California is projected to fall 1.1 million bachelor's degrees short of economic demand by 2030. Expanding access to higher education could help shrink the gap, but California also needs to boost the likelihood that students who enroll in college will stay on track to earn degrees. The share of adults with bachelor's degrees is slightly larger in…

This study examines the impact of a "natural experiment" that gave students the choice to place into or out of developmental math because of an unintended mistake made by a community college. During self-placement, more students chose to enroll in gateway college- and transfer-level math courses, however, greater proportions of female,…

Faced with shrinking state funds, rising student demand, high failure rates, and racial and ethnic achievement gaps, the introductory microeconomics course became a bottleneck for business students at California State University, Northridge. The Economics Department responded with the creation of a flipped, introductory microeconomics course where…

This document is intended to be a companion piece for a report entitled "What Happens When Colleges Broaden Access to Transfer-Level Courses? Evidence from California's Community Colleges." It contains the technical appendices as follows: (1) College Profiles; (2) Additional Insights from our Interviews; (3) Data and Methods; (4) Caveat…

Using linked, individual-level data from a large metropolitan K-12 district and a large urban community college district in California, we examine whether indicators of college-readiness for graduating high school students who were initially classified as English Learners (ELs) are honored in community college course placement. In particular, we…

In its current form, developmental education may be one of the largest impediments to success in California's community colleges. Each year, hundreds of thousands of students are deemed underprepared for college and placed into developmental (also known as remedial or basic-skills) courses. Yet most never earn a degree or certificate, or transfer…

This document presents the technical appendix that accompanies the full report, "Preparing Students for Success in California's Community Colleges." The appendix includes Data and Methods. [Supported with funding from the Sutton Family Fund. For the full report, see ED570976.]

Recent efforts to improve developmental education have included references to learning communities as examples of effective practices in basic skills education. The study "Basic skills as a foundation for student success in California community colleges" (2007) cited research from Tinto that suggested that learning communities and…