ERIC Number: ED533872
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Apr
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Impact Studies at Merced College and the Community College of Baltimore County. NCPR Brief
Weissman, Evan; Cullinan, Dan; Cerna, Oscar; Safran, Stephanie; Richman, Phoebe
National Center for Postsecondary Research
The Learning Communities Demonstration is a national research project that is testing the effectiveness of learning communities in six community colleges across the United States: Merced College in California; The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) in Baltimore, Maryland; Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida; Houston Community College in Houston, Texas; Queensborough Community College in Queens, New York; and Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York. This report describes the findings from the programs at Merced and CCBC, which each offered learning communities for students in developmental English (including both developmental reading and developmental writing) with the goals articulated above in mind. Findings from the studies at the other four colleges can be found in previously published reports from the Learning Communities Demonstration (Visher, Schneider, Wathington, & Collado, 2010 details the early implementation experiences of the six colleges in the demonstration. The other impact studies from the demonstration can be found in Weiss, Visher, & Wathington, 2010; Weissman et al., 2011; Visher & Teres, 2011). Key findings from Merced and CCBC include: (1) Merced and CCBC had relatively ambitious goals for the implementation of advanced, semester-long, developmental English learning communities. In practice, a strong cohort experience was provided to students, and other aspects of the learning communities model were implemented with variation among the different links at each college. Overall, the colleges succeeded in providing the majority of program group students with an experience that was substantially different from that of their control group counterparts; (2) At Merced, learning communities students attempted and earned significantly more developmental English credits than students in the control group during the program semester. At the end of the subsequent semester, they had passed significantly more English courses than their control group counterparts; (3) At CCBC, there were no meaningful impacts on students' credit attempts or progress in developmental English; and (4) On average, neither college's learning communities program had an impact on college registration in the postprogram semester, or on cumulative credits earned. [This paper was written with Amanda Grossman. For "Learning Communities for Students in Developmental English: Impact Studies at Merced College and the Community College of Baltimore County," see ED529251.]
Descriptors: Control Groups, Basic Writing, Community Colleges, Credits, Program Effectiveness, Outcomes of Education, Outcome Measures, Research Projects, Program Evaluation, Developmental Studies Programs, Remedial Programs, Remedial Instruction, Remedial Reading, English Instruction, Experimental Groups, Demonstration Programs, Two Year College Students, Urban Education, Urban Schools, Federal Aid, Cohort Analysis, Academic Support Services, Student Personnel Services, At Risk Students
National Center for Postsecondary Research. Teachers College, Columbia University, Box 174, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027. Tel: 212-678-3091; Fax: 212-678-3699; e-mail: ncpr@columbia.edu; Web site: http://www.postsecondaryresearch.org/
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Two Year Colleges
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED); Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Ford Foundation; Kresge Foundation; Lumina Foundation for Education; Robin Hood Foundation
Authoring Institution: National Center for Postsecondary Research (ED)
Identifiers - Location: California; Florida; Maryland; New York; Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A