Publications

Drawing on faculty and student survey data and interviews, this brief reports on a pilot study of the SDL Instructional Model and finds that faculty and students perceived the model as valuable and distinct from typical practice in online courses.

This model offers a set of research-based strategies designed to help students more effectively manage their learning in online and hybrid courses, includes guidance for instructors, and provides recommendations for adopting and scaling the strategies across institutions.

This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative brief examines how students develop and use self-directed learning (SDL) skills—motivational, metacognitive, and applied learning processes that enable them to sustain effort, reflect on progress, set goals, and adapt their study strategies.

This journal article reviews evidence on adult learners taking online courses, describes online teaching practices that draw on a self-directed learning skills framework, and outlines an evidence-based embedded coaching program that improves student outcomes.

Using clickstream data from five online courses, this article presents preliminary findings from a rapid-cycle evaluation testing the use of videos and prompts as technology-supported instructional strategies designed to improve self-regulated learning in online classrooms.

This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative report examines how faculty and staff at nine institutions reconsidered students’ online learning needs in the midst of the pandemic, and it explores how supports were offered to help students strengthen their self-directed learning skills.

This Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative brief discusses some of the challenges with online teaching reported by STEM instructors, describes a self-directed learning (SDL) framework to address these challenges, and highlights support strategies that can be integrated into teaching practices.

Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, this report presents findings from research on humanities coursetaking at Michigan community colleges conducted as part of the Strengthening Michigan Humanities project.

This article describes how lesson study—a structured, collaborative professional development intervention—encouraged developmental mathematics faculty at three community colleges to implement new approaches to instruction.

This report describes a project undertaken by CCRC, Education Northwest, and three Oregon community colleges to adapt lesson study for use among faculty teaching a precollege (developmental) quantitative literacy course.

This article argues that by tying instructional improvement efforts to ongoing reforms, colleges may be able to take advantage of structures and mechanisms employed by the reform to make teaching an institutional priority.

This article establishes the importance of adjunct faculty in supporting student success, describes the experiences of adjunct faculty, and offers suggestions for disciplinary societies that seek to meet the needs of adjunct faculty.

This report describes findings from a study of a two-year initiative led by Achieving the Dream to develop and implement strategies to support adjunct faculty in improving student outcomes.

This paper describes the professional development model used in CUNY Start, a program developed at the City University of New York to support entering students identified as academically underprepared in literacy and mathematics.

This paper discusses what is known about humanities coursework in community colleges, outlines key challenges facing humanities education in this sector, and considers approaches to addressing these challenges

Drawing on data from six community colleges, this paper estimates the effects of part-time faculty versus full-time faculty on students’ current and subsequent course outcomes in developmental and gateway courses and explores potential explanations for these effects.

This CAPR report examines how four Texas community colleges implemented Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) and the impact of DCMP on student outcomes over as many as four semesters. Costs of the initiative and student perspectives are also discussed.

This handbook presents a wide range of research on adults who have low literacy skills. It looks at the cognitive, affective, and motivational factors underlying adult literacy; adult literacy in different countries; and the educational approaches being taken to help improve adults’ literacy skills.

This short report provides a rationale for implementing Lesson Study, a collaborative and structured professional development approach, in the community college context.

This paper describes key features of CUNY Start mathematics and how it differs from traditional developmental education.

This paper examines factors within the community college context that affect the experiences and academic outcomes of the English learner population broadly and students who enroll in ESL courses in particular.

Using interview, focus group, and survey data, this brief explores the experiences of part-time faculty at six Achieving the Dream leader colleges working to engage adjunct faculty in student success initiatives.

Using student transcript records and detailed college instructor employment information from one state, this CAPSEE working paper examines whether adjunct faculty have different impacts on student academic outcomes than tenure-track and tenured faculty.

Using interview, focus group, and case study data, this paper documents the perceptions and experiences of faculty members in the midst of statewide reform efforts in Virginia and North Carolina to integrate developmental reading and writing courses.

This paper introduces an online course quality rubric addressing four quality areas, and it examines the relationship between each quality area and student end-of-semester performance.

This article uses qualitative data from a multi-campus study of instructional reform in developmental education to present a typology of questions raised by community college faculty teaching in reformed contexts.

