A Random Assignment Evaluation of Learning Communities at Kingsborough Community College—Seven Years Later

Abstract

Community colleges play a vital role in higher education, enrolling more than one in every three postsecondary students. While their market share has grown over the past 50 years, students' success rates remain low. Consequently, community college stakeholders are searching with mounting urgency for strategies that increase rates of success. We evaluate the effects of one such strategy, learning communities, from a randomized trial of over 1,500 students at a large urban college in the City University of New York (CUNY) system. We find that the program's positive effects on shortterm academic progress (credit accumulation) are maintained seven years after random assignment. We find some limited evidence that the program positively affected graduation rates, particularly for those students without remedial English needs, over this time period. While there is not clear evidence that the program improved economic outcomes, this article concludes by offering sobering reflections on trying to detect the effects of higher education interventions on future earnings.

The Impact of Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Education

“…Portions of this article (in particular, the Introduction and background sections titled "Learning Communities," "Why Learning Communities Are Expected to Work," and "Evidence of the Effectiveness of Learning Communities") are similar or identical to a recently published article sharing the same lead author: Weiss, Mayer, et al (2014). Portions of this article (in particular, the Introduction and background sections titled "Learning Communities," "Why Learning Communities Are Expected to Work," and "Evidence of the Effectiveness of Learning Communities") are similar or identical to a recently published article sharing the same lead author: Weiss, Mayer, et al (2014).…”

A Holistic Conception of Nonacademic Support: How Four Mechanisms Combine to Encourage Positive Student Outcomes in the Community College

“…In a study of six learning communities conducted by the National Center for Postsecondary Research, one learning community created social relationships via linked courses but also helped students gain college know‐how via enhanced advising and a student success course and made college life more feasible via textbook vouchers. The impact of participation on progression toward a degree was larger at this site than at others in the study (Visher et al., ); subsequent follow‐up research found that the positive impact on credit accrual was sustained for up to 7 years (Weiss et al., ).…”

What's in a Name? The Challenge and Utility of Defining Promising and High‐Impact Practices

“… § Sources : Bers & Younger, ; CCCSE, ; Cho & Karp, ; Crisp, ; Crisp & Taggart, ; Hatch & Bohlig, ; Jaggars, Hodara, Cho, & Xu, ; Karp, Raufman, Efthimiou, & Ritze, ; Kuh, ; Melguizo, Kienzl, & Kosiewicz, ; Mitchell, Alozie, & Wathington, ; Taggart & Crisp, ; Weiss et al., .…”