Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Community colleges increase access to higher education by offering academic and career and technical credentials at a lower cost than other institution types. However, these institutions are often criticized for low completion rates. This paper aims to review the causal research, published between 2015 and 2025, identifying policies and programs that have been shown to increase persistence and credential completion at public two-year colleges. The extant literature provides the largest body of evidence for three strategies: increasing financial aid, providing corequisite remediation, and offering proactive advising.

Keywords

community college higher education postsecondary education causal persistence degree completion

Social Media

New review of a decade's worth of evidence describes what works to improve persistence and degree completion at community colleges.

Key Points

Financial aid can increase persistence and degree completion at community colleges, but variation in effects across program suggests that policy design matters.

High-touch advising interventions that include wraparound services, such as the ASAP program, can improve persistence and degree completion.

Corequisite developmental education models (academically underprepared students enroll in college-level courses with some form of extra support) can help students overcome academic barriers and pass gateway math and English courses.

State articulation policies (govern how credits are transferred across institutions in a public higher education system) may benefit community college students who intend to transfer to a four-year institution, but transfer rates remain low.

Helping students overcome food insecurity can increase college enrollment and persistence.

Introduction

In 2019, 33 percent of undergraduates in the United States were enrolled in community colleges (i.e., public two-year colleges) (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). At the same time, persistence and completion rates are lower at public two-year colleges than in other sectors. Of those who entered a community college in 2018, only 43 percent had completed a certificate or associate's degree within 6 years compared to 71 percent at public four-year institutions (Shapiro et al., 2022). Though there are multiple, complex reasons for this gap,¹ several policies and programs have been shown to increase persistence and credential completion for community college students.

This review presents the most recent causal evidence supporting policies and programs that improve academic outcomes at community colleges, with a particular emphasis on persistence and degree completion. The goal is to inform future investments aiming to improve student outcomes at these institutions. The number of causal studies exploring the effects of policies and programs on community college students’ outcomes has grown rapidly in the past decade, making the time ripe for a review of the evidence.

Comprehensive Review

This review focuses on causal, peer-reviewed research published between 2015 and 2025 that answers the question: What policies and programs improve community college student persistence and degree completion? Researchers estimate causal effects by leveraging some form of variation that randomly assigns the individuals in their study to a treatment group and a comparison group, such that group assignment is not related to participants’ observable characteristics, such as age or gender, or their unobservable characteristics, such as grit or flexibility. Examples of the type of variation a researcher might make use of include a policy change that makes some individuals newly able to receive services, or an eligibility criterion, such as Adjusted Gross Income, that is not easy for potential service recipients to manipulate but that determines, by some sharp cut-off, who will receive services. In a randomized control trial (RCT), the researchers themselves create the variation by randomly assigning individuals to either the treatment or comparison group.

Causal research exists on a continuum, and a study's place on the continuum is determined by the extent to which the methodological approach results in truly random assignment to treatment. RCTs are considered the gold standard for causal evidence because, at least hypothetically, the researcher completely controls treatment group assignment. The weakest methods for estimating causal effects match individuals in the treatment group with a comparison group based on observable characteristics available in the data. Causal evidence from matching is weak because researchers cannot rule out the possibility that being assigned to the treatment group is associated with unobservable characteristics that may also affect outcomes. Some researchers do not consider evidence from matching to be truly causal, but this review did not exclude these studies.

Reading the articles that fit search criteria² revealed themes– financial aid, developmental education, advising or coaching, community college to university transfer, and basic needs.³ The literature review below is organized around these themes.

Financial Aid

Decades of research have examined the causal effect of improving college affordability, either through price changes or financial aid, on enrollment, persistence and completion (see Dynarski et al., 2023 for a recent review). However, not all studies include community colleges or are able to disaggregate estimates by institution type. Given that community college students are older, on average, than undergraduates at four-year institutions, and are more likely to be juggling multiple responsibilities, it is unclear whether estimates from other institution types apply to this student population.

Two studies make use of variation in the cost of community college resulting from differences between “in district” and “out of district” rates. Lowering the cost of community college by $1000 increases enrollment by between 3.5 and 5 percentage points, as well as increasing the possibility that students transfer to a four-year institution (Acton, 2021; Denning, 2017).⁴ In Michigan, students facing lower tuition rates also complete more semesters and accumulate more credits (Acton, 2021).

