Getting Back on Track: Effects of a Community College Program for Probationary Students

Rates of graduation and degree completion at community colleges remain distressingly low. This report evaluates two versions of a program designed to help probationary students at community college succeed in school. One version increased the average number of credits earned, the proportion of students who earned a grade point average of "C" or higher, and the proportion who moved off probation

Paying for College Success: An Introduction to the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration

This policy brief describes a demonstration launched by MDRC in four states in 2008 to evaluate whether performance-based scholarships -- paid contingent on attaining academic benchmarks -- are an effective way to improve persistence and academic success among low-income college students. The demonstration builds on positive results from an earlier MDRC study in Louisiana

A Good Start: Two-Year Effects of a Freshmen Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College

Freshmen in a "learning community" at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY, moved more quickly through developmental English requirements, took and passed more courses, and earned more credits in their first semester than students in a control group. Two years later, they were also somewhat more likely to be enrolled in college

Westchester ASAP Replication

MDRC’s RCT evaluation of CUNY’s ASAP found among the largest estimated impacts on credit accumulation and graduation rates of any postsecondary program. The Westchester ASAP Replication, “Viking ROADS”, aims to determine whether CUNY’s ASAP can be replicated at Westchester Community College and whether it will improve academic outcomes for these students. To answer whether Viking ROADS improves academic outcomes, we will estimate the average (across persons) intent-to-treat effect of the program on academic progress and completion through three years after random assignment. Westchester Community College will recruit and enroll about 300 students in fall 2018 and another 300 students in fall 2019, for around 600 students in the study. The study will use a random assignment design to estimate the average causal effect of the opportunity to participate in Viking ROADS