About MDRC
Cerna’s work at MDRC concentrates on implementation research and program development at various community colleges across the country. He has been involved in several large-scale projects focused on student success initiatives, including Achieving the Dream, the University System of Georgia’s African American Male Initiative, the Adult Basic Education study, the Learning Communities Demonstration, and the Performance-Based Scholarship Demonstration. As part of the Postsecondary Education policy area, Cerna serves as the project director for the Latino Academic Transfer and Institutional Degree Opportunities (LATIDO) project, which examines institutional initiatives that improve college outcomes for Latino college students attending Hispanic-Serving Institutions in California. Before joining MDRC, Cerna conducted research and evaluation for WestEd and for Bay Area Community Resources. A former community college graduate himself, Cerna transferred to the University of California-Irvine as an undergraduate and continued on to graduate school at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.
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MDRC Publications
Insights from the LATIDO Roundtable
April, 2018Latinos are enrolling in California colleges in rising numbers, but their outcomes lag behind those of white students. The Latino Academic Transfer and Institutional Degree Opportunities project is examining the approaches taken by Hispanic-Serving Institutions in California to improve the rates at which they transfer to universities and complete college.
New Approaches to Serving the Lowest-Skilled Students at Community Colleges in Texas and Beyond
October, 2017Faced with many applicants with very low math skills, community colleges are responding with a variety of reforms, including restricting developmental courses to students with high-school-level skills. This brief provides context for the policy changes and describes the alternatives two colleges offer to those who don’t make the cut.
Interim Findings on Aid Like A Paycheck
June, 2017This study examines whether an alternative approach to distributing financial aid — in biweekly payments instead of one or two lump sums — can improve outcomes for low-income community college students. After one semester, the policy reduced students’ debt and use of federal loans but showed little consistent evidence of academic effects.
Final Findings from the Communities In Schools Random Assignment Evaluation
April, 2017Communities In Schools (CIS) works to integrate a variety of support services for students to keep them on a path to graduation. This randomized controlled trial assessed the effects of one component of the CIS model — case management for high-risk students.
Promising Approaches and Next Steps
December, 2016A significant gap in the rates of college degree attainment persists between men of color and their white counterparts. This brief catalogues strategies commonly used in interventions at postsecondary educational institutions aimed at improving outcomes for male students of color and charts the way forward for future evaluative work.
Early Lessons from Completion by Design
September, 2015Only about 20 percent of full-time degree-seeking students entering public two-year schools earn a degree within three years. In seeking solutions, community colleges typically focus on one institutional problem at a time. This brief looks at the experiences of five community colleges attempting a systemwide reform to substantially increase completion rates.
Results from a Performance-Based Scholarship Experiment
June, 2015This random assignment study examines the long-term impacts of a program at The University of New Mexico offering low-income first-year students enhanced academic advising and financial aid that is contingent on performance. It finds that the program increased credit hour accumulation during the first two years and graduation rates after five years.
Implementation and Interim Impact Findings from the Communities In Schools Evaluation
April, 2015Services to help students stay in school are often fragmented. In this program, school-based coordinators identify students at risk, work with them to assess their needs, connect them with school and community supports, and monitor their progress. Case-managed students received more services than others, but early impact findings are inconclusive.
Lessons from the First Round of Achieving the Dream Community Colleges
April, 2014Launched in 2004, Achieving the Dream is designed to help community colleges collect and analyze student performance data and apply the results to help students succeed. This report offers lessons from the first 26 colleges to join the national initiative, which now includes more than 200 institutions.
A Technical Assistance Guide for Developing and Implementing Performance-Based Scholarships
February, 2014Drawing on the findings and experiences of two research demonstrations that tested the effectiveness of performance-based scholarships, this guide provides helpful information for colleges and scholarship-granting organizations on this type of aid, which can reduce the financial burden on low-income students while offering incentives for good academic progress.
A Case Study of Peer Leader Programs at Two Achieving the Dream Colleges
February, 2012Northern Essex Community College and Bunker Hill Community College employed academically successful students to serve as peer leaders to offer additional classroom assistance to fellow students in developmental and introductory college-level courses. The report discusses how the colleges designed and implemented these programs and offers insights into students’ experiences in peer-assisted courses.
Impact Studies at Merced College and The Community College of Baltimore County
February, 2012Two colleges implemented semester-long learning communities linking developmental English with a range of other courses. At Merced, learning communities students earned more developmental English credits and passed more English courses than a control group. At CCBC, there were no meaningful impacts on students’ credit attempts or progress. Neither college’s program had an impact on persistence or on cumulative credits earned.
Five Years of Achieving the Dream in Community Colleges
February, 2011This interim report examines the experiences of the first 26 colleges to join the ambitious Achieving the Dream initiative. Launched by Lumina Foundation for Education in 2004, Achieving the Dream helps community colleges collect and analyze student performance data in order to build a “culture of evidence,” enabling the colleges to use that knowledge to develop programs to increase students’ academic success.
An Impact Evaluation of the Beacon Program at South Texas College
February, 2010Created as part of the national Achieving the Dream initiative, a “light touch” intervention targeting students enrolled in lower-level math courses increased the number of students using campus tutoring and academic services. While the program has not improved math class pass rates or persistence in college overall, it has had positive effects for part-time and developmental students.
Lessons from the SSPIRE Initiative
July, 2009This report describes how community colleges in California that participated in the Student Support Partnership Integrating Resources and Education (SSPIRE) initiative took steps to better serve low-income and underprepared students by integrating student support services with academic instruction.
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Other Publications
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Projects
Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in California, and their college enrollment numbers continue to rise faster than those of other groups in the state. But there are gaps in college outcomes between Latinos and white and Asian students, typically associated with disparities in socioeconomic status, high school preparation, and college guidance.
Can existing financial aid programs do more to help low-income college students achieve academic success?
Every day, 7,000 students drop out of school. Among Latinos and African-Americans, the dropout rate is nearly 50 percent. Communities In Schools (CIS) works with low-income K-12 students in the nation’s poorest-performing schools.
Colleen Sommo, Melissa Boynton, Oscar Cerna, Michelle Ware, Cynthia Miller, Amanda Grossman, Alexander Mayer, John Diamond, Alyssa RatledgeFor many low-income college students, one of the biggest barriers to attendance is cost. While federal and state financial aid is available to help with tuition, fees, books, and some living expenses, students still often have unmet need, particularly if they are from the poorest families or are independent from their parents.
Despite the increasing importance of a postsecondary credential in today’s labor market, degree completion rates for community college students have stagnated.
Community colleges enroll almost half of all U.S. undergraduate students, yet the majority of these students leave without earning a degree or certificate or transferring to another institution to continue their studies. As a result, they risk losing the opportunity to learn and to earn a livable wage.
Mary Visher, Oscar Cerna, Dan Cullinan, Alexander Mayer, Michelle Ware, Michael J. Weiss, Evan Weissman, Amanda Grossman, Alyssa RatledgeA postsecondary credential has become increasingly important in the labor market, and college attendance has grown. Unfortunately, college completion remains less common, particularly in community colleges, which serve many low-income and academically underprepared students who often need remedial (developmental) courses.
Reflecting the growing importance of a postsecondary credential in the labor market, policymakers, practitioners, and researchers are increasingly concerned with improving poor rates of college completion, particularly among low-income and traditionally underserved students enrolled in community colleges.