Show Me the Evidence!

This week we’ve been blogging about the learning communities as a way to engage students so that they’ll be more likely to succeed. But what evidence do we have that learning communities are an effective way to improve student outcomes?

MDRC, a social policy research firm, has recently released a number of studies on learning communities at community colleges. The evaluations show some positive short-term outcomes:

• developmental math students in learning communities at Queensborough and Houston passed their classes at higher rates than those not in a learning community
• Learning community students at Kingsborough Community College (KCC) felt more engaged than students not in a learning community, and they passed their assessment exams at higher rates

…but less certain long-term effects:

• At Queensborough and Houston, students in the learning communities did not persist at a higher rate or earn more credits than their non-learning community peers, and
• At KCC, there was only a slight increase in long-term persistence for learning community students

An earlier report evaluated Hillsborough Community College’s learning community program for developmental reading students. At Hillsborough, there was a positive impact for learning community students only when there was effective faculty collaboration and curricular integration.

We can discern a few important lessons for colleges that are working to establish a learning community program from this research:

• Colleges should consider options for providing more continuous support for students beyond their time in a learning community
• Effective collaboration and communication between faculty teaching linked courses is vital to successful delivery and positive outcomes for students
• Waning impacts suggests that colleges should look at ways to strengthen peer bonds for a more lasting effect

Have you seen these benefits and challenges in learning communities on your campus? What do you do to encourage faculty collaboration? How do you sustain student connections beyond the end of the semester?



Alyson Zandt is a Program Associate at MDC.