Improving the Transition to College - Estimating the Impact of High School Transition Courses on Short-Term College Outcomes

Oct 3, 2026

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Many recent high school graduates enter college underprepared for college-level work and must take remedial or developmental mathematics and/or English. High remediation rates correlate with lower persistence and completion. To improve readiness, some states and districts implement “transition courses” for seniors identified as underprepared. Using a regression discontinuity design, this study estimates effects of a mathematics transition course in West Virginia for 2011–12 and 2012–13 cohorts.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages41

Reading Time1 h 43 min

AccessFree to download

1. Introduction

1.1 Underprepared Students: Reasons and Consequences

1.2 Background on Transition Courses

1.3 Transition Courses in West Virginia

2. Data and Measures

2.1 Descriptive Statistics

3. Methods

3.1 Examining Discontinuities at the Cutoff

3.2 Intent to Treat Analysis

3.3 Treatment on the Treated Analysis

3.4 Estimating the Parameters of Interest

4. Results

4.1 Supplemental Analyses: Exploring Potential Mechanisms

5. Discussion and Conclusion

References

Appendix: Scatter Plots of WESTEST 2 Mathematics Test Scores in Relation to Secondary Outcomes of Interest (2011–12 and 2012–13 Senior Cohorts)

Improving the Transition to College: Estimating the Impact of High School Transition Courses on Short-Term College Outcomes Lara Pheatt Madeline Joy Trimble Elisabeth A. Barnett March 2016 CCRC Working Paper No. 86 Address correspondence to: Lara Pheatt Research Associate, Community College Research Center Teachers College, Columbia University 525 W 120th St, Box 174 New York, NY 10027 212-678-3091 [Email:](Email: pheatt@tc.columbia.edu)[ ](Email: pheatt@tc.columbia.edu)[pheatt@tc.columbia.edu](Email: pheatt@tc.columbia.edu) Funding for this research was provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. We are grateful to the West Virginia Department of Education and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission for their research partnership and assistance with providing administrative data; to Shanna Smith Jaggars, Judy Scott-Clayton, and Maggie Fay for important feedback on our research design and contextual framing; to Peter Hinrichs and Stephanie Cellini for serving as excellent discussants on related drafts ofthis paper; and to Betsy Yoon for her thoughtful editing of the paper. Abstract Many recent high school graduates remain inadequately prepared for college and are required to enroll in remedial or developmental education courses in mathematics or English upon enrollment in college. High rates of college remediation are associated with lower progression and college completion rates. To address this problem, some states, districts, and individual high schools have introduced “transition courses” to prepare students for college-level math and English coursework. Transition courses are typically offered to high school seniors who have been assessed as being underprepared for college math or English. This study uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of participation in a mathematics transition course on college-level math outcomes in West Virginia for the 2011–12 and 2012–13 high school senior cohorts. Our findings suggest that, among students who scored very close to the cutoff score on an assessment used to decide what students took the course, the math transition course had no statistically significant effect on improving college readiness (as measured by exemption from remedial education upon college entry due to a passing score on a placement test) and infact had a negative impact on students’ likelihood of passing a college gatekeeper math course. Possible explanations for these outcomes include that (1) the transition course may have displaced traditional senior-year courses that were in practice more rigorous than the transition course or that provided positive impacts from inclusion of higher performing peers, and that (2) the transition course curricula may not have been well aligned to the skills required for success on the COMPASS placement test. Most students who took the transition course did not pass the COMPASS, which was taken at the conclusion of the course. The specific math course studied is no longer offered; math transition courses in West Virginia now use a different curriculum. Table of Contents 1. Introduction................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Underprepared Students: Reasons and Consequences .............................................. 2 1.2 Background on Transition Courses ........................................................................... 3 1.3 Transition Courses in West Virginia ......................................................................... 4 2. Data and Measures ....................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Descriptive Statistics ................................................................................................. 9 3. Methods..................................................................................................................

FAQs

What problem do high school transition courses aim to address?

Transition courses are designed to prepare underprepared high school seniors for college-level mathematics and English, reducing reliance on remedial or developmental education after enrollment.

What study design is used to estimate the course impact?

The study uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate effects of participation in a mathematics transition course for West Virginia cohorts in 2011–12 and 2012–13.

What were the main findings about short-term college outcomes?

Among students near the assessment cutoff, the math transition course showed no statistically significant improvement in college readiness and had a negative impact on the likelihood of passing a college gatekeeper math course.

Oct 3, 2026

Upload by Angel