Improving outcomes for community college students on academic probation

MDRC has released an evaluation of a program at a large community college in southern California that experimented with mandatory assignment to a "College Success" course for students on academic probation. The study shows positive results compared to the previous model of offering the course on a voluntary basis. It is worth noting that this analysis was based on random assignment to an experimental group and a control group. This is very rare in educational program evaluation and makes for much more reliable results.