In 2023, 6.4 million undergraduates received a federal Pell Grant (College Board, 2024). Though the Pell is sometimes criticized for not keeping up with the rising cost of college, it still represents the largest federal investment in college students, outside of student loans. One study finds that being eligible for Pell increases full-time enrollment in students’ second, third, and fourth semesters (Park & Scott-Clayton, 2018). Though the Pell can ordinarily only be used for two semesters of full-time enrollment, in August 2008, year-round Pell (YRP) became temporarily available (Liu, 2020). For each additional $1000 of YRP, summer enrollment increased by 28 percentage points and diploma completion increased by 1.6 percentage points (Liu, 2020).

State grant aid per full-time equivalent student has been increasing in the past decade, though it makes up a smaller share of undergraduate aid than federal grants or loans (College Board, 2024). Knox Achieves, which served as the model for Tennessee Promise and other state Promise programs, increased associate degree completion for eligible students by .8 percentage points (Carruthers et al., 2023). An early evaluation of the Oregon Promise, a last-dollar scholarship⁵ that provides aid to Oregon residents meeting GPA and Expected Family Contribution (EFC)⁶ requirements, found that the program increased community college enrollment rates for eligible individuals by 5 percentage points (Gurantz, 2019). In Wisconsin, the offer of a last-dollar scholarship targeting technical college students increased degree completion by 1.5 percentage points for students with 0 EFC (Anderson, 2020). A study of Tulsa Achieves, which provided a last-dollar scholarship for student enrolling in Tulsa Community College, found that students eligible for the program were 13 to 14 percentage points more likely to transfer to a four-year institution and 2 percentage points more likely to earn a bachelor's degree (Bell, 2021). Notably, at the time Tulsa Achieves was introduced, some local four-year institutions introduced transfer scholarships particularly aimed at Tulsa Achieves students (Bell, 2021). A study of the effects of the CalGrant on “non-traditionally” aged college students (the average age of students in this study is 27) found no effect of being eligible for the aid on bachelor's degree completion (Gurantz, 2022), though the CalGrant may not be as visible to students as recently introduced, place-based, programs like Tulsa Achieves.

RCTs conducted at four community colleges tested slightly different designs for performance-based scholarships and targeted four sub-groups. The performance-based scholarship interventions consistently improved persistence across the program designs (treated students earned 2 credits more, on average, over 4 years, and were 3 percentage points more likely to graduate after 5 years) and student subgroups. Scholarships, ranging from a few hundred dollars to $1500 per term and were paid out to incentivize academic progress (Mayer et al., 2015).

Despite skepticism about whether information campaigns or text-message “nudges” can change student behavior, the evidence suggests these low-cost interventions may affect some behaviors. One intervention meant to increase summer enrollment randomly assigned students to receive either information about how to enroll and pay for summer classes, or information plus a grant that covered the difference between financial aid received and tuition and fees. The information campaign alone increased enrollment by 5 percentage points, and the information plus the scholarship increased summer enrollment by 12 percentage points (Anzelone et al., 2020). A similar program in Florida meant to encourage students who had stopped out to re-enroll randomly assigned former students to receive text messages with either information about re-enrolling or with information and a one-course waiver. Former students who were offered the waiver were 1.5 percentage points more likely to re-enroll and .5 percentage points more likely to re-enroll full-time (Ortagus et al., 2021). In another study, a text message campaign reminding students to complete their Free Application for Federal Student Aid, required for students to receive most forms of financial aid, increased persistence into the second year by 14 percentage points (Castleman & Page, 2016).

Community college students are price sensitive, and reducing the cost of college, either by lowering the price directly or by providing financial aid, can increase persistence and credential completion.

Remedial and Developmental Education

Over half of students enroll in community colleges academically unprepared for college-level coursework (Chen, 2016). As a result, many students are placed into some form of developmental education, particularly in mathematics, reading, and writing. Students enrolling in a community college are given a placement test before they can register for classes. Historically, students scoring below a certain cut-point would be placed into a series of pre-college level mathematics and/or reading and writing courses. Students placed into the course at the top level of the series would have only one course to take before they could retake the placement test and potentially start college-level courses, whereas students placed into a lower-level course would have to work their way up through the series before accessing college courses. This approach to developmental education increases time to graduation by forcing students to spend multiple semesters in developmental education. It is also costly for students because they are charged the same as for college-level courses, although they are not receiving credit (Bettinger et al., 2013).