This chapter describes a promising approach to teaching developmental arithmetic and prealgebra and presents findings on a faculty support network that helped instructors adopt new teaching strategies.

This study examines how well students adapt to the online environment in terms of their ability to persist and earn strong grades in online courses relative to their ability to do so in face-to-face courses.

This article discusses community college students’ experiences with online and face-to-face learning and implications for community colleges.

This issue of Inside Out identifies and explores the implications of three faculty orientations toward reform that consistently manifest when an innovation is introduced: ready to act, ambivalent, and reluctant to change.

Using an instrumental variable technique, the authors estimate the impact of online versus face-to-face course delivery on student course performance, as indicated by course persistence and final course grade.

This journal article reviews the evidence for contextualization, an instructional approach that connects foundational skills and college-level content.

Using data from a qualitative investigation of online courses at two community colleges, this paper examines how expectations about the roles of online student and online instructor differ among these two groups.

Melinda Mechur Karp reviews Higher Education in the Digital Age and argues that the author ignores the potential stratifying effects of online learning in higher education.

This practitioner packet summarizes CCRC findings on online course outcomes and presents insights and recommendations for administrators and instructors seeking to improve online student performance.

This chapter reviews the literature on online learning in community colleges, focusing online course-taking patterns, performance in online versus face-to-face courses, and factors affecting online course performance.

This issue of Inside Out explores how developmental education reforms can create opportunities for faculty to engage in professional learning related to instruction.

A study of College 101 courses at three community colleges in Virginia suggests that these courses could have long-term impacts if they focused more on the application and practice of learned skills.

This chapter discusses instructional approaches intended to prepare initially low-skilled college entrants for the reading, writing, and mathematics skills they need to learn from the postsecondary curriculum.

Using qualitative data from California's Concurrent Courses Initiative, this article explores how teaching in a dual enrollment program can foster new approaches to classroom pedagogy.

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.

This inaugural edition of Inside Out, a publication of CCRC's Scaling Innovation project, provides an introduction to the project and its partners.

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.

This review of the postsecondary literature on online learning suggests that online coursework hinders progression for low-income and underprepared students, explores why students might struggle in these courses, and offers suggestions on how public policy and institutional practice could be changed to improve online learning.

This working paper investigates enrollment patterns and academic outcomes over five years in online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses among students who enrolled in Washington State community and technical colleges in the fall of 2004.

This paper reviews the evidence base for pedagogical reforms in the developmental mathematics classroom, examining the theoretical and empirical evidence on six innovative instructional approaches.

This paper provides evidence on the potential efficacy of a contextualized approach in helping students develop an important academic skill, written summarization.

This paper presents findings from a quantitative analysis of the Community College of Baltimore County's Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) for upper level developmental writing students.

This study examines online course taking patterns among students in the Virginia Community College System, as well as retention and performance in online versus face-to-face courses, and subsequent educational outcomes.

This paper demonstrates that a close analysis of the studies of online learning included in a Department of Education meta-analysis reveals no trend in favor of the online course mode.

Relying on data from an in-depth study of 15 community colleges, this article explores online education through the lens of institutional theory.

This chapter discusses the challenge of aligning four necessary elements—instructor approach, student needs, curricular content, and instructional support—in the developmental classroom.

This publication identifies current organizational and instructional approaches to developmental education in community colleges and recommends a process by which colleges can make institutionally appropriate decisions to improve developmental education outcomes.

This journal article details a case study on 15 community colleges across the United States and includes findings revealing important means of increasing students' academic preparedness for postsecondary study.

This report presents the findings of exploratory research designed to identify the characteristics of the outsourcing of instruction at community colleges and the forces that promote or block its spread.

This journal article discusses the performance of community college remedial writing students on a task that required them to compose an informational report from sources.

This nine-part series presents case material from a study of curriculum and pedagogy for integrated instruction in seven community colleges across the country.

This journal article discusses a study that investigated the effects of task repetition on the writing skills of upper level developmental reading students.

This report presents case studies of seven community colleges that used curriculum and pedagogy to integrate academic and occupational education.

This book examines the nature of teaching and the institutional forces that shape it in a variety of course settings, ranging from innovative approaches to complex subjects to conventional didactic instruction.