Community colleges and broad-access universities (those with minimally selective admissions policies) provide an opportunity for students across the United States to attain postsecondary degrees and achieve economic mobility. However, graduation rates from such colleges are often low and there are many obstacles that can be difficult to overcome, especially for students who must balance work or family responsibilities, older students, students from low-income backgrounds, and students of color who face additional systemic barriers.
A growing body of research points to the effectiveness of interventions that include multiple components and support students over several years. Referred to as comprehensive approaches to student success (CASS), these programs have been found to help students stay enrolled, earn more credits, and graduate. But they can be costly, which limits the extent to which they are expanded and broadly implemented. The goal of the Scaling Up College Completion Efforts for Student Success project, or SUCCESS, was to develop a CASS program that is less expensive and more sustainable for colleges and to evaluate its effects.
SUCCESS includes several evidence-based components: coaches engaged in active outreach to students, monthly financial incentives for students who meet program requirements, strategies to encourage students to enroll full time, and a data-driven program management system. The project began in 2019, when MDRC started working with 13 institutions across California, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Ohio, along with their state higher education agencies. This report presents findings from an evaluation of SUCCESS at 11 of these colleges, presenting effects on students’ progress after one year for all colleges and after three years for an early cohort of colleges.
The impact findings through the program’s first year for the full group of colleges show that, on average, SUCCESS led to small increases in students’ full-time enrollment but had no effects on credits attempted or credits earned. Three-year findings for an early cohort tell a similar story.
The study provides some considerations for the implementation and expansion of CASS-like programs. First, the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly affected program implementation, and probably affected how students could respond to SUCCESS. Pandemic-era restrictions forced a move to virtual advising and many colleges dropped the full-time-enrollment requirement. Second, increasing full-time enrollment may be critical to generating impacts. SUCCESS had much smaller effects on full-time enrollment than other CASS models, leading to smaller effects on credits attempted and earned. Third, the model was less expensive than other CASS models because it offered fewer support services for students, such as tutoring, and smaller incentives. The financial incentives may be important on their own but also for implementing the full-time-enrollment requirement: staff members may be more willing to enforce the full-time requirement if it is attached to a financial incentive, and students may be more willing and able to adhere to it.
The findings add to the evidence base, albeit for a less expensive model that began during the pandemic. Further research is needed into whether more streamlined, less expensive CASS models can improve student success.