Randomized Evaluation of a Community College Intervention Designed to Increase Persistence and Completion

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite high rates of return to a community college education, only a small fraction of students who enroll persist to degree completion. Research has demonstrated that there are four primary reasons for this: tuition and associated costs, insufficient academic preparation, personal non-academic obstacles, and social and institutional obstacles. While survey evidence suggests that the latter two sets of impediments are important, current approaches have focused primarily on costs and academic issues. We propose to evaluate an innovative intervention, Stay the Course, that builds on the existing literature by focusing on the less-studied barriers. Stay the Course assists low-income students in dealing with personal and social barriers to educational attainment in two ways: comprehensive case management and emergency financial assistance (EFA). Case management includes holistic, wrap-around counseling designed to identify students' personal roadblocks and help them manage the educational progress. Professional case managers will coach students through their challenges and help them navigate the community college environment. EFA provides financial support for unforeseen crises threatening a student's ability to stay in school, such as a medical emergency, a broken down car, or lost work due to an illness. The objective of this exploratory study is to examine through a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluation whether this innovative intervention increases community college persistence and completion rates. Eligible students will be randomly assigned to receive either both case management and EFA, just EFA, or neither. The central hypothesis we will test is that an intervention that directly addresses personal, non-academic and social-institutional barriers will increase community college persistence and completion rates. We will test our central hypothesis by pursuing the following two specific aims: 1) to determine the short term impact of providing comprehensive case management and access to EFA on community college persistence and completion rates; and 2) to determine which types of students benefit the most from participation in the program. The expected outcome of the study is that the benefits of case management and EFA services will be quantified using a true experimental design. This study is innovative because it presents an opportunity to evaluate an intervention addressing personal and social/institutional obstacles to degree attainment, areas largely ignored by prior research. I is significant because it will inform local and national efforts to increase degree completion at community colleges as a means to provide greater opportunities for youth in America.