building, 2) governance and decision making, 3) stakeholder engagement, and 4) cadence of meetings.

Complementary information and strategies to the Changing Course planning guide, including a series of self-reflective questions to assist colleges in identifying their own approach to improving college completion.

MiraCosta Community College's Credit ESL Program focuses on providing advanced skill development and College Academic Preparation to students whose first language is other than English.  This program provides students with the tools and techniques they need to reach their goals, whether they be academic preparation, workplace improvement, or personal enrichment.

Upward Bound at Laredo Community College enhances students’ academic skills to them to successfully transition from high school to college to pursue a post-secondary education. This college prep program is specifically designed for first-generation and/or low income students and operates year round.

Chabot Community College's English Department offers an example of department-wide articulated assumptions where all remedial English courses, regardless of the level, focus on the same kinds of competencies required for college-level English.

Community college ESL programs vary widely in the structure and support they provide to students. This report summarizes the major findings of a series of studies on the nature and effectiveness of selected ESL programs, identifying and describing promising strategies for improving ESL instruction that are too often absent from developmental courses. These strategies relate to high-intensity instruction, authentic experiences, attention to diversity of learners, and increased transition rates. Additionally, the author discusses how ESL programs often lack student services, a professionalized faculty, strategic planning, and adequate standardized assessments — all of which require proper funding, clear program goals, and a network for ESL programs.

In the current developmental education model, few students who start more than one level below college proficiency ever complete their developmental education requirements. This report discusses the role of state policy in six Achieving the Dream states, presenting a framework that identifies the highest-impact policy levers for improving developmental education delivery and outcomes. The framework addresses three major components: a data-driven improvement process, a state-level innovation investment strategy, and policy supports for innovation and scale-up of effective practices.

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.

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.

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.

The income gap between individuals with and without a postsecondary education is wide and increasing rapidly. This brief discusses the learning needs that ESL adult learners have when transitioning from ESL programs to postsecondary education. The author describes research-based strategies ESL teachers can use to support students’ transitions in academic programs as well as recommended ESL program features for administrators to consider when designing supportive transition programs from ESL to college-level coursework.

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.

Researchers and practitioners needing to understand student course-taking patterns and programs of study at community colleges don’t have an easy task given that students don’t declare a major and often take a diverse selection of courses. This paper explores the development of a tool that would assist in understanding course-taking activity of community college students at the college system or individual institution level. The authors explain a methodology involving college transcripts and a clustering algorithm that clusters similar patterns of course taking to understand demographics, and completion and transfer rates in different programs of study.

Students who arrive to college academically underprepared and unfamiliar with the college experience have lower student success and completion rates. This report examines a learning community program that placed underprepared freshmen into groups and assigned them to take three classes together, while receiving counseling and tutoring services. Researchers discuss the implementation of the learning community program at one large, urban community college and report on impact findings on students’ college experience, progress through developmental English courses, persistence, and lasting impact beyond the first semester.

Prepared by WestEd, this memo provides a summary of the report "Winning by Degrees: The Strategies of Highly Productive Higher-Education Institutes."

Prepared by WestEd, this memo provides overviews--including research and promising practices--on postsecondary programs that help students who have placed into ESL courses complete remediation courses quickly and enter and complete a program of study. Includes information from an interview conducted with Dr, George Bunch from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

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.

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.

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.

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.

While there is consensus among IHE leaders that higher education in the U.S. needs to alter how it prepares individuals for a changing economy, the role that trustees should play in higher education reform is unclear — even among themselves. For this study, 39 directors and trustees from a wide range of higher education institutions were interviewed and spoke candidly about their views on the role of trustees, with the agreement of remaining anonymous. The overall conclusion is that most trustees are currently focused on the short-term challenges facing their institutions and have not yet fully engaged with broader issues of higher education reform. Trustees also report that at this time, they are not likely to take a leadership role as drivers of higher education reform, nor question policies of the administration. The authors present the viewpoints of the majority and the minority, including areas of agreement and disagreement, about the reform agenda for higher education.

The nation has gaping economic needs that with training and education, could be filled by disconnected youth returning to school. This report offers a model based on successes in creating aligned pathways between community-based organizations, school districts, and postsecondary institutions targeted at putting off-track high school students and returning dropouts back on track through their first year of college. The Back on Track model features enriched and accelerated academic preparation, postsecondary bridging, and first-year supports. The authors present examples of current partnerships that work together to create this bridge, as well as policies to support the scaling up of this model

Compared to traditional college students, working adult students attending community college programs have greater limitations in achieving their postsecondary education and training. This study investigates each of the fifty states and examines state initiatives and policies focused on increasing access and affordability of higher education that lead to occupational advancement. The authors identify common ways that states support these institutions in increasing access for nontraditional students, and in expanding as well as improving financial aid options targeting nontraditional students and specific occupational fields for workforce development particular to that state.

