Turning the Tide: Improving Community College Students’ Success Through Data-Driven Reform

• In Event: Roundtable Session 38
  In Roundtable Session: Community College Student Success

Abstract

This report examines the successes and challenges of 26 community colleges’ efforts to improve data-driven decision-making and student outcomes as part of a groundbreaking national initiative, Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count. Based on a qualitative analysis of the colleges’ implementation of the initiative over five years, a survey of faculty and administrator data use, and a quantitative analysis of student outcomes, this report concludes that colleges made important strides in building a culture of evidence during their participation in the initiative. In particular, colleges enhanced their leadership commitment to student success, increased their research capacity, and developed a number of interventions aimed at improving their students’ achievement. However, relatively few changes were seen among the trends in student outcomes.

Authors

• Elizabeth Zachry Rutschow, MDRC

• Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, MDRC

• Thomas Brock, The National Center for Education Research (NCER)