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Download full textColin Hill; Kayla Warner; Colleen Sommo – MDRC, 2025
Obtaining a degree from a community college is a strong pathway to numerous career opportunities for students from low-income backgrounds. Unfortunately, graduation rates from community colleges are often very low, so many students do not reap the benefits of a degree. With the goal of increasing graduation rates, three community colleges in…
Descriptors: Community Colleges, Graduation Rate, Acceleration (Education), Models
Cyrette Saunier; Susan Scrivener; Austin Slaughter; Noor Amanullah; Sukanya Barman; Cynthia Miller; Colleen Sommo; Erick Alonzo, Contributor; Osvaldo Avila, Contributor; Katie Beal, Contributor; Parker Cellura, Contributor; Ben Cohen, Contributor; Stanley Dai, Contributor; Hannah Dalporto, Contributor; Claudia Escobar, Contributor; Colin Hill, Contributor; Marco Lepe, Contributor; Tiffany Morton, Contributor; Rebekah O’Donoghue, Contributor; Vivianna Plancarte, Contributor; Alyssa Ratledge, Contributor; Elena Serna-Wallender, Contributor; Andrea Vasquez, Contributor; Rae Walker, Contributor; Michelle Ware, Contributor; Kayla Warner, Contributor; Melissa Wavelet, Contributor; Michael Weiss, Contributor; Diane Wren, Contributor – MDRC, 2025
Community colleges and broad-access universities (those with minimally selective admissions policies) provide an opportunity for students across the United States to attain postsecondary degrees and achieve economic mobility. However, graduation rates from such colleges are often low and there are many obstacles that can be difficult to…
Descriptors: Intervention, Academic Persistence, Program Development, Costs
Hill, Colin; Sommo, Colleen; Warner, Kayla – MDRC, 2023
Community colleges in the United States, which serve a disproportionate number of students from low-income backgrounds, can provide a valuable pathway toward well-paying careers. However, graduation rates at community colleges are very low--among first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students who enter public two-year schools, only 29 percent…
Descriptors: Community Colleges, Models, Acceleration (Education), Program Implementation
MDRC, 2020
Low-income students in college face many challenges, including meeting college tuition and related costs as well as competing demands on their time from work, their studies, or family obligations. They may not be prepared for college academically. They may also lack the skills and experiences on which other students rely to help them navigate…
Descriptors: Low Income Students, College Students, Educational Research, Postsecondary Education
Ratledge, Alyssa; Wavelet, Melissa – MDRC, 2021
Across the country, postsecondary education leaders are striving to increase graduation rates. Among a variety of evidence-based strategies to boost those numbers, perhaps the most prominent are multifaceted student support programs. These programs use multiple components over two to three years to address students' barriers to success.…
Descriptors: Graduation Rate, College Graduates, Student Personnel Services, College Students
Stanley Dai; Kayla Warner; Colleen Sommo; Emily Brennan, Contributor; Colin Hill, Contributor; Christine Johnston, Contributor; Rebekah O’Donoghue, Contributor; Michael Weiss, Contributor – MDRC, 2025
In community colleges in the United States, graduation rates remain frustratingly low. Students face many challenges, including the financial costs of attending college; the demands of school, work, and family; complex institutional systems; underfunded student support services; and insufficient preparation for college-level work. To address these…
Descriptors: Community College Students, Community Colleges, Graduation Rate, Paying for College
Colleen Sommo; Austin Slaughter; Cyrette Saunier; Susan Scrivener; Kayla Warner – MDRC, 2023
Community colleges and broad-access universities (those with minimally selective admissions policies) provide an opportunity for students across the United States to attain postsecondary degrees and economic mobility. However, graduation rates from such colleges are often low and there are many obstacles that can be difficult to overcome,…
Descriptors: Community Colleges, Graduation Rate, College Students, Universities
Weiss, Michael J.; Bloom, Howard S. – MDRC, 2022
What works to help community college students progress academically? This brief synthesizes 20 years of rigorous research by MDRC, presenting new evidence about key attributes of community college interventions that are positively related to larger impacts on students' academic progress. Findings: Findings are based on a synthesis of evidence from…
Descriptors: Community Colleges, Two Year College Students, Educational Research, Intervention
Scrivener, Susan; Weiss, Michael J. – MDRC, 2022
Community colleges provide postsecondary education to millions of students in the United States each year, but their graduation rates are low. Many community colleges have implemented interventions to help students persist in college and earn degrees. MDRC has studied many such interventions; several of them improved students' academic outcomes,…
Descriptors: Postsecondary Education, Community Colleges, Graduation Rate, Academic Persistence
MDRC, 2018
Low-income students in college face many challenges, including the cost of postsecondary education and competing demands on their time from work or family obligations. They may not be prepared for college academically. They may also lack the skills and experiences other students rely on to help them navigate college, or the social support that can…
Descriptors: Low Income Students, Postsecondary Education, College Students, Graduation Rate
MDRC, 2018
Graduating from college is a challenge, particularly for low-income students and students who are older, have children, or have jobs. Such students oen face personal, institutional, and structural barriers to success. Two of the most important factors that predict whether students will graduate from community college are the number of credits they…
Descriptors: Graduation Rate, Graduation, Design, Behavioral Sciences
Miller, Cynthia; Headlam, Camielle; Manno, Michelle; Cullinan, Dan – MDRC, 2020
The nation's community colleges play a central role in producing a more educated workforce and promoting social mobility. They serve about 40 percent of all college students and, not surprisingly, they serve a disproportionate number of low-income and underrepresented students. But most students who enter these colleges do not graduate--only about…
Descriptors: Community Colleges, Two Year College Students, Graduation Rate, Acceleration (Education)
Weiss, Michael J.; Scrivener, Susan; Slaughter, Austin; Cohen, Benjamin – MDRC, 2021
Most community college students are referred to developmental education courses to build basic skills. These students often struggle in these courses and college more broadly. CUNY Start is a prematriculation program for students assessed as having significant remedial needs. CUNY Start students delay matriculation for one semester and receive…
Descriptors: Randomized Controlled Trials, Program Evaluation, Developmental Studies Programs, Community Colleges
Morton, Tiffany; Headlam, Camielle; Spencer, Briah – MDRC, 2021
College completion rates are low--nearly 40 percent of students do not earn a degree within six years of enrolling in college. Community college students face the highest hurdles--about 60 percent are without a degree six years after matriculating. Research has identified strategies that institutions can use to improve student success and degree…
Descriptors: Community Colleges, Two Year College Students, Graduation Rate, Educational Attainment
Welbeck, Rashida; Torres, Rosario – MDRC, 2019
A community of belonging. A space to build relationships. The opportunity to have one's success affirmed. These are qualities of many programs targeting men of color that have become fixtures in recent years at colleges and universities around the United States. The Male Student Success Initiative (MSSI) is a five-year-old program at the Community…
Descriptors: Success, Males, Minority Group Students, Two Year College Students
