CURRENT AND RECENT PROJECTS

Student Success

With funding from the James Irvine Foundation, we are engaged in a project to identify changes in state and campus policies that would improve student success in community colleges by promoting more efficient progress toward students’ goals. Using a cohort of student records obtained from the California Community College Chancellor's Office MIS system, we are conducting detailed analysis of student characteristics and patterns of course taking and course completion that are associated with greater student success. We will confer widely with policy experts and educators to gain a full understanding of the state and campus policies that lead to the patterns we observed and to identify the potential for changing these policies.

With funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, we are attempting to improve student outcomes in the state by improving state policy, with a specific focus on community college finance policy.  Based on the assumption that public policies create powerful incentives for institutional and student behaviors, we will (1) perform an audit of current finance policies that govern the community colleges, (2) research alternative finance strategies of potential benefit to California, and (3) analyze a set of specific policies and assess their likely impact on student access and success.

Community College Transfer

In February, 2003, we published the results of a statistical study of community college transfer in California. The report identifies factors that explain observed differences in transfer rates among California's community colleges.

We have published two studies on the viability of the transfer pathway in California.  One focuses on the capacity at the four-year institutions to accommodate transfer students.  The other warns of a narrowing transfer pathway for underrepresented students due to budget reductions, enrollment pressures in all segments of higher education, and recent policy decisions that have had the effect of squeezing out certain groups of students.

Access to College

In collaboration with the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, we studied the combined impact of enrollment growth pressures, fee increases, and budget cuts on access in the California Community College system.  We focused on districts in five southern counties that are experiencing high rates of growth in the high school graduate population and the projected college population:  Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and San Bernardino.  The report, entitled "Ensuring Access with Quality to California's Community College" was prepared for the Hewlett Foundation and released by the National Center.

back to Current Projects