Texas Developmental Summer Bridge Study
Overview
Too many students enter college without sufficient skills in English and math to succeed — which forces them to take developmental (or remedial) education courses. Across the nation, roughly 30 percent of entering freshman students enroll in developmental math or English courses. Among community college students, enrollment in developmental education doubles to about 60-70 percent. These students will need to spend more time in college — and expend more money on classes and books — before they can earn a certificate or a degree. Not surprisingly, these students are less likely than others to persist through the completion of a degree.
As colleges and policymakers seek to lessen the time students spend in developmental education and to make the time they do spend more rewarding, summer bridge programs have emerged as a potentially promising strategy. These programs — which typically occur in the summer between high school graduation and fall matriculation in college — offer students accelerated, focused learning opportunities that can help them acquire sufficient knowledge to reduce the need for remediation and better prepare them for college success. Despite the increased popularity of summer bridge programs across the country, little empirical research on their outcomes or impacts had been conducted.
Additional Project Details
Agenda, Scope, and Goals
As a part of the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR), MDRC and its research partners conducted a rigorous multi-college study, led by the Community College Research Center (CCRC), of developmental summer bridge programs in Texas. Many of these programs were coordinated and funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
With funding from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education, Houston Endowment, and the Ford Foundation, the study was designed to produce rigorous evidence of the programs’ impacts and answer several policy-relevant questions:With funding from the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education, Houston Endowment, and the Ford Foundation, the study is designed to produce rigorous evidence of the programs’ impacts and answer several policy-relevant questions:
- Do developmental summer bridge programs help reduce the need for students to participate in remedial education?
- Do they help students make a successful transition to college in the fall?
- Do they help students earn more college-level credits in their freshman year?
- Do they help students persist to their second year?
Design, Sites, and Data Sources
Eight colleges and universities throughout Texas participated in the study. Each site implemented a program that included an intensive academic experience for recent high school graduates, with four to five weeks of remedial coursework during the summer of 2009. The programs incorporated pedagogical strategies, such as accelerated and contextualized learning; included lessons on college knowledge to help prepare students for the social and academic rigors of college; and provided stipends of roughly $400 to students who participated and successfully completed the summer program. The eight sites are:
- El Paso Community College, El Paso
- Lone Star College–CyFair, near Houston
- Lone Star College–Kingwood, near Houston
- Palo Alto College, San Antonio
- San Antonio College, San Antonio
- South Texas College, McAllen
- St. Philip’s College, San Antonio
- Texas A&M International University, Laredo
The study used a random assignment research design to determine the impact of the programs by comparing the outcomes of approximately 800 students enrolled in the developmental summer bridge programs with a control group of about 500 students who did not participate in the programs.
Bridging the Gap describes the eight summer bridge programs and presents their impacts on student academic outcomes in the two years after the summer intervention.
