RESEARCH OVERVIEW

The Community College Research Center (CCRC) is devoted to conducting both quantitative and qualitative research on community colleges and higher education in general, and to the development of practice and policy that expands access to higher education and promotes success for all students. The Center has carried out research projects involving quantitative analysis of student access and completion as well as case studies and institutional analyses of numerous community college activities including student services, developmental education and academic preparation, high school to college transition programs, distance education, the effects of the growing emphasis on accountability, and the question of how reform activities can become institutionalized and brought to scale in the colleges.  

CCRC has developed expert knowledge in the functions of community colleges, the experience of community college students, and the relationships among the colleges and other institutions, including businesses, high schools, four-year colleges, local and state governments, and the federal government. In total, CCRC researchers have conducted research at over 60 community colleges across the country.  

Our current and recently completed research includes the following:

(Categorized by Area of Research)

Developmental Education

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Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) at Community College of Baltimore County. Under ALP, students who place into the highest level of developmental writing enroll directly in English 101 while simultaneously taking an academic support course taught by the same instructor. Recent results find that participation in ALP is associated with substantially better outcomes in terms of English 101 & 102 completion. A cost–benefit analysis found that the benefits of ALP are more than double the costs. Future study will examine the program’s effects and costs with longer-term outcomes, including credential completion and baccalaureate transfer. Lead contact: Davis Jenkins. (Funded by Lumina Foundation.)  

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Content-area reading-writing intervention study. This CCRC study tests the potential efficacy of a self-directed instructional intervention designed to help community college developmental education students prepare for the reading and writing demands of courses in science and other areas. Lead contact: Dolores Perin. (Funded by the U.S. Department of Education.)

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Progression through developmental education. Using longitudinal data from Achieving the Dream and NELS, this study analyzed patterns of student progression from initial referral to developmental education through a sequence of multiple developmental education courses (see CCRC Brief No. 45). Lead contact: Thomas Bailey. (Funded by Lumina Foundation and U.S. Department of Education.) More information: Achieving the Dream

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Gatekeeper course success in Virginia. CCRC is conducting a study of policies and practices that are effective in enabling students who require remediation on entry to community college in Virginia to take and pass college-level math and English. These courses are often referred to as “gatekeepers” because students must pass them to earn a degree. Lead contact: Nikki Edgecombe. (Funded by Lumina and Gates foundations.) More information: Transforming Community Colleges to Accelerate Success for Low-Income Young Adults

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Developmental assessment, placement, programming, and outcomes at CUNY. This study will use student record data from all six CUNY community colleges to examine remedial assessment and placement policies, programmatic interventions, and the impact of each on students, particularly low-income young adults. Lead contact: Shanna Smith Jaggars. (Funded by Gates Foundation.) More information: Transforming Community Colleges to Accelerate Success for Low-Income Young Adults

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Accelerated developmental education models in Colorado. CCRC is examining accelerated programs, including FastStart at the Community College of Denver. Each semester, this program provides intensive accelerated and contextualized instruction with extensive student supports to about 150 students. CCRC will use unit record data to compare outcomes of participants with similar non-participating students. Lead contacts: Davis Jenkins and Shanna Smith Jaggars. (Funded by Gates Foundation.) More information: Transforming Community Colleges to Accelerate Success for Low-Income Young Adults

Dual Enrollment / Transition to College

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Career and Technical Education (CTE) dual enrollment study. This recently completed CCRC study used data from two states to investigate the impact of dual enrollment on CTE student outcomes. Lead contacts: Melinda Mechur Karp and Katherine L. Hughes. (Funded by the U.S. Department of Education.)

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Evaluation of the Concurrent Courses initiative. This study examines the implementation of and outcomes from the Concurrent Courses Initiative, in which eight California secondary-postsecondary partnerships are implementing supportive, career-focused dual enrollment pathways. Lead contacts: Katherine L. Hughes and Melinda Mechur Karp. (Funded by James Irvine Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education.)

