How can community colleges improve completion rates? MDRC’s Opening Doors study, launched in 2003, examines the impact of financial incentives, learning communities and enhanced student services at six community colleges. The study used random assignments and control groups.
Financial incentives worked the best, notes Transitions2Adulthood. Low-income students were given $1,000 a semester if they enrolled at least half time and kept their grades at the C level or higher. Students earned better grades, took more credits and were more likely to enroll full-time. Furthermore, “the positive effects lasted for several more semesters after the stipend ended.”
Remedial students placed in a “learning community” took classes together and received extra counseling and tutoring, plus a textbook voucher.
Learning communities provided an initial boost to this vulnerable group of students, but most of the effects faded over time. While they initially passed more courses, earned more credits, felt more connected to school, and moved through the remedial classes faster than those in the control group, the program didn’t help them stay in school in the long run. There was some evidence, however, that more of this group was enrolled in college at the end of the two-year study period.
More personalized and intensive counseling helped in the short term, but the effect faded. A “success” class for students on academic probation, which covered motivation, time management and study skills and required students to meet with their instructors during office hours, helped students move off probation but didn’t increase persistence in school.
All the programs tested had some positive effects on students, MDRC concluded.
