Transfer, Accelerate, Complete, Engage (TrACE): Experimental Evidence on Transfer Student Success at Four-Year Universities

Last registered on July 20, 2023

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011743

Initial registration date

July 17, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

July 20, 2023, 3:37 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name

Steven Hemelt

Affiliation

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Julie Edmunds

PI Affiliation

University of North Carolina Greensboro

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-07-21

End date

2025-12-31

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

postsecondary education, student success, transfer students

JEL code(s)

I22, I24

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

A growing body of research has documented positive effects of multifaceted interventions on rates of college completion, most notably among students at community colleges (Dynarski & Oster, 2016; Scrivener et al., 2015; Weiss et al., 2019). These interventions typically combine financial, advising, academic, and social supports. For example, the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) blended substantial financial support with intensive, personalized advising and structured requirements (e.g., students had to enroll full time). The ASAP program was piloted at community colleges in New York and boosted 3-year and 6-year degree completion rates by 18 and 10 percentage points, respectively. A similar, ASAP-like intervention in Ohio nearly doubled the 3-year completion rate for community college students seeking an associate degree (i.e., from 19 to 35 percent).

While these comprehensive interventions boast impressive effects on completion within the community college context, little work has explored the capacity of similar interventions to address barriers faced by community college students who transfer to 4-year institutions. These students often struggle to persist and complete at rates comparable to peers who started their college journeys at a 4-year institution. For example, within the UNC System of public 4-year institutions, the 2-year completion rate for students who transfer from community colleges (with an associate degree) is about 33 percent—nearly 34 percentage points lower than their within-cohort peers who started at a public 4-year institution (i.e., a 4-year completion rate of 67 percent). Gaps in 3-year completion rates between transfers from community colleges and their within-cohort native peers are around 23 percentage points for recent cohorts.

This project will examine the effects of a comprehensive intervention on outcomes for students at public 4-year institutions who have transferred from community colleges. The Transfer, Accelerate, Complete, Engage (TrACE) intervention is adapted from the ASAP/ACE model and will be implemented at three public 4-year universities in the UNC System. TrACE was piloted in a non-randomized fashion during the 2022-23 academic year in order to set up structures and processes necessary for delivering program components.

The fully developed TrACE program will be piloted as a randomized controlled trial across three public 4-year universities in the UNC System in Fall 2023. The duration of the program is two years (i.e., 2023-24 and 2024-25). We will examine the effects of TrACE on measures of postsecondary progress, performance, and completion (e.g., graduation within two and three years of transfer).

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Edmunds, Julie and Steven Hemelt. 2023. "Transfer, Accelerate, Complete, Engage (TrACE): Experimental Evidence on Transfer Student Success at Four-Year Universities." AEA RCT Registry. July 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11743-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

This project will examine the effects of a comprehensive intervention on outcomes for students at public 4-year institutions who have transferred from community colleges. The Transfer, Accelerate, Complete, Engage (TrACE) intervention is adapted from the CUNY ASAP/ACE model and will be implemented at three public 4-year universities in the UNC System. TrACE was piloted in a non-randomized fashion during the 2022-23 academic year in order to set up structures and processes necessary for delivering program components.

The fully developed TrACE program will be piloted as a randomized controlled trial across three public 4-year universities in the UNC System in Fall 2023. The duration of the program is two years (i.e., 2023-24 and 2024-25). We will examine the effects of TrACE on measures of postsecondary progress, performance, and completion (e.g., graduation within two and three years of transfer).

The TrACE program is a multifaceted intervention that includes the following elements:

• Access to a TrACE success coach, who complements students’ academic advisors, but occupies a different role in supporting student success;
• Monthly incentive of $100 per month of participation if students meet the program engagement requirements;
• Textbook scholarship of up to $600 per student per year;
• Tuition and fee gap scholarship that covers remaining unmet need (i.e., remaining tuition and fee costs after other federal, state, and institutional aid has been applied); Students are eligible for this component if they have qualified for federal or state need-based financial aid;
• Summer tuition support that covers up to 6 credit hours per student during the summer (i.e., Summer I and Summer II terms).

Intervention Start Date

2023-08-14

Intervention End Date

2025-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Our primary or confirmatory outcomes are 2-year and 3-year completion rates for transfer students.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

We measure 2-year and 3-year completion rates as a function of the first semester students touch a 4-year institution; further, following UNC System definitions, each completion measure will include the summer following the relevant spring term. For example, for transfer students beginning at a 4-year institution in Fall 2023, the 2-year completion outcome will be based on data through summer 2025; analogously, the 3-year completion outcome will use data through summer 2026.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

We will also examine effects of access to TrACE on a range of intermediate (or exploratory) outcomes along the path to degree completion. Such intermediate outcomes will include measures that capture persistence (e.g., enrollment in subsequent terms), progress (e.g., credits attempted, credits earned), and academic performance (e.g., semester GPA, cumulative GPA, course withdrawals and fails, changes to majors and minors).

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Eligible applicants to TrACE will be randomly assigned to the treatment or control group during July 2023 in a campus-specific manner that functionally “blocks” by institution. Each TrACE institution will provide the research team with an anonymized list of eligible applicants from their campus. The research team will randomly order the anonymized list of eligible applicants and return the lists to the campuses.

Each campus will invite students to participate in TrACE in the order in which they appear on the randomized lists. Due to resource constraints, each campus will invite a maximum of 70 percent of students on their randomized list, and will not exceed 75 acceptances per TrACE advisor. We estimate that each campus will secure roughly 150 eligible applicants. However, the number of applications per institution may vary. Thus, a reasonable estimate of the total analytic sample, across all three institutions, is 450 students.

At each campus, all applicants who receive an invitation to participate in TrACE—regardless of whether they accept—will comprise the treatment group. All eligible applicants who did not receive an invitation to participate in TrACE will comprise the control group.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Each TrACE institution will provide the research team with an anonymized list of eligible applicants from their campus. The research team will randomly order the anonymized list of eligible applicants and return the lists to the campuses. Each campus will invite students to participate in TrACE in the order in which they appear on the randomized lists. Due to resource constraints, each campus will invite a maximum of 70 percent of students on their randomized list, and will not exceed 75 acceptances per TrACE advisor.

Randomization Unit

Individual students who apply to TrACE will be randomly allocated to the treatment and control groups via a randomly ordered list approach.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

We do not use a clustered design.

Sample size: planned number of observations

We expect approximately 150 applicants per TrACE institution. Thus, a reasonable estimate of the total analytic sample, across all three institutions, is 450 students.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Due to resource constraints, each campus will invite a maximum of 70 percent of students on their randomized list, and will not exceed 75 acceptances per TrACE advisor. At each campus, all applicants who receive an invitation to participate in TrACE—regardless of whether they accept—will comprise the treatment group. All eligible applicants who did not receive an invitation to participate in TrACE will comprise the control group.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Effect sizes will vary depending on the number of eligible applicants to TrACE.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB