Publications
Measuring Efficiency in the Community College Sector
This paper gives a preferred economic definition of college efficiency—fiscal and social cost per degree—and assesses the validity of using IPEDS data to calculate efficiency for a community college system.
Adoption and Adaptation: A Framework for Instructional Reform
This edition of Inside Out, a publication of CCRC's Scaling Innovation project, outlines a three-part framework for colleges looking to adopt and adapt a developmental education reform.
CCRC Currents 2012
In CCRC's 2012 newsletter, Director Thomas Bailey discusses CCRC’s research on developmental assessment and placement and how colleges might more effectively assess incoming students.
Employer Perceptions of Associate Degrees in Local Labor Markets: A Case Study of the Employment of Information Technology Technicians in Detroit and Seattle
Based on fieldwork in two distinct labor markets, this paper compares how associate and bachelor's degrees are perceived by employers seeking to hire IT technicians.
Predicting Success in College: The Importance of Placement Tests and High School Transcripts
This paper uses student-level data from a statewide community college system to examine the validity of placement tests and high school information in predicting course grades and college performance.
Do High-Stakes Placement Exams Predict College Success?
This paper analyzes the predictive validity of one of the most commonly used placement exams using data on over 42,000 first-time entrants in a large, urban community college system.
What We Know About Dual Enrollment
This practitioner packet synthesizes CCRC's findings on dual enrollment outcomes, presents a case study, and lays out guiding questions for practitioners implementing dual enrollment programs.
What Explains Trends in Labor Supply Among U.S. Undergraduates, 1970-2009?
This National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper examines working patterns among traditional-age college students from 1970–2009, considers several explanations for the long-term trend of rising employment, and examines whether the upward trend is likely to resume when economic conditions improve.
Doing Developmental Education Differently
This inaugural edition of Inside Out, a publication of CCRC's Scaling Innovation project, provides an introduction to the project and its partners.
Get With the Program: Accelerating Community College Students' Entry Into and Completion of Programs of Study
This paper argues that to improve completion rates, colleges must help students enter programs as soon as possible; it presents a method for measuring program entry and completion rates using transcript data.
High School Dual Enrollment Programs: Are We Fast-Tracking Students Too Fast?
This NCPR working paper uses a regression discontinuity design to gauge the causal effects of dual enrollment on rates of high school graduation, college enrollment, and college completion among students on the margin of eligibility for dual enrollment participation.
The Impacts of State Performance Funding Systems on Higher Education Institutions: Research Literature Review and Policy Recommendations
This paper reviews findings from studies on performance funding programs and provides policy recommendations for overcoming obstacles to the effective functioning of performance funding.
Assessing Developmental Assessment in Community Colleges (Assessment of Evidence Series)
This paper examines the role of entry assessment and its implementation, the validity of common assessments, and emerging directions in assessment policy and practice.
Getting Ready for College: An Implementation and Early Impacts Study of Eight Texas Developmental Summer Bridge Programs
This NCPR report presents the early findings of an evaluation of eight developmental summer bridge programs in Texas (seven at community colleges and one at an open-admissions four-year university).
Determinants of Students' Success: The Role of Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment Programs
Using data from two cohorts of all high school students in Florida and controlling for schools' and students' characteristics, this NCPR working paper examines the relative power of AP and dual enrollment in predicting students' college access and success.
The Content of Their Coursework: Understanding Course-Taking Patterns at Community Colleges by Clustering Student Transcripts
A clustering algorithm is applied to the transcripts of a cohort of first-time students in the Washington State system in order to determine what programs of study they appear to be pursuing.
Different Approaches to Dual Enrollment: Understanding Program Features and Their Implications
This report discusses eight secondary-postsecondary partnerships in California that sought to integrate dual enrollment with a career-focused strategy for engaging struggling students.
Charting Pathways to Completion for Low-Income Community College Students
Administrative data from Washington State is used to chart the educational pathways of first-time community college students, with a focus on young, socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
The Effectiveness of Distance Education Across Virginia's Community Colleges: Evidence From Introductory College-Level Math and English Courses
This study used a statewide administrative dataset to estimate the effects of taking one's first college-level math or English course online rather than face to face, in terms of both course retention and course performance.
The Causal Effect of Federal Work-Study Participation
This journal article uses administrative data from West Virginia to provide the first quasi-experimental estimates of the effect of the Federal Work Study (FWS) program.