Underprepared students at community colleges are often assigned to a sequence of developmental education (DE) courses that can substantially delay, or even halt, their progress to degree completion. In 2014, Florida took a drastic step forward when it implemented a comprehensive DE reform. Our findings show large, positive base effects of the…

With the increased numbers of dual enrollment students across the country as well as various state initiatives to increase retention among the student population at large, institutions face great challenges when balancing the many initiatives incumbent upon them. However, Tennessee, a state leader in both the free community college and dual…

Many students enter community college underprepared in math and must take multiple semesters of developmental (remedial) classes. Far too few of these students ever enroll in -- let alone pass -- an introductory college-level math course, but without those credits, they cannot graduate. Among the many reforms practitioners are undertaking to try…

This paper examines the Oregon Promise, a state-level program that exclusively subsidizes in-state community college attendance. I estimate impacts using a difference-in-difference design that links students in states with essentially universal 10th-grade PSAT coverage to national-level postsecondary enrollment data. I find that the implementation…

We provide theory and evidence about how the design of college financial aid programs affects a variety of high school, college, and life outcomes. The evidence comes from an eight-year randomized trial where 2,587 high school ninth graders received a $12,000 merit-based grant offer. During high school, the program increased their college…

The goal of this qualitative, narrative inquiry study was to explore the voices of community college students who have taken Career and Technical Education (CTE) while in high school, investigate if they perceived value from their high school CTE classes, and determine how those experiences impacted their high school and college educations. The…

This policy brief was adapted from "English as a Second Language at California's Community Colleges: An Early Examination of AB 705 Reforms." In Fall 2021, colleges began implementing reforms to English as a Second Language (ESL) that were mandated by Assembly Bill 705 (AB 705). In recognition of the need for effective and equitable ESL…

This project examined the effects of a state-wide curricular shift in developmental education course offerings on student success in college-level courses at public community colleges in Texas. Specifically, it evaluated the efficacy of accelerated developmental integrated reading and writing (INRW) courses compared to non-accelerated, separate…

Objective: The study assesses the impact of dual enrollment participation on remediation and completion for traditional first time, full-time freshmen at a community college in Northeast Tennessee. Method: This study began with the full population of 1,232 students who enrolled between 2008 and 2012 at a community college in northeast Tennessee…

Many students graduate from high school under-prepared for college-level coursework, leading to a large number of students entering college who require remediation in English and mathematics. This study looked at the effectiveness of using EdReady--now offered through ACT as CollegeReady™--as a system for delivering remediation prior to college to…

Corequisite remediation, which mainstreams students deemed academically underprepared into college-level courses with additional learning support, is rapidly being adopted by colleges across the nation. This paper provides the first causal evidence on a system-wide corequisite reform, using data from all 13 community colleges affiliated with the…

Pre-college advising programs exist in most disadvantaged high schools throughout the United States. These programs supplement traditional advising by high school guidance counselors and attempt to help underrepresented and disadvantaged students overcome the complexities of the postsecondary admission and financial aid processes. Existing…

Given the history of poor postschool outcomes for students with disabilities, researchers repeatedly sought to demonstrate the links between predictor variables and postschool outcomes for students with disabilities. This secondary data analysis used the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 to examine the relationship between postsecondary…

Assembly Bill 705 (AB 705) sought to increase successful completion of transfer-level math and English courses by addressing systemic problems in traditional placement policies and curricular structures. The law requires colleges to maximize the probability that students who enroll in credit English as a second language (ESL) courses complete…

These technical appendices are for the report, "English as a Second Language at California's Community Colleges: An Early Examination of AB 705 Reforms." Assembly Bill 705 (AB 705 Irwin) sought to increase successful completion of transfer-level math and English courses by addressing systemic problems in traditional placement policies…