So I'm truly sorry for not baking and blogging. Life has been completely filled with nothing but data analysis and writing about data analysis. If anyone is interested in my thesis entitled "Enrollment in Success Courses: Completion Rates and Developmental Education in the North Carolina Community College System" please let me know. Just for fun I'll post my executive summary at the end. Not like anyone is really going to read it...but...
Anyway. So just to update the world that I am back on my baking kick and to start it off I made some lemon curd tartletts topped with raspberries. Yum! I of course used my homemade lemon curd and for the dough I made Dorie's sable cookies. Personally it came out more sugar-cookie-ish than shortbread cookie-ish. So I think for actual shortbread I'll stick with Ina Garten's recipe. Oh and I can't wait to go strawberry, blueberry, and peach picking this summer so I can make strawberry, blueberry, and peach breads, pies, tarts, and curd!!!
As for other things that I have backed in the absence of blogging is a cheesecake finally!!. Here are pictures of it. Joel and I made a raspberry coolie for it. Doesn't it look pretty! And of course it is Dorie's cheesecake recipe. Joel prefers his King Aurthur one though which is much denser. Dorie's one was nice and light, which I personally prefer.
As for recipes...email me if you feel a need for any of them. I don't know who reads this still due to my absence. Email is kelsey.yamasaki@gmail.com!
Ok folks. Back to washing the dishes. Enjoy the read of my executive summary!
Executive Summary
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether enrollment in a success course improves the likelihood that a community college student will complete an associate’s degree. Attention is paid in particular to students in developmental education, commonly known as remediation, because they are typically the least likely to complete an associate’s degree.
Introduction
Evidence indicates that individuals who complete a community college credential have better economic outcomes than individuals with only a high school diploma. However, the vast majority of students who start pursuing a community college credential never complete their studies. Nationally, only 36% of first-time, credential-seeking community college students graduate within six years, while in
To improve graduation rates,
Prior Research
Previous research has found that students who enroll in a success course are more likely to graduate than their peers who do not. However, the body of research on success courses has not been able to conclusively demonstrate that success courses are the cause of these higher graduation rates Researchers have been unable to control for the fact that success courses are electives that only certain types of students choose to take. As a result, previous research may be overestimating the effect of enrollment in a success course if solely academically-prepared and motivated students choose to enroll. Conversely, previous research may be underestimating the effect of success courses if only academically unprepared or unmotivated students are forced to enroll by their academic advisers.
Data and Methods
The North Carolina Community System (NCCCS) provided me with six years of student-level data on the cohort of first-time, credential-seeking students who entered the system in Fall 2003. Among the students in the cohort, 25% graduated within six years, 32% enrolled in an ACA, and 54% enrolled in developmental education.
Preliminary descriptive statistics indicate that students who enroll in an ACA graduate at higher rates than their peers who do not enroll in an ACA. Twenty-eight percent of students who enrolled in an ACA graduated while only 23% of students who did not enroll in an ACA graduated. Descriptive statistics also indicate that students in developmental education graduate at higher rates if they enroll in an ACA. Twenty-four percent who enrolled in an ACA graduated while only 20% of those who did not graduated.
To isolate the effect of ACA enrollment on graduation from the effects of student characteristics, such as academic ability, socio-economic status, and motivation, I used the following econometric methods:
- OLS regressions to control for observable characteristics, such as developmental education placement levels and Pell Grant receipt, which also influence whether a student will graduate;
- Nearest-neighbor matching (NNM) to create a statistical control group of students who looked like students who enrolled in an ACA on every observable characteristic so that appropriate comparisons could be made; and
- Instrumental variables (IV) to address problems of endogeneity, or reverse causality. In other words, specific variables that only affect whether students enroll in ACAs and not whether they will graduate were used to control for self-selection into ACAs.
Findings and Policy Implications
Enrollment in an ACA improves the likelihood that a student will complete an associate’s degree, but may not improve the likelihood of completing an associate’s degree if that student is enrolled in developmental education.
On average, I found that enrollment in an ACA improves a student’s likelihood of completing an associate’s degree. My effect estimates ranged from a high of 7.7 percentage points using OLS, which does not fully control for the self-selection problems, to 3.7 percentage points using an IV approach that more fully corrects for self-selection. Among students in developmental education I found that enrollment in an ACA has a smaller effect. My effect estimates range from a high of 5.3 percentage points using OLS to 1.2 percentage points using an IV approach. However, using an IV approach, I cannot reject the possibility that, among students in developmental education, ACA enrollment has no effect on the likelihood that a students will complete an associate’s degree.
Additional analysis using OLS regressions shows that it makes no difference in which semester a student enrolls in an ACA their first or second semester; enrollment in an ACA may not benefit Pell Grant recipients or students with a GED or adult high school diploma; and that ACA 111 College Student Success may be the only effective ACA.
My findings suggest that the NCCCS may want to restructure the content of ACAs to make them more effective for students in developmental education. Furthermore, the NCCCS should consider whether it is cost-effective to provide ACAs given that the effects of enrollment are small and possibly insignificant for students in developmental education.
