Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Budd, L. B. (2017). The differences in first-year retention rates for adult and traditional community college students enrolled and not enrolled in learning communities. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 10639485)
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to determine the impact of participation in the learning communities on retention rates for community college students.
- The author used a nonexperimental design to compare the enrollment rates of first-time community college students who enrolled in learning communities to those who did not, including one semester and one year after initial enrollment.
- The study found that students who participated in learning communities were significantly more likely to enroll in college one year later.
- The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the author did not ensure that the groups being compared were similar before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the learning communities; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
The learning communities
Features of the Intervention
The community college included in this study is located in the Mid-Atlantic region in a suburban community and serves approximately 65,000 credit and non-credit seeking students. The community college implemented its first set of learning communities (LCs) in 2000, and has expanded the initiative over time. Originally, the community college's developmental LCs paired courses in developmental reading, writing, or math with general education courses. At the time of this study, the LC program had expanded and was offering 25 LCs that included general education, the honors program, and English as a second language in addition to the original LCs for developmental education. Each LC typically enrolls between 15 and 20 students, for a total of approximately 450 students annually.
Features of the Study
The author compared the outcomes of community college students who participated in learning communities to students who did not. Data from the college’s Office of Planning and Research was obtained for 252 first-time students who enrolled in the fall semesters from 2010-2015 (126 community college students in each group). T-tests were used to determine whether students who chose to participate in learning communities had higher rates of enrollment one semester and one year later than students who did not participate in learning communities.
Findings
Education and skills gain
- The study found a significant relationship between participation in learning communities and enrollment rates one year later with 67% of learning community students enrolling the following year compared to 40% of comparison group students.
- However, no significant relationship was found between participation in learning communities and enrollment rates one semester later.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The author did not account for self-selection into the learning communities or preexisting differences between the groups before participation, such as degree of financial disadvantage or measure of academic achievement. These preexisting differences between the groups—and not the intervention— could explain the observed differences in outcomes.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the author did not ensure that the groups being compared were similar before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the learning communities; other factors are likely to have contributed.