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Opening Doors |
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Featured Publication
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Serving Community College Students on Probation
Four-Year Findings from Chaffey College’s Opening Doors Program
2011. Michael Weiss, Thomas Brock, Colleen Sommo, Timothy Rudd, and Mary Clair Turner.
This program included a “College Success” course and offered enhanced counseling. A change from optional to required services led to increased program participation, and the new program decreased the percentage on academic probation after the two program semesters. Nevertheless, after four years, the program had no discernible effect on academic outcomes.
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All Opening Doors Publications
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Serving Community College Students on Probation
Four-Year Findings from Chaffey College’s Opening Doors Program
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2011. Michael Weiss, Thomas Brock, Colleen Sommo, Timothy Rudd, and Mary Clair Turner.
This program included a “College Success” course and offered enhanced counseling. A change from optional to required services led to increased program participation, and the new program decreased the percentage on academic probation after the two program semesters. Nevertheless, after four years, the program had no discernible effect on academic outcomes.
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Opening Doors to Student Success
A Synthesis of Findings from an Evaluation at Six Community Colleges
Policy Brief
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2011. Susan Scrivener and Erin Coghlan.
MDRC’s Opening Doors Demonstration, launched in 2003 with six community colleges, provides some of the first rigorous evidence that a range of interventions can improve educational outcomes for community college students. This 12-page policy brief describes the strategies tested, discusses the results, and offers suggestions to policymakers and practitioners for moving forward.
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More Guidance, Better Results?
Three-Year Effects of an Enhanced Student Services Program at Two Community Colleges
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2009. Susan Scrivener and Michael J. Weiss, with Jedediah J. Teres.
In this program, low-income students received enhanced student services and were eligible for a modest stipend for two semesters. The program improved academic outcomes in the second semester and registration in the semester after that, but these effects did not persist in subsequent semesters.
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Getting Back on Track
Effects of a Community College Program for Probationary Students
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2009. Susan Scrivener, Colleen Sommo, and Herbert Collado.
Rates of graduation and degree completion at community colleges remain distressingly low. This report evaluates two versions of a program designed to help probationary students at community college succeed in school. One version increased the average number of credits earned, the proportion of students who earned a grade point average of “C” or higher, and the proportion who moved off probation.
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Rewarding Persistence
Effects of a Performance-Based Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents
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2009. Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, Thomas Brock, Allen LeBlanc, Christina Paxson, Cecilia Elena Rouse, and Lisa Barrow.
This report describes the impacts of a performance-based scholarship program with a counseling component on academic success and persistence among low-income parents. Students who participated in the program, which was operated at two New Orleans-area colleges as part of MDRC’s multisite Opening Doors demonstration, were more likely to stay in school, get higher grades, and earn more credits.
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A Good Start
Two-Year Effects of a Freshmen Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College
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2008. Susan Scrivener, Dan Bloom, Allen LeBlanc, Christina Paxson, Cecilia Elena Rouse, and Colleen Sommo, with Jenny Au, Jedediah J. Teres, and Susan Yeh.
Freshmen in a “learning community” at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY, moved more quickly through developmental English requirements, took and passed more courses, and earned more credits in their first semester than students in a control group. Two years later, they were also somewhat more likely to be enrolled in college.
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Helping Low-Wage Workers Persist in Education Programs
Lessons from Research on Welfare Training Programs and Two Promising Community College Strategies
Working Paper
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2008. Lashawn Richburg-Hayes.
This working paper, prepared for a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, reviews what is known about education acquisition by low-wage workers and highlights promising strategies being tested at several community colleges.
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Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration in Ohio
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Two reports present the early results from MDRC’s evaluation of the Opening Doors programs at Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio, and Owens Community College in Toledo. The two-semester programs offered enhanced advising services and a modest scholarship to low-income students to encourage them to stay in school and earn credentials.
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Enhancing Student Services at Lorain County Community College
Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration in Ohio
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2007. Susan Scrivener and Jenny Au.