Perhaps because this traditional way of providing developmental education in multi-course sequences is costly to students and taxpayers (Scott-Clayton et al., 2012), and the evidence suggests students placed in these courses do not complete them or persist on to college level classes (Bettinger & Long, 2009; Boatman & Long, 2018; Clotfelter et al., 2015; Martorell & McFarlin, 2011; Scott-Clayton & Rodriguez, 2015), multiple states have been redesigning developmental education. New approaches include corequisite models and computer-assisted learning (Bettinger et al., 2013). Two rigorous studies of technology-assisted developmental education do not find strong evidence of positive effects (Kane et al., 2021; Weiss & Headlam, 2019). However, a growing body of evidence suggests that corequisite models, in which students are taking college-level classes while receiving some form of extra support, are a promising alternative to traditional developmental education.

In the Community College System of Baltimore's Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) students who place into developmental English are enrolled in an introductory college English class as well as an extra course that meets directly after the college course. A study using propensity score matching compared students enrolled in the ALP course with observationally similar students who chose to enroll in the traditional developmental English course (Cho et al., 2012). Students in ALP were more likely to complete college English and persist to a second year than those enrolled in developmental English. A study of corequisite math courses in Texas found that students were 18 percentage points more likely to enroll in college mathematics in first year and 13 percentage points more likely to pass college math in the first year. Corequisite students were also three percentage points more likely to pass a higher math course within the first year (a class beyond the first college mathematics class) than students in traditional developmental education courses (Meiselman & Schudde, 2021).

Finally, a RCT evaluation of the effect of participating in a corequisite statistics course at community colleges in the City University of New York (CUNY) found that students in the corequisite course passed statistics at a 16 percentage point higher rate than those placed into the standard developmental course (Logue et al., 2016, 2019). A follow-up study also found evidence of positive effects of participating in corequisite instruction on degree completion (Logue et al., 2019). A RCT evaluation of the effects of participating in corequisite English remediation at five community colleges in Texas found that enrolling in corequisite instruction, rather than traditional developmental English, led to an 18 percentage point increase in the probability of passing college-level English within the first two years of enrollment. Students in the corequisite courses also earned an additional 1.5 credits, on average, by the end of year two (Daugherty et al., 2021).

Traditional models of developmental education did not have positive effects on student outcomes. A growing body of evidence suggests that corequisite models, in which students placed into developmental education enroll in college-level courses but with some form of extra support, may be a more effective way to help students achieve college readiness.

Advising and Student Services

The Accelerated Study in Associate's Program (ASAP) is a multi-component intervention that centers advising. The program was first piloted at CUNY and originally aimed at improving outcomes for students who placed into developmental education (Scrivener et al., 2015). ASAP requires students to enroll full-time, take developmental education classes as soon as possible, and graduate within three years. Students who commit to the program receive comprehensive advising from an advisor with a small caseload, as well as tutoring and career services. They are placed into courses with other ASAP students and a study skills course for their first year. Students also receive tuition waivers to cover any unmet need, metro cards, and free use of textbooks (Scrivener et al., 2015). A RCT evaluating the effects of ASAP at CUNY found that participants completed nine more credits, were 18 percentage points more likely to complete a degree, and were 28 percentage points more likely to transfer to a four-year institution.

The ASAP intervention was replicated in Ohio with some small changes to respond to the different context (such as replacing the metro card benefit in CUNY's program with a $50 gas or grocery card, offered to students each month if they met requirements) (Miller et al., 2020). Students participating in ASAP Ohio were 12 percentage points more likely to enroll in the second semester, 16 percentage points more likely to graduate within three years, and 6 percentage points more likely to transfer to a four-year institution (Miller et al., 2020).

The One Million Degrees Program, which includes some of the same components as ASAP (last-dollar scholarship, skill-building workshops, advising, and coaching⁷) also improves persistence among community college students (Bertrand et al., 2022; Hallberg et al., 2023). An offer of the program increased community college enrollment by 5 percentage points and associate degree completion by 2 percentage points. On the other hand, the Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success (SUCCESS) Program, which included coaching, monthly financial incentives and encouraged students to enroll full-time, did not result in positive impacts on persistence or degree completion (Sommo et al., 2023). The authors suggest null findings might be due to the intervention being implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, and variation in service availability across sites (Sommo et al., 2023).

