Stay the Course: Evaluating an Intervention to Promote Community College Persistence and Graduation Rates

Last registered on October 19, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Stay the Course: Evaluating an Intervention to Promote Community College Persistence and Graduation Rates
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000223
Initial registration date
February 27, 2014

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
February 27, 2014, 10:14 AM EST

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

Last updated
October 19, 2023, 11:51 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region
Southwest

Primary Investigator

Name
James Sullivan
Affiliation
University of Notre Dame
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
William Evans
PI Affiliation
University of Notre Dame
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Melissa Kearney
PI Affiliation
University of Maryland
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2013-08-19
End date
2018-08-31
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
Community college, retention, degree completion
JEL code(s)
I24- Education and Inequality, C93- Field Experiments, D04- Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study evaluates a community college intervention program, Stay the Course, that is designed to address the “life barriers” – as distinct from specific academic barriers – that challenge many economically-disadvantaged students. The goal of the study is to determine whether an intervention of this type is effective at increasing community college persistence and graduation rates. The key components of intervention are coaching/mentoring services and emergency financial assistance. The program is being run by a community service provider in agreement with a large community college in Fort Worth, TX. We will use administrative records to track student academic outcomes for at least three years post random assignment. The main outcomes of interest are total credit hours completed, re-enrollment rates, and degrees or certificates obtained. Demographic data obtained from student records will be used to investigate how treatment effects vary across student subgroups.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Evans, William, Melissa Kearney and James Sullivan. 2023. "Stay the Course: Evaluating an Intervention to Promote Community College Persistence and Graduation Rates." AEA RCT Registry. October 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.223-2.1
Former Citation
Evans, William, Melissa Kearney and James Sullivan. 2023. "Stay the Course: Evaluating an Intervention to Promote Community College Persistence and Graduation Rates." AEA RCT Registry. October 19. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/223/history/197379
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Study subjects are randomly selected to receive services through a program called Stay the Course. This program is designed to help income students succeed in a community college setting. Stay the Course has two key components: full-service, wrap-around case management and access to emergency financial assistance. In the case management component, a trained social service provider from outside the college works individually with a student to address their personal challenges and create a holistic, long-term plan for educational success. This service helps students to navigate the community college system and absorb shocks in their personal life that threaten their ability to complete a degree. Emergency Financial Assistance provides students with resources to cover emergency non-academic expenses or income shortfalls that could negatively impact their persistence in college.
Intervention Start Date
2013-08-26
Intervention End Date
2016-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
credit hours completed, GPA, degree completion, transfers to four year college, time to completion
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We identified our study sample as a group of students enrolled at a particular community college campus. The college determined which students met the eligibility criteria as determined by the research team, which totaled 1,169 students. Eligible students were randomly assigned to one of three study groups; students in treatment arm 1 receive case management and access to emergency financial assistance, students in treatment arm 2 are eligible strictly for the emergency financial assistance, and students in the control group receive no services from Stay the Course. The central hypothesis we will test is whether the services provided through this intervention, which directly addresses personal, non-academic and social-institutional barriers, will increase community college persistence and completion rates. Outcomes will be tracked through administrative records for up to six years from time of random assignment.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization conducted by researcher using a computer program.
Randomization Unit
Individual Student
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1 school
Sample size: planned number of observations
1169 Students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
430 students assigned to treatment arm 1
300 students assigned to treatment arm 2
439 students assigned to control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Setting the p-value at 0.05 and the power of the test at 80 percent, we should be able to detect an 8.9 percentage point rise in the one-semester persistence rate and a 10.8 percentage point increase in the one-year persistence rate.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Notre Dame IRB
IRB Approval Date
2013-08-12
IRB Approval Number
13-06-1103
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
Community college completion rates are low, especially among low-income students.
The existing policy and research attention has primarily focused on academic and financial
challenges, but there is ample reason to think that non-academic obstacles
might be key drivers of dropout rates for low-income students. This study focuses on
the role of “life barriers” and investigates the effectiveness of intensive case-management
services for low-income community college students.We evaluate the impact of the Stay
the Course (STC) intensive case-management program through a multi-armed randomized
controlled trial evaluation conducted between 2013 and 2016 in Fort Worth,
Texas. Analysis of administrative records indicates that STC significantly increased
persistence and degree completion for women; estimates for the full sample are imprecise.
The statistically significant estimates for women imply that STC tripled associate’s
degree receipt by 31.5 percentage points. We find no difference in outcomes
between students in an emergency financial assistance (EFA) only treatment arm and
the control group. Given program costs of $4,343 per person, the implied cost per
additional associate’s degree is $27,140. This study complements existing literature on
financial and informational interventions designed to increase completion rates and is
most closely related to the smaller literature examining coaching and mentoring interventions.
Citation
Evans, W. N., Kearney, M. S., Perry, B. C., and Sullivan, J. X. 2019. Increasing community college completion rates among low-income students: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial evaluation of a case management intervention. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 39, No. 4, 930–965 (2020)
URL
https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22256

Reports & Other Materials