Citation
Hodara, M., & Jaggars, S. (2014). An examination of the impact of accelerating community college students’ progression through developmental education. Journal of Higher Education, 85(2), 246-276.
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to examine the impact of accelerated developmental writing and math sequences on enrollment, persistence, and academic achievement outcomes at six City University of New York (CUNY) community colleges. At some colleges, students assigned to the lowest level of developmental writing or math were required to complete an accelerated sequence of only one or two developmental courses before moving to college-level courses, compared with the longer sequence of two or three courses required at other colleges.
- This nonexperimental study used regression analysis and propensity-score matching to estimate the impact of accelerated developmental writing and math sequences among students in need of developmental courses from 2001 to 2007. CUNY’s Office of Institutional Research provided students’ data. The study reported outcomes three years after students first enrolled in community college.
- The study found that students in the shorter math and writing sequences were more likely to enroll in and pass college-level math and writing. Students in the shorter writing sequence earned more credits, on average, within three years and were more likely to earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree within five years than those in the longer writing sequence. Among students who enrolled in college English, however, those who had taken the shorter English sequence were 2.5 percentage points less likely to pass college English.
- The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is moderate because it was based on a well-implemented nonexperimental design. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the accelerated developmental education program, but other factors might also have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Accelerated Developmental Education
Features of the Intervention
The CUNY community colleges in this study varied in the number of courses required in their developmental writing and math sequences. Some colleges required only one writing course worth 6 or 7 credits. The study considered this an accelerated developmental writing sequence, compared with the longer sequence of two courses worth 8 to 12 credits implemented at some colleges. An accelerated developmental math sequence included two courses with 3 to 6 arithmetic credits and 4 to 6 algebra credits. The longer sequence comprised three courses worth 3 arithmetic credits and 8 algebra credits. The study focused on students who scored a 2, 3, or 4 on the American College Test essay exam or who scored 17 to 26 on the Computer Adaptive Placement Assessment and Support System pre-algebra and algebra placement exams, and who therefore placed into the lowest level of developmental writing or math.
Features of the Study
The study used regression analysis and propensity-score matching to estimate the impact of accelerated developmental writing and math sequences on enrollment, persistence, and academic achievement among students in need of developmental courses who enrolled from 2001 to 2007. The study compared students assigned to accelerated sequences of developmental courses (the treatment group) with students assigned to longer developmental course sequences (the comparison group). Data were provided by CUNY’s Office of Institutional Research and included 10 years of student-unit record college applications, placement exams, course transcripts, and degree attainment. The college application data included demographic information, financial aid status, grades, and test scores. Outcomes were examined three years and five years after students first enrolled in community college.
Findings
- Students in the shorter writing sequence were 9.7 percentage points more likely to enroll in and 6.1 percentage points more likely to complete college English courses than students in the longer writing sequence, significant at the 1 percent level.
- Similarly, students in the shorter math course were 3.5 percentage points more likely to enroll in college math and 3.0 percentage points more likely to complete it, significant at the 1 percent level.
- Students in the shorter writing sequence completed, on average, 2.1 more credits within three years than those in the longer sequence. They also were 2.2 percentage points more likely to earn an associate’s and/or bachelor’s degree within five years. Both of these results were significant at the 1 percent level.
- Among students who enrolled in college English, students who had taken the shorter English sequence were 2.5 percentage points less likely to pass college English, compared with the matched sample of those who were in the longer sequence. This difference was significant at the 5 percent level.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
There were some differences in the curriculum of the longer and shorter sequences. Thus, the study measured the impact not just of longer or shorter sequences, but also of these curriculum differences.
In addition, the study authors estimated multiple related impacts on outcomes related to progress toward degree completion. Performing multiple statistical tests on related outcomes makes it more likely that some impacts will be found statistically significant purely by chance and not because they reflect program effectiveness. The authors did not perform statistical adjustments to account for the multiple tests, so the number of statistically significant findings in these domains is likely to be overstated.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is moderate because it was based on a well-implemented nonexperimental design. This means we are somewhat confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the accelerated developmental education program, but other factors might also have contributed.