The Future Connect intervention at Portland Community College, which includes a last-dollar scholarship, other financial resources (such as an emergency fund), a college success coach, and a career-success course had positive impacts on first-year GPA and credits earned, persistence to the second year, and graduation or transfer within three years (Hodara et al., 2016). In a study of the Detroit Promise Path (a last-dollar scholarship), adding a coach had small but statistically significant effects on second-semester persistence and credits earned (Ratledge et al., 2021). A study comparing proactive and reactive approaches to coaching for students receiving Tennessee Promise (Research for Action (RFA), 2023) shows positive effects of proactive coaching on degree completion and transfer, but the effects are not statistically significant (RFA, 2023).

Two evaluations of interventions in which coaches reached out to students identified by an early-alert system found no effects of the offer of coaching or only small effects for a particular subgroup (Dwyer et al., 2019; Hall et al., 2021), though both studies use matching methods and cannot rule out selection bias. In contrast, a RCT evaluation of the Carolina Works Initiative, which combined an early alert- system with proactive success coaching, found that students who engaged with the coach were more likely to persist through their second year (Valentine & Price, 2023).

Improving access to high-quality advising can increase persistence and degree completion for community college students. The largest impacts come from multipronged interventions that combine easier access to advising with financial supports (Miller et al., 2020; Scrivener et al., 2015).

Community College to University Transfer

Many students who enroll in community colleges state that their goal is to eventually transfer to a four-year institution and earn a bachelor's degree; however, few manage to do so. To streamline in-state transfer, many states have implemented articulation policies that indicate how credits earned at one institution are to be applied at all public institutions within the state (Whinnery & Peisach, 2022). The design of transfer and articulation agreements varies across states (Whinnery & Peisach, 2022).

A small number of studies provide evidence as to whether articulation policies improve transfer rates. One study uses propensity score matching to compare outcomes of students who completed the Ohio Transfer Module (OTM) with those who did not (Boatman & Soliz, 2018). Completing the OTM, which guarantees the transfer of general-education credits earned at one institution to any other public higher education institution in the state, increased students’ probability of successfully transferring; however, few students (15% of the sample) were able to complete it.

A newer type of articulation policy aims to provide students with more structured guidance around transfer (e.g., California's Associate Degrees for Transfer, or ADTs). ADTs guarantee that courses taken while completing an associate's degree in specified programs of study will transfer in their entirety (including major-related courses) to fulfill the lower-division requirements of a bachelor's degree. California's ADTs, and similar programs in other states, should improve on previous statewide transfer policies by standardizing lower-division requirements in specific major areas across state institutions. Ideally, they may also reduce course-taking ambiguity by providing students with major-specific maps or course-taking guides.

Introducing statewide transfer guides in Ohio induced more students to take prerequisite coursework that would prepare them to enter targeted majors (Spencer, 2019). Students were more likely to take courses in history, which was one of the targeted majors, but not courses in economics or business (two non-targeted majors). In California, the introduction of the ADTs increased associate degree attainment in the departments offering them (Baker, 2016). Community college students in ADT-targeted majors also had a slightly higher probability of transferring (Baker et al., 2021). Moreover, for students who transferred, ADTs reduced the number of excess credits students earned as well as the overall time these students spent in college.

The most rigorous causal evidence supports articulation policies that combine lower-division course sequences that are guaranteed to transfer and easy-to-use course guides, although clearly this type of study needs to be replicated in contexts outside of California. The ADTs may produce only modest improvements in community college to university transfer either because of some flaw in the design of the policy or because of limited take-up.

Basic Needs

By some estimates, approximately half of college students struggle with fulfilling basic needs, including access to sufficient food, stable housing, and healthcare (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2015). The Stay the Course Program offers students case management services to help them manage “life barriers” (Evans et al., 2020). For women an offer of this program increased associate degree completion by 7 percentage points, while participation in the program increased degree completion by 32 percentage points (Evans et al., 2020). Students who make use of Single Stop, which also aims to address non-academic barriers by connecting students to campus and community resources, may be more likely to persist into their second and third semesters (Daugherty et al., 2020). An evaluation of an online tool that connects students to local services found that few students made use of the tool, but those that did were slightly more likely to enroll and persist (Mulhern et al., 2023).

