The Learning Communities Demonstration:
Rationale, Sites, and Research Design (An NCPR Working
Paper). By:
Mary G. Visher, Heather Wathington, Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, and Emily
Schneider with Oscar Cerna, Christine Sansone, and Michelle Ware (May
2008).
Learning communities are a popular strategy that community colleges nationwide have embraced in support of developmental students. In a learning community, a cohort of students takes two or more courses linked by integrated themes and assignments that are developed through ongoing faculty collaboration. While the number of learning community programs continues to grow, rigorous studies measuring their effectiveness are limited. To address this need for evidence, the Learning Communities demonstration, launched in 2007, uses random assignment to test models of learning communities at six community colleges. This working paper describes the study's design, including a summary of the theoretical and empirical research relevant to learning communities, descriptions of the sites and their learning community models, the random assignment procedures, and plans for data analysis. Download the PDF
The Impact of Postsecondary Remediation Using a Regression Discontinuity Approach: Addressing Endogenous Sorting and Noncompliance (An NCPR Working Paper). By: Juan Carlos Calcagno and Bridget Terry Long (April 2008).
This paper reports
findings from a study that uses a detailed dataset and a regression
discontinuity design to identify the causal effect of remediation on the
educational outcomes of nearly 100,000 college students in Florida. The paper also
discusses concerns about endogenous sorting around the policy cutoff, which
poses a threat to the assumptions of the regression discontinuity model in
multiple research contexts. Download the PDF
What Is Known About the Impact of
Financial Aid? Implications for Policy (An NCPR Working
Paper). By: Bridget Terry
Long (April 2008).
Years of research
support the notion that financial
aid can influence students’
postsecondary decisions, but questions remain about the best ways to design and
implement such programs and policies. This paper serves as a discussion of the
research literature on the effectiveness of financial aid with special attention
to its implications for policy. As such, the goal of this paper is to address
issues central to today’s debates about how to improve college access and
affordability while encouraging researchers to continue to advance the line of
inquiry. Download the PDF
Evaluating the Impact of Remedial Education in Florida Community Colleges: A Quasi-Experimental Regression Discontinuity Design (An NCPR Brief). By: Juan Carlos
Calcagno and Bridget Terry
Long (August 2009).
This Brief summarizes findings from a quasi-experimental study examining remedial enrollment and outcomes of community college students throughout the state of Florida (see NCPR Working Paper: The Impact of Postsecondary Remediation Using a Regression Discontinuity Approach: Addressing Endogenous Sorting and Noncompliance). It also places the study in the context of related research and discusses its policy implications. Download the PDF