Comparing Costs and Impacts of Various Cocurricular Support Models

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

Abstract

The focus of AB 705 was placement, requiring colleges to revise their placement approaches to maximize the likelihood that students would enter and complete transfer-level coursework within one year. While the law recommended providing cocurricular supports, it did not require that colleges implement a particular cocurricular support model. In response, colleges have implemented a variety of models, including embedded tutoring (trained student tutors integrated into the course and available outside of class), corequisite remediation (paired support course), and enhanced courses (cocurricular support bundled into the main course for a single, extended class section). This paper examines outcomes and costs associated with each cocurricular model relative to standalone transfer-level courses without cocurricular support.
We use data from 65 California community colleges during the 2022-23 academic year. To generate effectiveness estimates, we collect section-level data through a Systemwide Departmental Survey administered to each college in our sample. This dataset includes information about the specific cocurricular supports offered in each section of the colleges’ introductory transfer-level math and English courses. We merge these data with administrative data from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office Management Information System (COMIS) for information on course enrollment, completion, and student background characteristics, and with high school achievement data from the California Department of Education. We use an inverse probability weighting approach to estimate differences in course completion rates between observably similar students in each cocurricular model relative to standalone transfer-level courses. Our propensity weighting approach balances treatment students (in corequisite courses, enhanced courses, and those with embedded tutors) and comparison students (in standalone courses) on baseline high school achievement measures and demographic indicators.
We use the ingredient cost method (Levin et al., 2018) to identify ingredients and their associated costs for each cocurricular support model as well as for standalone transfer-level courses. Cost data come from multiple sources, including a 2024 survey administered to math and English faculty at each of the 15 site visit colleges described in Paper 2, and a questionnaire administered to administrators at those colleges in spring 2023. The survey and questionnaire asked respondents to identify and describe the practices, supports, and activities implemented in response to AB 705 in the 2022-23 academic year. We also included questions specific to each cocurricular support model. We supplement these data with qualitative implementation data collected during fall 2022 site visits and publicly available data where necessary.
We generally do not find evidence of significant differences in course completion rates between students enrolled in transfer-level courses with and without cocurricular supports. We note, however, that students enrolled in courses with both corequisites and embedded tutors are more likely to complete transfer-level coursework. We find that implementing courses with cocurricular supports is more costly than standalone courses, and this analysis suggests that they are not leading to improved completion rates within one year. However, this analysis is not without limitations, and we are conducting sensitivity analyses and updating these analyses with longer-term outcomes (e.g., four-year degree completion) in time for the presentation, if this session is accepted.

Authors

• Xinhe Liu, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Dae Y. Kim, Research for Action