Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Background:Community colleges enroll nearly half of all college students nationwide, providing college access to millions of people. Unfortunately, only 22 percent of students graduate within three years (McFarland et al., 2017). Students who enroll in summer courses are more likely to persist and graduate (Adelman, 2006; Attewell, Heil, & Reisel, 2012; Attewell & Jang, 2013).

The research team diagnosed barriers to summer enrollment and developed two interventions to encourage summer enrollment for first-year Pell recipients: (1) an informational campaign, and (2) an informational campaign plus tuition supplement that provides gap funding after other grant aid is applied.

Research Questions:

1. What is the effect of an informational campaign on students’ likelihood of enrolling in the summer?
2. What is the effect of an informational campaign plus tuition supplement on students’ likelihood of enrolling in the summer?
3. What is the effect of an informational campaign plus tuition supplement compared with an informational campaign alone on students’ likelihood of enrolling in the summer?

Population: The study included 10,668 first-year Pell recipients at 10 Ohio community colleges. All eligible students were included, resulting in a census of first-year Pell recipients at these colleges. The first cohort, identified in 2017, included 3,689 first-year students from four colleges. The second cohort, identified in 2018, included 6,979 students.

Research Design: This study is a three-arm, multi-site, blocked randomized field trial. Students were randomly assigned, in equal proportions, to three research groups: (1) informational campaign, (2) informational campaign and tuition waiver, or (3) control. Randomization occurred within twenty-eight blocks based on college, cohort, and prior enrollment type (part-time/full-time).

Only the 2018 cohort had access to year-round Pell grants. All research questions were answered for the pooled sample and for each cohort.

Findings: Both interventions increased summer enrollment. For the full sample, the informational campaign increased summer enrollment by an estimated 5.3 percentage points, from 26.2 to 31.5 percent. The informational campaign plus tuition supplement was substantially more effective, increasing enrollment by an estimated 12.2 percentage points, from 26.2 to 38.4 percent. Both interventions also had a positive estimated effect on summer credit accumulation, a key indicator of progress toward a degree. Neither intervention had a discernable effect on fall enrollment.

The positive effects on summer enrollment and credit accumulation were robust to the policy change. For the informational campaign, there was no meaningful difference between cohorts (5.6pp in 2017 vs. 5.2pp in 2018). For the informational campaign plus tuition supplement, estimated impacts were larger for the first cohort (14.6pp in 2017 vs. 10.9pp in 2018), but there was no statistically discernible difference in effects.

Conclusions: Improved policies and communication about the summer term can increase summer enrollment and, as a result, credit accumulation. With the reinstatement of year-round Pell, many eligible low-income students now have additional funding available for summer courses. Colleges looking to encourage students to take advantage of this funding may consider sending multi-modal personalized informational campaigns to students about summer enrollment. Providing gap tuition funding can further increase enrollment.