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Postsecondary Education
Transition:
A Summary of the Findings
From Two Literature Reviews
U
...
Department of Education

Postsecondary Education Transition:
A Summary of the Findings From
Two Literature Reviews

U
...
Department of Education
Office of Vocational and Adult Education

This report was produced under U
...
Department of Education Contract No
...
Sheryl Adler served as the Contracting Officer’s Representative
...
S
...
S
...

U
...
Department of Education
Arne Duncan
Secretary
Office of Vocational and Adult Education
Brenda Dann-Messier
Assistant Secretary
February 2010
This report is in the public domain
...
While
permission to reprint this publication is not necessary, the citation should be: U
...
Department of
Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education
...
Washington, D
...
, 2010
...
S
...
O
...
ed
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Those who use a
telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD) or a teletypewriter (TTY), should call 1-877-576-7734
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edpubs
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gov
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ed
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html
On request, this publication is available in alternate formats, such as Braille, large print, or computer
diskette
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iii

Contents
List of Abbreviations
...
v
List of Figures
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1
Barriers to Successful Transition
...
2
Searching for Evidence of Effectiveness
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6
Defining Transition and Effectiveness
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7
Appendix: Criteria for the Inclusion of Studies and Study Citations
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11

iv

Abbreviations
ABE

adult basic education

AEFLA

Adult Education and Family Literacy Act of 1998

ASE

adult secondary education

EL

English literacy

GED

General Educational Development

NRCCTE

National Research Center for Career and Technical Education

OVAE

Office of Vocational and Adult Education

WWC

What Works Clearinghouse

v

Table
1
...
3

Figure
1
...
4

1

I ask every

Why Is the Transition to Postsecondary Education So Important?

American

The benefits of postsecondary education are compelling
...
For society,
they include a productive workforce, increased tax revenue, and less demand for
selected public services
...
As President Barack Obama
noted in his address to a joint session of Congress (Feb
...
… I ask every American to commit to at
least one year or more of higher education or career training
...
But whatever the training may be, every American will
need to get more than a high school diploma
...

—President
Barack Obama

Some segments of the United States population, however, such as adults with low
literacy skills and disadvantaged youths, face barriers in making the transition into
and through postsecondary education, including community college and career
training, and these barriers can keep them locked in low-wage jobs
...
S
...
3 This summary is one of an intended series of three publications that

1

For the complete remarks of President Barack Obama as delivered to the joint session of Congress on Feb
...
whitehouse
...

2
For the purposes of this publication, the term “transition” refers to: (1) transition into postsecondary education
and (2) transition through to completion of postsecondary education
...
MPR Associates, Inc
...
The transition interventions discussed in this publication and evaluated by the two
literature review efforts may focus on one or more of the paths to and through postsecondary education
...


2

discusses the findings of these literature reviews
and their implications for future research and
policy development
...
Moreover, a review of selected
literature reveals that, to date, only a small
number of evaluations of transition interventions
have been completed using experimental
methods or other rigorous research designs, and,
even so, these studies have a number of
weaknesses, such as relying on a small sample
size or lacking a comparison group
...
This summary, therefore, focuses
on: (1) the barriers to successful transitions to
and through postsecondary education, (2) the
various types of transition interventions being
implemented, (3) the limited rigorous research
available on transition interventions, and (4) what
additional research is needed to determine which,
if any, might be considered effective
...

Federal efforts include the following: OVAE’s Transitioning English
Language Learners Project; Adult Basic Education Career
Connections; Ready for College: Adult Education Transition
Program; Beyond the GED: Community College Career Pathways;
and Adult Basic Education to Community College Transition Project
...


5

barriers
...
S
...
S
...
2002)
...
2007; Calcagno
and Long 2008; Pusser et al
...
Policy
barriers may include limits on financial aid to parttime students, state postsecondary funding
formulas that promote enrollment rather than
course completion, and the lack of alignment
among various levels of the education and
workforce development systems and other
government agencies, which results in gaps and
overlaps in a student’s educational path (Jenkins
2008; Mazzeo et al
...
S
...