A RCT evaluation of an intervention that offered pre-paid meal cards to food-insecure students at Bunker Hill Community College found that students in the treatment group completed almost three additional credits (about one class) and were 3.7 percentage points more likely to have earned a credential within two years (Broton et al., 2023). An information campaign meant to increase access to CalFresh, the state food stamps program, randomly assigned students to receive and email informing them of their eligibility. This intervention increased students’ probability of applying for benefits and increased college enrollment by 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points (Castellanos et al., 2022). Finally, one study estimating off of state-level variation in eligibility for Medicaid found that eligible community college students were less likely to have a full-time job and more likely to complete a credential (Anand & Gicheva, 2024).

Many college students experience some form of basic needs insecurity. However, even low-touch interventions that connect students to the necessary services can increase enrollment, persistence, and degree completion.

Conclusion

Because they are open access and relatively low cost, community colleges play an important role in democratizing higher education and providing college access for anyone who wants it. However, these institutions are often criticized for having low completion rates. This review presents the most recent rigorous, causal evidence demonstrating which policies and interventions have been shown to increase persistence and credential completion at community colleges.

A preponderance of evidence supports three conclusions. First, policymakers should make college more affordable. Financial aid programs that are particularly visible (Anderson, 2020; Bell, 2021) or that incentivize some action promoting persistence, may be particularly effective (Miller et al., 2020; Scrivener et al., 2015). Next, being academically underprepared is a barrier for many students, and traditional models of developmental education do not help students overcome this barrier (e.g., Bettinger & Long, 2009). However, multiple studies providing the gold standard of causal evidence have demonstrated that students in corequisite developmental math or English are more likely to enroll in and pass the college-level courses. Corequisite developmental education can be designed in different ways and states like Texas are testing multiple models (Daugherty et al., 2018). State policymakers and institutional leaders should implement corequisite forms of developmental education at community colleges.

Finally, interventions that center high-touch coaching and advising, but also provide wrap-around services such as last-dollar scholarships and access to low-cost textbooks or course materials, have shown some of the largest effects on persistence and degree completion (Scrivener et al., 2015). Interventions that include only proactive coaching have resulted in less consistent findings, suggesting that multiple forms of support may be necessary to increase student persistence (Valentine & Price, 2023). Policymakers should specifically earmark funds to increase to the amount and quality of advising and coaching available to community college students. Though these interventions can be expensive, increasing college completion rates can ultimately reduce the cost per degree (Mayer et al., 2015; Miller et al., 2020; Scrivener et al., 2015).

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Adela Soliz

Notes

References

Acton

(2021). Effects of reduced community college tuition on college choices and degree completion. Education Finance and Policy, 16(3), 388–417.

American Association of Community Colleges. (2024). Fast facts 2024. Retrieved from: https://www.aacc.nche.edu/researchtrends/ fast-facts/ .

Anand

Gicheva

(2024). The effects of access to medicaid on the employment and academic progress of college students. American Journal of Health Economics, 10(4), 603–634. https://doi.org/10.1086/726000

Anderson

(2020). When financial aid is scarce: The challenge of allocating college aid where it is needed most. Rand Corporation.

Anzelone

Weiss

Headlam

Alemany

(2020). How to encourage college summer enrollment: Final lessons from the EASE project. MDRC.

Baker

(2016). The effects of structured transfer pathways in community colleges. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(4), 626–646. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373716651491

Baker

Friedmann

Kurlaender

(2021). Improving the community college transfer pathway to the baccalaureate: The effect of California’s associate degree for transfer. Annenberg Institute at Brown University Ed Working Paper 21-359.

Bell

(2021). Does free community college improve student outcomes? Evidence from a regression discontinuity design. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 43(2), 329–350.

Bertrand

Hallberge

Hofmeister

Morgan

Shirey

(2022). Increasing academic progress among low-income community college students: Early evidence from an RCT. The University of Chicago Poverty Lab.

10.

Bettinger

Boatman

Long

B. T.

(2013). Student supports: Developmental education and other academic programs. Future of Children, 23(1), 93–115. https://doi.org/10.1353/foc.2013.0003

11.

Bettinger

Long

B. T.

(2009). Addressing the needs of underprepared students in higher education: Does college remediation work? Journal of Human Resources, 44(3), 736–771. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhr.2009.0033

12.

