Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Caffey, D. L. (2016). Final external evaluation report: Trade Adjustment and Assistance Community College and Career Training Program Clovis Community College. Fresno, CA: Clovis Community College.
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to examine the impact of Clovis Community College’s (CCC) inclusive Nursing and enhanced Radiologic Technology (RADT) programs on education outcomes.
- The study used a nonexperimental design to compare the outcomes of students who were in the inclusive Nursing or enhanced RADT programs to a comparison group of students.
- The study found that participation in the Nursing and enhanced RADT program was significantly associated with higher program retention rates.
- 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 and did not include sufficient controls. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the inclusive Nursing or enhanced RADT program; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Inclusive Nursing and Radiologic Technology Programs
Features of the Intervention
The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) program provided $1.9 billion in grants to community colleges to improve skills and support employment in high-demand industries, notably manufacturing, health care, information technology, energy, and transportation. Through four rounds of funding, DOL awarded 256 TAACCCT grants to approximately 800 educational institutions across the United States and its territories.
Clovis Community College (CCC) received a TAACCCT grant aimed at improving their Associate of Applied Science in Nursing and Radiologic Technology (RADT) programs. The enhanced “inclusive” Nursing program was developed as an alternative to the “traditional” nursing program in order to target students coming from high school and wanting to complete the nursing curriculum without interruption. It provided an accelerated program, allowing students to simultaneously take general education/prerequisite courses and nursing courses in order to complete the program more quickly. The RADT Digitization of Imaging program integrated new lab imaging equipment to improve the curriculum and allow students to better learn relevant laboratory skills.
Features of the Study
The study used a nonexperimental design to compare the outcomes of students who participated in the inclusive Nursing program or enhanced RADT program to students who did not. For the Nursing program, the treatment group included 27 students who enrolled in the inclusive Nursing program in the 2013 school year and the comparison group included 36 students who enrolled in the traditional Nursing program during the same year. For the enhanced RADT program, the treatment group included 26 students who enrolled in the enhanced program in the 2013 and 2014 school years and the comparison group included 36 students who enrolled in the 2010 and 2011 school years. Outcomes included program completion, program retention, and credit hour completion. Using CCC’s institutional data system and data from department staff, the author conducted statistical tests to examine differences in outcomes between the groups.
Findings
Education and skills gain
- The study found that enhanced RADT participation was significantly associated with higher retention rates, with 96% of treatment students retained in the program after one year compared to 76% of comparison students.
- However, the study found no significant relationship between enhanced RADT participation and program completion or credit hour completion.
- For the Nursing program, the study did not find any significant relationships between inclusive program participation and the education outcomes.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The author did not account for preexisting differences between the groups before program participation or include sufficient control variables. These preexisting differences between the groups—and not the inclusive Nursing or RADT programs—could explain the observed differences in outcomes. Therefore, the study is not eligible for a moderate causal evidence rating, the highest rating available for nonexperimental designs.
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 and did not include sufficient controls. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the inclusive Nursing or enhanced RADT program; other factors are likely to have contributed.