This report describes early results from MDRC’s evaluation of the Opening Doors program at Lorain Country Community College in Elyria, Ohio. The program provided enhanced student services and a modest scholarship to low-income students to encourage them to stay in school and earn credentials.
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Enhancing Student Services at Owens Community College
Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration in Ohio
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2007. Susan Scrivener and Michael Pih.
This report presents the early results from MDRC’s evaluation of the Opening Doors program at Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio. The two-semester program offered intensive student advising services and a modest scholarship to low-income students to encourage them to stay in school and earn credentials.
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A Whole ’Nother World
Students Navigating Community College
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2006. Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, Herbert Collado, and Barbara Ray.
For this study, MDRC interviewed students at two colleges that are part of the Opening Doors Demonstration, a program to help community college students remain in school and succeed. The students spoke about their experiences on and off campus and the factors that help or hinder their progress in school.
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Paying for Persistence
Early Results of a Louisiana Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents Attending Community College
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2006. Thomas Brock and Lashawn Richburg-Hayes
Funded by state welfare dollars, two community colleges in the New Orleans area offered performance-based scholarships and enhanced counseling to low-income parents, as part of MDRC’s Opening Doors demonstration. These early findings show the program had significant positive effects on academic achievement and rates of retention.
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Building Learning Communities
Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration at Kingsborough Community College
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2005. Dan Bloom and Colleen Sommo.
Opening Doors Learning Communities, a program serving mostly low-income freshmen at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, NY, improved course and test pass rates, particularly in English.
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Promoting Student Success in Community College and Beyond
The Opening Doors Demonstration
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2005. Thomas Brock, Allen LeBlanc, with Casey MacGregor.
The Opening Doors Demonstration is designed to show how community colleges can help more low-income students remain in school and improve other outcomes, including degree attainment, labor market success, and personal and social well-being.
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Support Success
Services That May Help Low-Income Students Succeed in Community College
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2004. Rogéair Purnell and Susan Blank with Susan Scrivener and Reishma Seupersad.
Community colleges can pursue many strategies for enhancing student services, including offering “one-stop shopping,” which provides students with multiple services at the same time and place.
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Changing Courses
Instructional Innovations That Help Low-Income Students Succeed in Community College
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2003. Richard Kazis, Marty Liebowitz.
This paper looks at curricular and program redesign strategies currently used by community colleges to speed nontraditional students’ advancement from lower levels of skill into credential programs and to shorten the time commitment required to earn a credential.
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Money Matters
How Financial Aid Affects Nontraditional Students in Community Colleges
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2003. Victoria Choitz, Rebecca Widom.
Examining federal, state, and institutional programs, the paper presents a framework for understanding challenges to securing comprehensive financial assistance for low-income working students.
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Supporting CalWORKs Students at California Community Colleges
An Exploratory Focus Group Study
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2003. Laura Nelson, Rogéair Purnell.
The Opening Doors initiative is designed to help low-wage workers, at-risk youth, and recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) earn college credentials as the pathway to better jobs and higher earnings. Concentrating on a program implemented in California, this report supplements efforts from an earlier Opening Doors focus group study to gain insights from low-income students on the factors that affect their ability to enroll in school and earn a college credential while balancing work and parenting responsibilities.
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Opening Doors
Students' Perspectives on Juggling Work, Family, and College
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2002. Lisa Matus-Grossman, Susan Gooden with Melissa Wavelet, Melisa Diaz, Reishma Seupersad.
The latest report from the Opening Doors project explores how to help low-wage workers move toward career advancement and higher wages by enrolling in and completing community college programs.
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Welfare Reform and Community Colleges
A Policy and Research Context
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2002. Thomas Brock, Lisa Matus-Grossman, Gayle Hamilton.
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Opening Doors to Earning Credentials
Impressions of Community College Access and Retention from Low-Wage Workers
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2001. Lisa Matus-Grossman, Susan Tinsley Gooden.
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Opening Doors
Expanding Educational Opportunities for Low-Income Workers
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Published with the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.
2001. Susan Golonka, Lisa Matus-Grossman.
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