Adult learners pursuing their postsecondary degrees after time away from the classroom need additional support to stay in school, different from the traditional student. Common strategies for helping adult learners achieve their goals are innovative academic programming, increased and creative financial aid opportunities, and support services. This study examines another strategy, Prior Learning Assessment, or PLA, which is the process by which colleges evaluate for academic credit the college-level knowledge and skills an individual has gained outside of the classroom such as through employment, the military, or hobbies. The findings show positive outcomes for PLA students who, compared to non-PLA students, had higher degree-earning rates and earned degrees in less time, saving on costs to the individuals and the institutions. Additionally, the report discusses PLA methods offered among the 48 colleges and universities studied, characteristics of the adult learners who participate in PLA, and their college-going behavior.

After two years into a three-year grant, this two-page document was prepared to share the progress made by the Oregon Department of Education in building its longitudinal data system with consideration to its end-users. The project implemented several activities including: gathering user information via focus groups, designing professional development for various user groups, collaborating with other state initiatives to coordinate and streamline student data, and planning for the future.

At the same time that the nation’s community colleges are being challenged to shift their focus from increasing enrollment rates to improving completion rates, these institutions are also facing a reduced budget with which to make those changes. This is a report based on a study that explored the needs of community colleges for improving student success rates and whether external service providers could partner with them to improve student outcomes. The authors discuss 1) the four key areas of needed support to improve community college capacity—institution redesign, use of data, student services and structures, and professional development; 2) the findings which indicate that a robust service provider market can play a viable and cost-effective role in improving completion rates; and 3) recommendations that funders, providers, colleges, policymakers, and intermediaries can implement to enable conditions for increasing the supply of effective service providers available to community colleges.

Transfer and articulation policies are intended to improve the rates of student transfer from community colleges to four-year colleges, but they may actually play a role in minimizing institutional costs. This brief examines the literature and finds that transfer and articulation policies between community colleges and four-year colleges does not seem to correspond with better outcomes for students. However, the authors discuss how these policies serve valuable administrative function and can maximize cost benefits by promoting consistency and reliability across all institutions. Specific examples include broadening the type of institutions that participate in the agreements and establishing a common course numbering across institutions to facilitate transfer of credits.

Currently, the federal approach to measuring community college completion assumes that students will earn a credential within three years, but this assumes a college-attending behavior similar to a traditional full-time student, and does not account for older or part-time students who work and raise families while attending school. This policy brief discusses how the current federal method for measuring community college performance is too simplistic, and describes a modified approach to defining and measuring student success with more accuracy. Based on the pilot project of the Achieving the Dream Cross-State Data Work Group, the author reports on the group’s methodology for analyzing postsecondary data, the results of their testing process, and how the findings can lead to changes in state policy concerning increased community college success.

Our nation’s ability to recover economically and ensure a livable income for low-skilled workers is dependent upon building a more skilled workforce. Postsecondary institutions play a critical role in training and educating individuals for this new workforce, but they need to improve the success rates of these students. According to this policy brief, states need to establish an effective state data system to measure postsecondary student performance and track outcomes, especially for nontraditional students and low-income workers, and to use that data to improve these students’ outcomes. The author examines possible barriers states may encounter, presents ways to assure a K-20 longitudinal data system, and offers recommendations for policy action and next steps for building or reforming a student data system.

Today’s college student is working while attending school, and as a result, is taking longer to earn a degree or complete courses for transfer — provided they don’t lose momentum and drop out first. In this article, the author examines how the new majority of postsecondary students are balancing work and college, and proposes new policies that boards of trustees can enact to specifically reduce the time it takes for a student to graduate. To save students time, the author advocates for fewer choices in the following ways: 1) Students sign up for a “program” with a set pathway of course requirements rather than sign up for individual courses that may delay progress, and 2) Colleges offer more structured scheduling, enabling students to plan for daily class attendance rather than anticipating an unpredictable schedule semester to semester.

The new American majority of students on college campuses, especially community colleges, is a population balancing work and school within an outdated system that was designed for full-time, residential students. This policy brief describes how college completion rates can be improved if students took less time to graduate, which could be achieved if schools offered more directed program choices and fewer individual course options. The author maintains that state leaders and policymakers, as well as leaders of higher education, must enact reform efforts that are systemic and replicable toward changing the structure of community colleges, such as those in Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee.