Types of Transition Interventions
Transition interventions are designed to address
the individual, institutional, and policy barriers that
make transition to and through postsecondary
education difficult
...
2009)
...


Multiple Paths to and Through Postsecondary Education and to Employment

Path
Number Postsecondary Education Transition Path
1

High school to community or technical college

2

High school to four-year college/university

3

High school to adult education programs (ABE, ASE, EL, and workplace basic skills)

4

Retention in and completion of community or technical college

5

Retention in and completion of four-year college/university

6

Adult education programs to community or technical college

7

Adult education programs to four-year college/university

8

Community or technical college to four-year college/university

9

High school to employment

10

Adult education programs to employment

11

Community or technical college to employment

12

Four-year college/university to employment

13

Employment to adult education programs

14

Employment to community or technical college

15

Employment to four-year college/university

SOURCE: Valentine et al
...

NOTES: The OVAE literature reviews of transition intervention studies focused on paths that low-skilled adults and disadvantaged youths take
to and through postsecondary education
...
The paths shaded in gray—3, 7, 10, 13, 14, and 15—
were outside the scope of the literature reviews
...


educational systems,6 table 1 lists the various
paths to postsecondary education, including paths
from high school, adult education programs (adult
basic education, adult secondary education, and
English literacy),7 and employment
...

7
Adult basic education provides instruction in basic skills for adults
16 and over functioning at literacy levels below the secondary level
...
English literacy instruction is for adults who
lack proficiency in English and seek to improve their literacy and
competence in English
...

OVAE’s literature reviews of transition intervention
studies focused on the transition paths that lowskill adults and disadvantaged youths generally
take to and through postsecondary education (see
fig
...


4

Figure 1
...
, 2009, and modified by OVAE
...
The solid lines represent the
transition paths that were the focus of the literature reviews commissioned by OVAE
...
ABE means adult basic education; ASE means adult secondary education; and EL means English
literacy
...

The most common transition interventions
described in the studies range from small-scale
interventions, such as academic advising or
tutoring, to more comprehensive approaches

combining an array of services, such as bridge
programs
...
They
generally employ a combination of the following
interventions: competency-based curriculum;
academic, technical, and cognitive skills
instruction; learn-by-doing opportunities (e
...
,
simulations and internships) to develop academic
skills and career awareness; flexible scheduling

9

Additional examples of transition interventions will be provided in
two forthcoming companion publications
...
10
Although many transition interventions are
designed to strengthen or supplement curriculum
or instruction, some are policy oriented, such as
performance-based funding, which rewards
programs for increasing the number of students
advancing one or more educational levels in adult
and postsecondary education
...
12 All interventions were
designed to address one or more of the barriers
to successful transition noted above
...

• Supportive interventions are designed to
support students as they transition to
postsecondary education and complete their
degrees or certificate programs
...

• Academic preparation interventions are
designed to teach the content and skills needed
to transition to and succeed in postsecondary

10
For more information on bridge programs, see the Bridge Program
Planning Guide (http://www
...
com/html/083jenkins
...

11
For the purposes of this paper, educational levels refer to the levels
defined by a particular educational system
...

nrsonline
...
In the postsecondary education system, educational
levels generally correspond with the award of credits, a degree, or
other credential
...
S
...


education
...

• Policy interventions are designed to increase
access to postsecondary education for
nontraditional students
...


Searching for Evidence of Effectiveness
For the literature reviews that are the subject of
this publication, there was a wide net cast in
search of studies documenting the effectiveness
of transition interventions that identified
thousands of potential sources
...
Based on these studies, the literature
reviews were able to document some of the
objectives, needs, and challenges involved in
postsecondary transition, but there was
insufficient evidence to determine which transition
interventions could be considered effective or
serve as models
...
… The studies we did uncover

