Making Community College More Effective: Some Lessons from Nearly Two Decades of MDRC’s RCTS

The next guest in our PEAR speaker series is Dr. Michael Weiss, Senior Fellow, Postsecondary Education, MDRC.

Location: Horace Mann, Room 150, or on Zoom at https://teacherscollege.zoom.us/j/91744068395

---

Abstract

This talk will provide evidence about predictive relationships between features of community college interventions and their impacts on student progress. This evidence is based on analyses of student-level data from large-scale randomized trials of 39 (mostly) community college interventions. Specifically, the evidence consistently indicates that impacts tend to be larger as the number of intervention components increases and with the degree to which interventions promote full-time enrollment in fall and spring and/or summer enrollment. Less consistent evidence suggests that impacts tend to be larger for interventions that increase advising, tutoring, and, to a lesser extent, financial support. These results provide food for thought about the design of future community college innovations to be tested by researchers or tried by practitioners.