Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Reading: An Impact Study at Hillsborough Community College

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Learning Communities for Students in
Developmental Reading An Impact Study at
Hillsborough Community College

• Michael J. Weiss
• MDRC
• michael.weiss_at_mdrc.org

• Mary Visher
• MDRC
• mary.visher_at_mdrc.org

Heather Wathington University of
Virginia hw4w_at_virginia.edu
2010 Institute of Education Sciences Research
Conference June 28-30, 2010
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Outline

1. Project Background
2. Site and Study Participants
3. The Program
4. Program Impacts
5. Conclusions

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Community Colleges
Source Provasnik Plant (2008).
http//nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008033.pdf
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The Problem

• Low Rates of Completion
• Nearly half of all students who begin at
  community college do not complete a degree or
  transfer within 6 years.1
• One Major Obstacle Developmental Education
• In fall 2000, 42 percent of first-year community
  college students took at least one developmental
  course.2
• Other estimates suggest that among students whose
  first institution of attendance was a community
  college, over 60 percent take at least one
  developmental course.3

1Hoachlander, Sikora, Horn (2003) 2Parsad
Lewis (2004) 3Adelman (2004)
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Learning Communities (LCs)

• What are they?
• Small groups of students are co-enrolled as
  cohorts in two or more courses
• Thematically linked courses, sometimes sharing a
  curriculum, assignments, and assessments
• Teacher collaboration
• Why might they work?
• Strengthen relationships among students / faculty
• Engage students more deeply with learning

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Past Evidence that LCs work

• Several quasi-experiments
• Tinto and others have found that students in
  learning communities benefit both academically
  and socially in comparison with similar students
  who do not enroll in learning communities
• One Randomized Controlled Trial
• MDRCs study at Kingsborough Community College
  found that the opportunity to participate in a
  learning community improved students college
  experience and improved some educational outcomes

1Tinto, Goodsell-Love, and Russo (1994) Engstrom
and Tinto (2008) Richburg-Hayes, Visher, and
Bloom (2008)
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Learning Communities Demo

• Experiments at 6 Community Colleges
• All random assignment evaluations
• Various learning communities models
• 5 of 6 target students in need of developmental
  education
• Two link developmental math, three link
  developmental reading or English, one links
  courses required by major
• Variation in curricular integration / faculty
  collaboration

For more on LC Demo Study Design
http//www.mdrc.org/publications/476/full.pdf
Scaling-Up Learning Communities
http//www.mdrc.org/publications/550/full.pdf
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LC Demo Sample Buildup
Fall 07 Spring 08 Fall 08 Spring 09 Fall 09 TOTAL
Hillsborough 377 324 370 - - 1071
Queensborough 195 198 372 269 - 1034
Kingsborough 125 160 190 246 196 917
Merced - 176 380 362 506 1424
Houston - 65 375 284 549 1273
CCBC - 122 371 192 398 1083
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About Hillsborough

• Located in Tampa, Fl
• Large, five campus college serves over 20,000
  students, three campuses participated in the LC
  Demo
• Some pre-experimental experience with LCs
• Racially diverse campus 52 white, 18 Black,
  22 Hispanic

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Study Sample
Characteristic Full Sample
Female () 57.0
Over 25 years old 13.7
Race () White Black, Hispanic Other 24.7 36.8 32.4 6.1
Has one child or more () 19.0
1st in family to attend college () 64.1
Employed at baseline () 56.4
Sample Size 1,071
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Hillsboroughs Program

• Co-enrolled students into two classes
• Developmental Reading
• Student Success Course (focusing on acclimation
  to college, study skills)
• Curricular integration
• At first, this was not explicitly part of their
  design
• In time, efforts were made to add this learning
  community component (e.g., staff were sent to
  professional development, workshops were held at
  Hillsborough)

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Program Implementation

• LC basic stats
• 3 cohorts (Fall 07, Spring 08, Fall 08)
• 24 learning communities
• 20 students per LC
• Program uptake was lower than expected
• 31 percent of program group students did not
  enroll in an LC
• Integration of curriculum
• Was not an initial focus at Hillsborough, but
  began to take hold in the last semester of the
  program (third cohort)

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Program ImpactsContinued Enrollment Full Sample
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Program ImpactsCumulative Credits Earned Full
Sample
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Glimmer of hope?Continued Enrollment by Cohort
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Glimmer of hope?Cumulative Credits Earned by
Cohort
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Conclusions

1. This study does not provide evidence that a
   basic learning communities model is any more
   effective than business as usual services
2. Exploratory analyses suggest that a more
   comprehensive learning community may be more
   effective than business as usual
3. Stay tuned! future LC demo reports may confirm
   finding (2), and they will provide a test of
   other learning communities models (some more
   comprehensive) in other contexts!

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Contact Information
Michael J. Weiss, Research Associate michael.weiss
_at_mdrc.org Mary Visher, Senior Research
Associate mary.visher_at_mdrc.org Heather
Wathington, Assistant Professor hw4w_at_virginia.edu
For more information on MDRC and NCPRs work, go
to MDRC http//www.mdrc.org NCPRs
http//www.postsecondaryresearch.org/
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(No Transcript)
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LC Faculty Survey