Boatman

Long

B. T.

(2018). Does remediation work for all? How the effects of postsecondary remedial and developmental courses vary by level of academic preparation. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 40(1), 29–58. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373717715708

13.

Boatman

Soliz

(2018). Statewide transfer policies and community college student success. Education Finance and Policy, 13(4), 449–483. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00233

14.

Broton

Mohebali

Goldrick-Rab

(2023). Meal vouchers matter for academic attainment: A community college field experiment. Educational Researcher, 52(3), 155–163. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X231153131

15.

Carruthers

Fox

Jepsen

(2023). What Knox achieved: Estimated effects of tuition-free community college on attainment and earnings. Journal of Human Resources. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.1220-11359R2

16.

Castellanos

Davis

Dizon-Ross

Doherty

Lacoe

Rothstein

(2022). Emailing eligible college students resulted in more than 7,000 students applying for CalFresh benefits. California Policy Lab.

17.

Castleman

Page

(2016). Freshmen year financial aid nudges: An experiment to increase FAFSA renewal and college persistence. The Journal of Human Resources, 51(2), 389–415.

18.

Chen

(2016). Remedial course taking at U.S. public 2- and 4-year institutions: Scope, experiences, and outcomes (NCES 2016-405). U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved September 7, 2023 from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016405.pdf.

19.

Cho

S. W.

Kopko

Jenkins

Jaggars

S. S.

(2012). New evidence of success for community college remedial English students: Tracking the outcomes of students in the accelerated learning program (ALP). CCRC Working Paper No. 53, Community College Research Center, Columbia University.

20.

Clotfelter

C. T.

Ladd

H. F.

Muschkin

Vigdor

J. L.

(2015). Development education in North Carolina community colleges. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 37(3), 354–375. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373714547267

21.

College Board. (2024). Trends in college pricing and student aid. The College Board.

22.

Daugherty

Gomez

Gehlhaus

Mendoza-Graf

Miller

(2018). Designing and implementing corequisite models of developmental education: Findings from Texas community colleges. Rand Corporation. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2337.html .

23.

Daugherty

Johnston

Berglund

(2020). Connecting college students to alternative sources of support: The single stop community college initiative and postsecondary outcomes. Rand.

24.

Daugherty

Mendoza-Graf

Gehlhaus

Miller

Gerber

(2021). Student experiences in English corequisite remediation versus a standalone developmental education course. Rand.

25.

Denning

(2017). College on the cheap: Consequences of community college tuition reduction. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 9(2), 155–188. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20150374

26.

Dwyer

Williams

Pribesh

(2019). Impact of early alert on community college student persistence in Virginia. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 43(3), 228–231.

27.

Dynarski

Page

L. C.

Scott-Clayton

(2023). College Costs, Financial Aid, and Student Decisions. In Hanushek

Machin

Woessmann

(Eds.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, vol. 7 (in press). Elsevier.

28.

Evans

Kearney

Perry

Sullivan

(2020). Increasing community college completion rates among low-income students: Evidence from a RCT evaluation of a case-management intervention. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 39(4), 930–965. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22256

29.

Goldrick-Rab

Broton

Eisenberg

(2015). Hungry to learn: Addressing food and housing insecurity among undergraduates. Wisconsin HOPE Lab.

30.

Gurantz

(2019). What does free community college buy? Early impacts from the Oregon promise. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 39(1), 11–35. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22157

31.

Gurantz

(2022). Effects of state aid for nontraditional students on academic and labor market outcomes. Journal of Human Resources, 57(1), 241–271. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.57.1.0618-9570R2

32.

Hall

Worsham

Reavis

(2021). The effect of offering proactive student-success coaching on community college students' academic performance and persistence. Community College Review, 49(2), 202–237.

33.

Hallberg

Hofmeister

Bertrand

Morgan

(2023). Supporting community college student success: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 16(1), 63–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2022.2074929

34.

Hodara

Gandhi

Yoon

(2016). Improving college students’ success through comprehensive financial and advising support: Findings from the Future Connect evaluation. Education Northwest.

35.

Kane

T. J.

Boatman

Kozakowski

Bennett

Hitch

Weisenfeld

(2021). Is college remediation a barrier or a boost? Evidence from the Tennessee SAILS program. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 40(3), 883–913. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22306

36.

Liu

(2020). Is school out for the summer? The impact of year-round Pell Grants on academic and employment outcomes of community college students. Education, Finance and Policy, 15(2), 241–269.

