Learning Communities Program at Kingsborough Community College Improves Test Scores

About 45 percent of students who begin postsecondary studies at community colleges in the United States have not completed a degree or enrolled elsewhere six years later. Moreover, a large percentage of entering community college students are not prepared for college-level work and must take remedial courses.

In an effort to improve student persistence, Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, is participating in Opening Doors, a nationwide project that tests different approaches to enhancing instruction, student services, and financial aid at community colleges. Kingsborough's Opening Doors program revolves around learning communities, groups of up to 25 freshmen who take three first-semester courses together: English (usually at the remedial level), a course on another academic subject, and a one-credit freshman-orientation course. Through a random assignment process, MDRC is evaluating Kingsborough's Opening Doors program and found that early evidence is encouraging: Among other improvements, 34 percent of students in the Opening Doors program who had failed a reading skills test and a writing skills test before enrollment passed both tests the following year. In comparison, just 15 percent of students in the control group who previously had failed both tests passed both tests a year later. All students must pass certain developmental courses before they are allowed to retake the tests.

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