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Policy Framework
Despite the increasing importance of a postsecondary credential in today’s labor market, degree completion rates for community college students have stagnated. Two out of every three students who enroll in community college fail to earn a degree or certificate within six years, an outcome with serious consequences for their individual economic well-being as well as the strength of our national economy. To significantly increase completion and graduation rates for low-income students under the age of 26, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Completion by Design initiative in summer 2011.
While many of the interventions community colleges have implemented to bolster student success have shown positive effects in the short run, the effects are often small and diminish soon after programs end. Dramatically increasing completion rates may call for more comprehensive, long-term reform strategies that address all aspects of a community college student’s experience. Completion by Design aims to help colleges provide a well-structured, well-supported pathway from entry to degree completion. The five-year initiative selected four groups of colleges (called cadres) to implement the structural and systemic changes needed to provide students with the most efficient, direct path to a degree.
The participating colleges are supported by the Completion by Design Assistance Team and a larger group of national assistance providers. MDRC is evaluating the initiative.
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
The system redesign envisioned by Completion by Design is sweeping. Colleges will create pathways of integrated policies, practices, and programs intentionally designed to maximize the chances for student credential completion. These pathways will address the full continuum of the student experience, from first contact to credential completion, as well as the full spectrum of organizational and administrative factors.
Colleges will base their redesign on an analysis of common barriers, proven and promising practices, linkages among the systems that touch the lives of the students, and clear accountability for student success and completion. Through a comprehensive, data-driven approach, colleges will systematically use the lessons of prior reforms and demonstration projects to support students’ progress throughout their community college experience.
The evaluation of Completion by Design, in addition to providing an independent assessment of the initiative, will have broader implications for the field of community college reform. The evaluation seeks to build highly credible knowledge regarding the key elements of a cost-effective, completion-focused, end-to-end pathway; the change process needed for implementation of such an approach; and the potential of scaling up this approach or replicating it at a wide variety of institutions.
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
Cadres of community colleges in four states have been selected to participate in Completion by Design. Together, these institutions serve more than 551,000 students. The selected states and colleges include:
- North Carolina
- Central Piedmont Community College
- Davidson County Community College
- Guilford Technical Community College
- Martin Community College
- Wake Technical Community College
- Texas
- Alamo Colleges
- Dallas County Community College District
- El Paso Community College
- Lone Star College System
- South Texas College
- Florida
- Miami Dade College: Hialeah, Homestead, InterAmerican, Kendall, Medical Center, and North Wolfson Campuses
- Ohio
- Lorain County Community College
- Sinclair Community College: Courseview and Dayton Campuses
- Stark State College
During the 2011-2012 academic year, the colleges will plan and develop their pathways, with implementation to follow over the two succeeding years.
The evaluation will primarily focus on the following areas:
- Implementation. This analysis will document the pathway models within each cadre, discuss the processes involved in putting the models into place, assess the cadres’ progress on implementation, and identify factors that promote and impede progress.
- Systems change. The evaluation will examine whether and how the initiative leads to widespread changes in institutional culture and practices, and potentially to changes in district- and state-level policy.
- Outcomes. To assess the initiative’s impact on student success, researchers will measure progress on short-term goals, such as increased persistence and credit completion, and on the longer-term goal of improved credential attainment.
- Cost-effectiveness. The evaluation will analyze whether improvements in student outcomes justify the costs of implementing the reforms. Analyzing data on costs and outcomes will provide insight regarding the cost-effectiveness of proposed ideas and identify the most cost-effective strategies.
What's Next
The 2011-2012 academic year is primarily a planning year, both for the states and colleges involved and for the evaluation. MDRC will finalize the evaluation design in June 2012, and implementation of the colleges’ plans will begin shortly thereafter. The evaluation is scheduled to last through 2016.
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