Workforce Development

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Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC) study. CCRC is studying how effectively this NSF-funded National Center of Excellence led by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) involves community colleges and industry partners in developing educational models that prepare students in the field of mechatronics. Lead contact: Elisabeth Barnett. (Funded by National Science Foundation.)

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Noncredit community college workforce education. The final report of this recently completed CCRC study discusses the landscape of noncredit workforce education and its relationship to credit occupational programs in terms of state policy and community college practice across all 50 states. Lead contact: Michelle Van Noy and James Jacobs. (Funded by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.)

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IT hiring practices study. CCRC is examining the hiring process for entry-level IT jobs and the role of community college IT programs (see CCRC Brief No. 46) in partnership with the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) at Bellevue College (Washington State) and Macomb Community College (Michigan). Lead contact: Michelle Van Noy. (Funded by National Science Foundation.)

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Structure of effective occupational programs in Washington State. This study will examine the structure and supports provided by occupational programs that are effective in enabling low-income young adults to complete credentials and obtain employment. Lead contacts: Davis Jenkins and Michelle Van Noy. (Funded by Gates foundation.) More information: Transforming Community Colleges to Accelerate Success for Low-Income Young Adults

Data-Driven Reform / Improving Student Outcomes / Institutional Change / State Policy Change

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Transforming Community Colleges to Accelerate Postsecondary Success for Low-Income Young Adults. This project will produce a set of concrete recommendations for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Student Success initiative by early 2012 through a comprehensive assessment of promising strategies for accelerating community college student success and improving institutional productivity. Our assessment will synthesize knowledge gained from past research, ongoing studies by other organizations, and a new set of studies strategically chosen to fill gaps in the knowledge base. The new studies will examine seven types of strategies based on promising but largely untested ideas about what works to increase completion rates for low-income young adults in community colleges; CCRC will examine these strategies in terms of their impact on student success, their cost-effectiveness, and their feasibility. The research team will also identify program characteristics and organizational practices that support effective implementation of each strategy on a large scale. Lead contacts: Thomas Bailey, Davis Jenkins, and Shanna Smith Jaggars. (Funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.)

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Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count.  CCRC plays multiple roles in supporting, studying, and evaluating this fifteen-state, multi-year initiative designed to improve the outcomes of community college students, especially those facing the greatest barriers to success. Lead contacts: Thomas Bailey and Davis Jenkins. (Funded by Lumina Foundation and other funders.)

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Bridges to Opportunity initiative. CCRC examined the effectiveness of this six-state, multi-year initiative for improving the outcomes of disadvantaged adults attending community colleges. In several states, the initiative clearly had a strong impact. A policy guide that discusses achievements and lessons learned from the initiative is available at communitycollegecentral.org. Lead contacts: Davis Jenkins, Thomas Bailey, and Katherine Hughes. (Funded by Ford Foundation.)

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Completion by Design initiative. This major Gates Foundation-funded community college reform effort is designed to increase the proportion of low-income young adults who earn postsecondary credentials and shorten their time to completion. CCRC will provide participating colleges and states with a framework for analyzing their data on student progression and success, conduct analyses of key issues and trends across colleges, and provide technical assistance to colleges on conducting loss-momentum point analysis and using the results to improve programs and services. Lead contact: Davis Jenkins. (Funded by Gates Foundation.)

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Community College Virtual Symposium briefs. CCRC is working in collaboration with MPR, AIR, and Abt Associates to prepare a series of briefs on institutional barriers to community college student success, including solutions or recommendations for overcoming challenges. Briefs will inform a Community College Virtual Symposium to be hosted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) in 2011. Lead contact: Thomas Bailey. (Funded by OVAE.)