Among states, there is growing interest in providing new incentives to community college systems for improving college completion, but there are few resources available. This brief presents a set of tools that can help states design performance-based funding systems to influence student and institutional behavior. The first tool is a set of reflections based on Ohio’s new performance-based funding system that shifted its focus from course enrollment to course completion. The second tool is a set of recommendations to guide state leaders through design and implementation issues, especially related to challenges of equity, sustainability and political buy-in. The last tool is a matrix that summarizes similarities and differences among the Achieving the Dream states that have performance-based funding for their community colleges.

Contrary to its original intentions, California’s Master Plan for Higher Education may actually be contributing to the state’s poor record of baccalaureate attainment. This paper presents four-year college enrollment and B.A. attainment data, and makes the case that California has not kept pace. Given the reality of cost feasibility, the authors review a variety of baccalaureate reform models — new types of intermediary, “hybrid” institutions — used in other states that California might consider for restructuring its existing postsecondary system and creating a more seamless process for students.

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.

While innovation is necessary in reforming developmental education, it has to be part of a larger system that supports it. This report, the first of a series, introduces the notion that there are effective, innovative instructional reforms that could be replicated and scaled up under the right conditions. In addition to describing three examples of these instructional reforms, the report discusses the role of faculty in leading the innovation and the importance of an infrastructure that provides ongoing support for practitioners in implementing and sustaining innovative practices.

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.

Community colleges are interested in providing support for students that improves student success, leading to increased completion rates. This report uses data from the Virginia Community College System to examine whether early enrollment in a student success course has positive academic outcomes for students, especially those in developmental education. The study finds that among all students, those who enroll in a student success course are more likely to earn college-level credits in their first year and persist to the second year, but also that students referred to developmental education are more likely to earn college-level credits within the first year if enrolled in a student success course.

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.

Community college completion and transfer rates are startlingly low, and students need for colleges to make learning, especially at the remedial level, meaningful to help students engage and persist. This preliminary report examines the impact of learning communities on students enrolled in developmental education English courses at two community colleges. The authors describe the implementation of learning community programs at these two campuses and their related outcomes — which were found to be inconsistent — in pass rates, credits earned, and enrollment post program. An additional report is anticipated, synthesizing the findings and lessons across six community colleges to better understand the potential impact of learning communities on student progress.

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.

Our nation has been challenged to increase its production of college graduates, but postsecondary institutions are struggling to get students to completion. These guidelines are for leaders and faculty of higher education institutions in their efforts to improve assessment and accountability in their colleges. The principles discussed are aimed at helping institutions set goals for student achievement, use evidence to measure performance, improve outcomes, and report results. 

Community colleges continue to explore innovative approaches to increasing the graduation rates of their students. This report examines one such program: CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), a multifaceted and long-term program with the goal of graduating 50 percent of its students within three years. Aimed at helping community college students graduate, ASAP provides supports and incentives for overcoming barriers to student success throughout the three years. Presenting promising early findings, the authors discuss the effects on full-time enrollment, credits earned and completed developmental coursework, and semester-by-semester retention.

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.

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.

In order to meet the postsecondary degree and certificate target goals set by the Obama administration, numerous states, and some foundations, our nation will need to engage nontraditional students, such as adults, to help meet these goals. Based on conversations held by the Adult College Completion (ACC) Network, this brief discusses the strategies that Network members are using to target adult students, in particular those with prior college credit as a key strategy to improving the completion agenda. From these conversations, five topics emerged: data availability on the returning adult population, partnerships, communication and marketing campaign for outreach, transfer credits, and prior learning assessment. The author discusses and provides promising strategies for each.

Research shows that the more developmental courses a student takes, the lesser the chances of successfully completing a degree or certificate. This report examines the performance outcomes between students enrolled in an accelerated developmental English course (one semester) and those enrolled in a two-semester developmental sequence at one California community college, where students choose between the two pathways regardless of placement score. Using longitudinal data, the author presents findings showing that students who had taken the accelerated English course completed college English at significantly higher rates than those who had taken the developmental sequence. The author discusses implications of developmental education and the need to reform its traditional, multi-leveled sequence to improve student completion rates.

Navigating the college process is challenging enough for most students, but first-generation college students often have additional circumstances that make the process even more challenging. This brief, prepared for institutions working on increasing capacity for supporting underserved students, or Minority-Serving Institutions, provides an overview of existing programs and resources aimed at supporting this particular population of postsecondary students. The report offers promising classroom-based practices and examples from institutions participating in the Walmart Minority Student Success Initiative toward the effort of improving first-generation 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.

This contribution to the Assessment of Evidence series examines the existing research on using classroom pedagogy reforms as a tool to improve student success in developmental math courses. Using research on both K–12 and postsecondary classroom practices to identify six specific types of teaching strategies—student collaboration, metacognition, problem representation, application, understanding student thinking, and computer-based learning—the author explores the underlying theories and observed impact of each. She goes on to provide recommendations for incorporating strategies in developmental math courses.

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.