MPA Learning Outcomes: Does the Cohort Format Make a Difference?

Abstract

As MPA programs, like other programs offering professional degrees, have adopted innovative scheduling arrangements to meet the needs of changing student demographics, cohort formatting—intact student groups in lock-step course patterns—has gained popularity. It is an arrangement that has been noted for promoting in-class interaction, group cohesiveness, student retention, educational access, and resource efficiencies. The study reported here, motivated by the growing need to assess and understand educational outcomes, investigated the learning outcomes of professional degree students in cohort and non-cohort (“stranger”) formats at five universities. MPA cohort students, as well as those in other professional fields, demonstrated cognitive and affective learning gains that are at least equivalent to—and in some limited aspects superior to—traditional, non-cohort programs. However, learning gains for the groups studied varied somewhat when taking into account age, gender, and progress toward degree.