Developmental Education Reform and Student Outcomes at California Community Colleges

• In Event: Statewide Developmental Education Reform in California: Lessons From A Five-Year Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

California’s Assembly Bill 705 aimed to increase student success by maximizing access to transfer-level math and English coursework in the state’s community colleges. The reform mandated that colleges evaluate students for developmental education using multiple measures for course placement, rather than traditional placement exams, and encouraged colleges to enroll more students directly into transfer-level (degree-bearing and transferrable) courses. To address the overall effects of AB705, we conducted a single interrupted time series (ITS) analysis, examining how AB705 affected transfer-level math and English course enrollment and completion rates within the first academic year. Then, to understand how introductory transfer-level math and English courses predict students’ short- and long-term postsecondary outcomes, we used an inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) approach.
In the ITS analysis, we used statewide administrative data from four pre-AB705 cohorts (2014-15 through 2017-18) to establish pre-policy trends and then estimate course enrollment and completion rates for the three cohorts after colleges began implementing AB705 (2018-19, the initial roll-out year after colleges learned of the policy, through 2020-21). We found that both transfer-level math and English course enrollment and completion rates began rising in the 2018 cohort and peaked in the 2019 cohort, with stronger upticks in math (which had much lower transfer-level course enrollment in the pre-policy period) than in English. However, by the 2020 cohort—a group dramatically affected by COVID—enrollment trends diverged: math enrollment remained well above the baseline trend, but English enrollment did not, perhaps because the pre-policy trend had already been quite positive in English.
In the second analysis, we further examined how changes in transfer-level course enrollment predict students’ subsequent short- and long-term outcomes. We focused on first-time college students enrolled at California community colleges in fall 2018 (the AB705 rollout period, when many colleges were expanding transfer-level coursework but still offered below-transfer courses). As part of the IPWRA analysis, we first used a logistic regression model to identify which student characteristics predicted enrollment in transfer-level math or English courses during the first term. Then, to examine the relationship between transfer-level course enrollment and student outcomes, we used IPWRA, a doubly robust estimation method that reduces potential confounding and strengthens result validity. Although the ITS results showed that AB705 significantly expanded access to transfer-level coursework, our logit models predicting participation in transfer-level courses revealed notable differences in access across demographic groups—particularly by race, income, and parental education. This illustrates why it is so important that dev-ed reforms move toward scale: otherwise, historically marginalized students are less likely to gain access to the reform than their peers. Our IPWRA results showed that transfer-level course enrollment—compared with below-transfer-level—predicted an increased probability of credential attainment and transfer to public universities within four years of entry. Taken together, our findings offer insights for colleges and policymakers seeking to understand how AB705 and resulting changes in course access shape student trajectories over time.

Authors

• Lauren Schudde, University of Texas at Austin

• Wonsun Ryu, University of Texas at Austin

• Dae Y. Kim, Research for Action

• Taylor Stenley, Research for Action