Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Elabid, H. (2018). The impact of developmental English learning communities on the academic performance of diverse freshmen at an urban community college (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (UMI No. 10826529).
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to examine the impact of the Opening Doors Learning Communities on community college students’ credit accumulation and persistence.
- The study used a nonexperimental design to compare the outcomes of students who participated in the Opening Doors Learning Communities (ODLC) to students who did not participate in the program. Using administrative data from the community college, the author tested for group differences in credit accumulation and persistence.
- When compared to non-participating students, the study did not find a significant relationship between participation in OLDC and student persistence or credit accumulation.
- 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 Opening Doors Learning Communities; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
The Opening Doors Learning Communities
Features of the Intervention
Learning Communities are a strategy for helping students transition into community college designed to increase semester to semester retention rates. They are a group of classes where the professors work together to develop common themes and shared assignments from the courses that draw on multiple disciplines. They also include a designated librarian to support the students and introduce them to the research resources and library at the school. An urban community college that was part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system began implementing learning communities in 2003, through a program called "Opening Doors Learning Communities" (ODLC). The ODLC includes three linked courses that are capped at 25 students. Regular developmental courses can have up to 40 students. Students in OLDC courses are also co-registered in a student development one credit course which promotes time management, goal setting, study habits and requires students to meet regularly with an advisor. Students in both the developmental and college-level courses can enroll in ODLC courses.
Features of the Study
The study used a nonexperimental design to compare the outcomes of first semester community college students who participated in the ODLC to students who chose not to participate. Using institutional records of students enrolled in their first semester in Fall 2010 – 2013, the author randomly selected 240 students who enrolled in the ODLC developmental English course and 240 students who enrolled in the regular developmental English course (60 students in each group per year). The majority of study participants were under the age of 20 (75%), male (58%), and non-Hispanic (74%). The author obtained demographic, participation, and outcome data from the CUNY Office of Institutional Research including application information, college surveys, and transcripts. Outcomes included expected accumulated credits and student persistence (reenrollment in second semester). The author used nonparametric statistics to examine differences between the groups.
Findings
Education and skills gain
- The study found no significant relationship between ODLC participation and credit accumulation.
- The study also did not find a significant relationship between ODLC participation and student persistence.
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 ODLC—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 and did not include sufficient controls. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Opening Doors Learning Communities; other factors are likely to have contributed.