Learning Communities

Kingsborough Community College is a typical two-year institution of higher education, in the sense that it enrolls a lot of students (nearly 15,000), most of whom are eligible for need-based financial aid, it's mission of helping first-generation and working students is tremendously important, and unless you happen to live nearby (Brooklyn, in this case), you've probably never heard of it before.

According to a new report from MDRC, Kingsborough is also doing some interesting work to improve the quality of education it provides. Researchers randomly assigned 1,500 students to either regular classes or "learning communities," in which students are assembled in small groups (25 in this case) and take a sequence of multiple courses together. The idea is that students greatly benefit from having academic relationships with other students, which often doesn't happen when you commute to school, sit in class, and then leave for your job or family. The study found that the students in the learning communities were more engaged, were more likely to pass developmental English courses, and more likely to earn credits and pass courses in general. The positive effects faded, however, when they went back to the normal regime. Two- and four-year colleges have been experimenting with learning communities for a number of years and the results have generally been positive, but I'm not sure there's been any evidence this definitive and grounded in randomized assignment design.

It's also worth noting that one hardly ever hears news of such education-focused research or results coming from selective four-year institutions, because--unlike community colleges--they have other, apparently more important things on their minds.