6

provide a weak basis for public policy,
since their designs tend not to be
strong and lack reporting details that
would allow us to assess the conditions
under which and characteristics of
students for whom the interventions
might be effective
...
2009)
...
These include: Breaking
Through (supported by the Charles Stewart Mott
Foundation), a multiyear demonstration project of
community college efforts to help low-literacy
adults prepare for and succeed in postsecondary
education; Bridges to Opportunity (supported by
the Ford Foundation), which works with agencies
in six states on a variety of policies and
interventions to support transition; and MDRC’s
Opening Doors, a multiyear demonstration project
that is evaluating the short- and long-term effects
of a variety of interventions on student
persistence in postsecondary education
...
13

Next Steps: A Clear Definition and Further
Research
DEFINING TRANSITION AND EFFECTIVENESS
A necessary step in determining what practices
are effective in aiding transition is to develop a
clear definition of “transition,” particularly for the
groups under consideration here
...
The typology
illustrated in figure 1 could serve as a useful
starting point by helping researchers identify what
interventions are being deployed for which
education levels and toward what specific goal or
outcome
...

This depends on the goal of the transition
intervention
...
For example, the What Works
Clearinghouse (WWC), of the U
...
Department of
Education’s Institute of Education Sciences,
specifies that studies documenting strong
evidence of effectiveness must include
randomized controlled trials that clearly describe
the intervention and methodology, provide shortand long-term outcome data for both intervention
and control groups using valid measures, be
replicated with similar results at more than one
site, and report effect sizes according to specified
levels of statistical significance (U
...
Department
of Education 2008b)
...
breakingthroughcc
...
communitycollegecentral
...
html (Bridges
to Opportunity), http://www
...
org/project_31_2
...
nmefdn
...


14
To view or download the What Works Clearinghouse Procedures
and Standards Handbook, go to http://ies
...
gov/ncee/wwc/
references/idocviewer/doc
...


7

information about “promising practices,” those
appearing potentially effective but lacking
rigorous supporting evidence
...
15 The National
Research Center for Career and Technical
Education offers this definition of promising
practices: “Methods, techniques, programs, or
strategies that are considered highly successful
by practitioners and for which evaluation
evidence is available indicating that such
strategies will likely produce better student
outcomes relative to current practice” (Stone
2007)
...


THE NEED FOR BETTER EVIDENCE
If public policy and funds are to be devoted to
promoting transition interventions, additional
information about what works is essential
...
Future studies should:
• Clearly identify the purpose, components, target
group, and expected outcomes for the transition
intervention
...

• Examine specific components of transition
interventions, as well as combinations of
components, to determine which are most
effective
...

Such research can begin to provide practitioners
with information about useful strategies and
enable program administrators and policymakers
to make sound decisions about how best to
deploy resources to support postsecondary
education transitions
...
promisingpractices
...
asp
...
g
...
Perkins Career and Technical
Education Act of 2006); (2) describe a formal
program or intervention addressing transition
from secondary education to college or
employment; (3) employ a rigorous methodology
(i
...
, random assignment); and (4) provide a
quantitative evaluation of program effects
...

Abadie, Margo
...
Comparison of Students
Enrolled in an Alternative Academic Program
with Regularly Enrolled Students in a
Research I University (Ph
...
diss
...
Source: ProQuest
Dissertation and Thesis Database
...
1998
...
(Ph
...
diss
...

Source: ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis
Database
...
Milton, and Diane F
...
1993
...


Cohen Goodman, M
...
The Effect of Journal
Writing on the Reading Comprehension, Study
Habits and Attitude of Underprepared College
Students
...
D
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) Source: ProQuest
Dissertation and Thesis Database
...
1991
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”
Psychological Reports, 69: 312–314
...
2002
...
(Ph
...
diss
...

Source: ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis
Database
...
1991
...
” Journal for
Research in Mathematics Education, 22: 409–
421
...
2006
...

(Ph
...
diss
...

Source: ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis
Database
...
2007
...
(Ph
...

diss
...
Source:
ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis Database
...
1995
...
(Ph
...
diss
...
Source:
ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis Database
...
Daniel, and Victoria Wohlt
...

“Effect of Tutoring on Voluntary School
Withdrawal of Academically Underprepared
Minority Students
...

