Citation
Barnes, R., & Piland, W. (2013). Learning communities’ impact on student success in developmental English. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 37(12), 954-965.
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to evaluate the impact of learning communities (linked courses coupled with special services, such as in-course tutoring) on course passage rates for students enrolled in developmental English courses at an urban community college in Southern California.
- The authors used administrative data to compare outcomes of students enrolled in learning community developmental English courses with those of students enrolled in traditional developmental English courses in the same semesters.
- The study found that students enrolled in the higher-level developmental English learning community, consisting of the linked courses English 051/056, were more likely to pass English 051 than their counterparts who took the course in the traditional format. Students enrolled in the lower-level developmental English learning community (English 042/043) were less likely to pass English 043 than their counterparts in the traditional version of the course.
- The quality of causal evidence provided in this study is low because the authors did not include sufficient controls in their analysis. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to learning communities. Other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Learning Communities
Features of the Intervention
The learning communities assessed in this study consisted of developmental writing and reading courses at one and two levels below college-level English: English 042/043 (two levels below college-level English) and English 051/056 (one level below college-level English). In addition to the linked courses, learning community students received special services such as in-course tutoring. Learning community faculty received professional development and planning time to develop course themes.
Features of the Study
The study used administrative data to assess outcomes for students who enrolled in one of two developmental English course sequences from fall 2007 to spring 2009 at an urban community college in Southern California. The treatment group included all 760 students enrolled in developmental English learning communities during the study period. The comparison group consisted of a random sample of 760 students enrolled in the same developmental courses, sampled so that the number of students in each course number in the comparison group equaled the number of treatment students in each learning community course number. Comparison students took the developmental English courses in the traditional, nonlearning community format. The authors used administrative data in a quasi-experimental comparison group design to compare course completion rates of treatment and comparison students using multilevel chi-square statistics to test for significant differences between the groups.
Findings
- Fewer students successfully completed English 043 in learning community courses compared with the traditional course format.
- More students successfully completed English 051 in learning community courses compared with the traditional course format.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The authors reported that treatment and comparison groups differed in terms of ethnicity and gender, with Latino and female students being overrepresented in the learning community group. However, the analysis did not include sufficient controls for relevant student characteristics, such as pre-intervention academic achievement. This lack of statistical controls raises concerns that factors other than participation in a learning community could account for the observed differences in course passage rates between treatment and comparison students.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence provided in this study is low because the authors did not include sufficient controls in their analysis. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to learning communities. Other factors are likely to have contributed.