37.

Logue

A. W.

Douglas

Watanabe-Rose

(2019). Corequisite mathematics remediation: Results over time and in different contexts. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 41(3), 294–315. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373719848777

38.

Logue

A. W.

Watanabe-Rose

Douglas

(2016). Should students assessed as needing: Remedial mathematics take college-level quantitative courses instead? A randomized controlled trial. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(3), 578–598. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373716649056

39.

Martorell

McFarlin

Jr. (2011). Help or hindrance? The effects of college remediation on academic and labor-market outcomes. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(2), 436–454. https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00098

40.

Mayer

Patel

Rudd

Ratledge

(2015). Designing scholarships to improve college success: Final report on the performance-based scholarship demonstration. The MDRC.

41.

Meiselman

A. Y.

Schudde

(2021). The impact of corequisite math on community college student outcomes: Evidence from Texas. Education Finance and Policy, 17(4), 719–744. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00365

42.

Miller

Headlam

Manno

Cullinan

(2020). Increasing CC graduation rates with a proven model: Three-year results from the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) Ohio demonstration. The MDRC.

43.

Mulhern

Hyde

Morales

Anderson

Phillips

Huguet

(2023). Report on the implementation, costs and impacts of the Findhelp Platform in the NC community college system. Rand Corporation.

44.

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) . (2020). Digest of education statistics. Retrieved from: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/2020menu_tables.asp .

45.

Ortagus

Tanner

McFarlin

(2021). Can re-enrollment campaigns help dropouts return to college? Evidence from Florida community colleges. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 43(1), 154–171. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720979177

46.

Park

Scott-Clayton

(2018). The impact of Pell Grant eligibility on community college students’ financial aid packages, labor supply, and academic outcomes. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 40(4), 557–585.

47.

Ratledge

Sommo

Cullinan

O’Donoghue

Lepe

Camo-Biogradlija

(2021). Motor city momentum: Three years of the Detroit Promise Path program for community college students. The MDRC.

48.

Research for Action. (2023). Examining the impact, implementation, and cost-effectiveness of completion coaching in a statewide college promise program .

49.

Scott-Clayton

Crosta

Belfield

(2012). Improving the targeting of treatment: Evidence from college remediation. National Bureau of Economic Research working paper no. 18457.

50.

Scott-Clayton

Rodriguez

(2015). Development, discouragement, or diversion? New evidence on the effects of college remediation policy. Education Finance and Policy, 10(1), 4–45. https://doi.org/10.1162/EDFP_a_00150

51.

Scrivener

Weiss

Ratledge

Rudd

Sommo

Fresques

(2015). Doubling graduation rates: Three-year effects of CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate’s Programs (ASAP) for developmental education students. MDRC.

52.

Shapiro

Dundar

Huie

Wakhungu

P. K.

Yuan

Nathan

Hwang

(2022, September). Tracking transfer: Measures of effectiveness in helping community college students to complete bachelor’s degrees, Fall 2022 data update. National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

53.

Sommo

Slaughter

Saunier

Scrivener

Warner

(2023). Varying levels of success. MDRC.

54.

Spencer

(2019). Can transfer guides improve the uptake of major prerequisites? Evidence from Ohio’s transfer and articulation reform policy reform. Research in Higher Education, 60(4), 458–484. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-018-9522-2

55.

State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. (2025). State Higher Education Finance: FY 2024. Retrieved from https://sheeo.org/project/sheeo-publications/.

56.

Valentine

Price

(2023). Coaching to completion: Impacts of success coaching on cc student attainment in NC. The Review of Higher Education, 46(3), 343–371. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2023.0002

57.

Weiss

M. J.

Headlam

(2019). A randomized controlled trial of a modularized, computer-assisted, self-paced approach to developmental math. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 12(3), 484–513. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2019.1631419

58.

Whinnery

Peisach

(2022). 50-State comparison: Transfer and articulation policies. Education Commission for the States. Retrieved from https://www.ecs.org/50-state-comparison-transfer-and-articulation/.

Improving Community College Student Persistence and Degree Completion

Abstract

Keywords

Social Media

Key Points

Introduction

Comprehensive Review

Financial Aid

Remedial and Developmental Education

Advising and Student Services

Community College to University Transfer

Basic Needs

Conclusion

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

ORCID iD

Notes

References