Loiacono, Cynthia M
...
Promoting Freshman
College Student Development Using Cognitive
Developmental Theory Presented in a
Deliberate Psychological Education-Based
Freshman Orientation Program
...
D
...

The College of William and Mary
...

McGee, Sandra
...
Academic Success and
Belonging Among First-Generation
Community College Students
...
D
...

The Wright Institute
...


McGregor, Gerald D
...
2002
...
(Ph
...
diss
...

Source: ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis
Database
...
2007
...

(Ph
...
diss
...
Source: ProQuest Dissertation and
Thesis Database
...
2005
...
” Canadian
Journal of Education, 28: 853–873
...
2000
...
T
...
R
...
: A
Program Evaluation of a Freshman Peer
Support Retention Program
...
D
...

Loyola University of Chicago
...

Stovall, Martina L
...
Relationships Between
Participation in a Community College Success
Course and Academic Performance and
Persistence
...
D
...
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign
...


10

Studies on Transition Interventions for Out-ofSchool Youths and Adults With Low-literacy
Skills
To be included in the literature review on
transition interventions designed for out-of-school
youths and adults with low literacy skills, studies
needed to meet the following criteria: (1) pertain
to adult education students as the term “adult
education” is defined in Sec
...
e
...
Citations of studies meeting these
criteria follow
...

Forthcoming
...
Boston: Jobs for
the Future
...
2007
...
St
...


Richburg-Hayes, Lashawn, Thomas Brock, Allen
LeBlanc, Christina Paxson, Cecilia Elena
Rouse, and Lisa Barrow
...
Rewarding
Persistence: Effects of a Performance-Based
Scholarship Program for Low-Income Parents
...

Scrivener, Susan, Dan Bloom, Allen LeBlanc,
Christina Paxson, Cecilia Elena Rouse, and
Colleen Sommo
...
A Good Start: TwoYear Effects of Freshmen Learning
Community Program at Kingsborough
Community College
...

U
...
Department of Education, Office of
Vocational and Adult Education
...
Adult
Basic Education to Community College
Transitions Symposium: Proceedings Report
Washington, DC: Author
...
2008
...

Research, Report No
...
Olympia, WA:
Author
...
2008
...
CCRC
Working Paper No
...
New York: Community
College Research Center, Teachers College,
Columbia University
...
2007
...
Washington,
DC: U
...
Department of Labor, Employment
and Training Administration, Office of Policy
Development and Research
...

2008
...
The National Bureau of
Economic Research Working Paper No
...
New York: National Center for
Postsecondary Research
...
2008
...
New York: Ford
Foundation
...
2004
...
New York: Workforce Strategy Center
...
2005
...
Boulder, CO: National Center for
Higher Education Management Systems
...
2002
...
New York: MDRC
...
2006
...
New York: Workforce Strategy
Center
...
2007
...
Washington, DC: Institute for
Higher Education Policy
...
2007
...
Indianapolis, IN: Lumina
Foundation for Education
...
Promising Practices Network
...
How Programs Are Considered
...
promisingpractices
...
asp (accessed May 5, 2009)
...
“National Research Center for
Career & Technical Education Grant
Proposal,” Proposal submitted to the U
...

Department of Education, Office of Vocational
and Adult Education, Washington, DC, 2007

12

U
...
Department of Education
...
Trends in
Undergraduate Borrowing II: Federal Student
Loans in 1995–96, 1999–2000, and 2003–04
...
Washington, DC:
National Center for Education Statistics
...
S
...
2002
...
Findings from
the Condition of Eudcation 2002
...
Washington, DC: National Center
for Education Statistics
...
S
...
2008b
...
0)
...


Valentine, Jeffrey, Amy S
...
2009, September
...

V051A070003, grant from the U
...

Department of Education, Office of Vocational
and Adult Education
...


U
...
Department of Education
...
National
Assessment of Adult Literacy: A First Look at
the Literacy of America’s Adults in the 21st
Century
...
Washington, DC:
Institute for Education Sciences, National
Center for Education Statistics
...

www
...
gov



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