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Online learning in Virginia. CCRC will identify variation among individual community colleges in terms of the effectiveness of their online course offerings (compared to similar classroom-based courses) for underprepared students and investigate the pedagogical and institutional characteristics associated with that variation. Lead contact: Nikki Edgecombe and Shanna Smith Jaggars. (Funded by Lumina and Gates foundations.) More information: Transforming Community Colleges to Accelerate Success for Low-Income Young Adults

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Student success courses in Virginia. This study will identify particularly effective and ineffective student success courses, as measured by the rate at which students earn college-level (non-remedial) credits, controlling for student characteristics. CCRC will then conduct fieldwork to examine course-level and institutional-level practices that contribute to positive program impacts. Lead contact: Nikki Edgecombe and Melinda Mechur Karp. (Funded by Lumina and Gates foundations.) More information: Transforming Community Colleges to Accelerate Success for Low-Income Young Adults

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Streamlining the student experience at Macomb Community College (MCC). In collaboration with MCC, CCRC will identify complexities in the institutional system that create confusion or pose other challenges to MCC students, develop recommendations to simplify those systems or otherwise ameliorate their impact on the student experience, and implement and test the effectiveness of changes in institutional policy and process. Lead contact: Shanna Smith Jaggars. (Funded by Kresge Foundation.)

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Evaluation of the Washington State’s Student Achievement Initiative (SAI). CCRC previously conducted a formative evaluation (funded by Lumina Foundation) of this new policy for the state’s community and technical colleges during the 2007-08 “learning year,” the first year of its implementation. The initiative rewards colleges financially for increasing the rate at which students attain key achievement points, such as earning college credits. The current study will assess how and to what extent the SAI model encourages colleges to work to improve student outcomes. Lead contact: Davis Jenkins. (Funded by Gates Foundation).

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Federal Work-Study Program (FWS). CCRC aims to advance understanding of the effects of student employment by providing a direct, quasi-experimental examination of the consequences of FWS on student achievement, persistence, and completion, using nationally representative longitudinal data from the Beginning Postsecondary Student (BPS) database. Preliminary results are expected in May 2011. Lead contact: Judith Scott-Clayton. (Funded by Spencer Foundation).

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Implementation and Impacts of Performance Funding in Three States. This research study examines how different kinds of state performance funding programs have been implemented in three states. The study will explore what steps have been taken to implement these programs, how widely the policy framers’ vision has been communicated and accepted, the impacts of the performance funding programs on institutional outcomes, the main obstacles and unintended impacts that the performance funding programs have encountered, the means that the programs have adopted to monitor and address these obstacles and unintended impacts, and the effectiveness of these countermeasures. Lead contact: Kevin Dougherty. (Funded by Lumina Foundation).

Our completed research projects include the following:

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Academic Preparedness and Remediation

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Accelerating Student Success through Credit-Based Transition Programs

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Advanced Technological Education (ATE) study

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Asynchronous Learning/Distance Education

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Certification and Workforce Development

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Community College Involvement in Adult Education

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Community Colleges and Minority Degree Attainment

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Connecticut community colleges student placement study

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Dual Enrollment Data Systems

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For-Profit Postsecondary Educational Institutions

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Guidance and Counseling

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IB School Partnerships Project

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June 2008 National Community College Symposium

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Learning through Simulated Information Technology Enterprises (L-SITEs)

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Mapping Pathways to Success for Underserved Community College Students

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Minority and Immigrant Access and Achievement at CUNY

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Multiple Missions and Roles of Community Colleges

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Nursing

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Occupational Students in Postsecondary Education

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Outsourcing of Instruction at Community Colleges

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Performance Funding Origins and Demise

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State Policies Supporting Career Pathways

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Student persistence in community colleges

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The NSF's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program

CCRC has extensive contacts and relationships within the colleges through its advisory board of college presidents and its relationships with organizations such as the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the League for Innovation in the Community College, the National Council on Workforce Education (NCWE), the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), and the National Council for Continuing Education and Training (NCCET) among others.  These connections and experiences situate CCRC well for identifying key issues to explore; collecting data with support and involvement from community college personnel; presenting research findings linked to both the context of the local institutions studied and the broader research and policy debate; widely disseminating research findings; and connecting research to practice by engaging the community in the research and the sharing of results. CCRC has also expanded its research agenda to include forms of technical assistance as another way of relating research to practice.

CCRC was established in 1996 by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and is housed at the Institute on Education and the Economy (IEE) at Teachers College, Columbia University.  The continued generosity of the Sloan Foundation and support from other foundations and federal agencies makes the work of CCRC possible.