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Getting back on track: effects of a community college program for probationary students

Community colleges are often hailed as open-access institutions, and, arguably, no state has done more to ensure access than California. Unfortunately, community college completion rates are dismally low, in part because many students are underprepared for college-level work. In fact, tens of thousands of students in California are on probation, owing to poor grades or inadequate academic progress, or both, and face a high risk of not graduating. To date, little research has been done on how to help such students get back into good standing. As part of MDRC's multisite Opening Doors demonstration, Chaffey College, a large community college in Southern California, ran two versions of a program that was designed to improve outcomes among students who are on probation. Both versions offered a College Success course, taught by a college counselor, which provided basic information on study skills and the requirements of college. As part of the course, students were expected to visit the college's Success Centers - which were established at Chaffey in response to the school's recognition that many of its entering students were not prepared for college-level work, and where students could receive supplementary individualized or group instruction in math, reading, and writing. The original program, called Opening Doors, was a one-semester, voluntary program. The other version, called Enhanced Opening Doors in this report, was a two-semester program, in which students were told that they were required to take the College Success course. MDRC collaborated with the college to evaluate Opening Doors and Enhanced Opening Doors. Analyses suggest that the greater success of Enhanced Opening Doors might have been driven by the higher rate of participation in the College Success course. Only about half the original Opening Doors program group took the College Success course, compared with approximately three-fourths of the Enhanced Opening Doors program group. Following the study, Chaffey committed to institutionalizing a revised version of Enhanced Opening Doors to more fully implement and enforce the college's probation and dismissal policies, and built upon its experiences in the Opening Doors demonstration to develop a voluntary program, called Smart Start, for new students who are at risk of experiencing difficulties.

Community colleges are often hailed as open-access institutions, and, arguably, no state has done more to ensure access than ...  Show Full Abstract  

Authors: Scrivener, Susan; Sommo, Colleen; Collado, Herbert
Corporate authors: MDRC
Date: 2009
Geographic subjects: North America; United States
Resource type: Report
Subjects: Disadvantaged; Providers of education and training; Students;

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