A Cost Effectiveness Study of the First Year of PCC Pathways,

College Research - Project of the Year

Description: Summary of the results from Pasadena City College's PCC Pathways program.

Purpose

Pasadena City College developed PCC Pathways in 2011 to increase the number of students who complete their academic goals in a timely manner. The program does this by guaranteeing math andEnglish/ESL in students’ first year of college, a college readiness course in their first semester, and providing a comprehensive set of support services to increase students’ success, persistence, and completion rates.PCC Pathways has grown each year to meet the college’s objective of effectively serving all students: 325 student were in enrolled in the 2011-12 Pathways cohort, and approximately 2,350 students areenrolled in the 2016-17 cohort. To support the program’s growth, the college has invested additionalr esources each year. The college has taken steps to measure the program’s effectiveness. In 2015, the UCLA Social Research Methodology Evaluation Group conducted a comprehensive evaluation of three cohorts (2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15) and determined that the program was making significant progress in helping students complete their goals. In addition to measuring outcomes, the college also wanted to ensure that resources were being used efficiently to help the college meet its strategic goals. In fall 2016, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) conducted a cost-effectiveness study of the First Year Pathways program to ensure that college resources are being used prudently.

Method

A cost-effectiveness study compares policy or education alternatives based on their costs to a quantifiable effectiveness measure. The goal of such a study is to compare multiple programs with thesame outcome on their efficiency of resource used. A cost-effectiveness analysis ratio is the cost of a program over the quantifiable outcome. Using this framework, OIE evaluation staff completed a cost-effectiveness study of the 2013-2014 PCCPathways cohort to assess the academic and monetary impact of the program on completion rates. The cost-effectiveness study was conducted on the 2013-2014 cohort for two reasons: 1) sufficient time had passed to assess completion and 2) the college had completed the implementation of its new Student Information System, Banner, which provided evaluators with comprehensive and reliable cost data.'