Assessment of the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative: 2018 Final Technical Report
Mokher, Christine; Leeds, Daniel; Harris, Julie (2018). CNA Corporation. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED592887
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examining88,000Students, grades12-PS
Practice Guide
Review Details
Reviewed: October 2024
- Practice Guide (findings for Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): Postsecondary Education Readiness Test)
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Does not meet WWC standards because when reviewed as a quasi-experimental design under the group design standards, the analytic intervention and comparison groups do not satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement. This study is not eligible for review under WWC RDD standards because a proxy variable was used to estimate impacts rather than the actual forcing variable (see p. 57 of the version 4.1 WWC Standards Handbook).
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Study sample characteristics were not reported.Practice Guide
Review Details
Reviewed: October 2024
- Practice Guide (findings for Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): Developmental coursework)
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Does not meet WWC standards because when reviewed as a quasi-experimental design under the group design standards, the measures of effectiveness cannot be attributed solely to the intervention. This study is not eligible for review under WWC RDD standards because of the presence of the same confounding factor that prevented the measures of effectiveness to be attributed solely to the intervention in the review as a quasi-experimental design (see p. 57 of the version 4.1 WWC Standards Handbook).
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Study sample characteristics were not reported.Practice Guide
Review Details
Reviewed: October 2024
- Practice Guide (findings for Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses)
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Does not meet WWC standards because it uses a quasi-experimental design in which the analytic intervention and comparison groups do not satisfy the baseline equivalence requirement.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Study sample characteristics were not reported.Practice Guide
Review Details
Reviewed: October 2024
- Practice Guide (findings for Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses)
- Regression Discontinuity Design
- Meets WWC standards with reservations because it is a regression discontinuity design that completely satisfies the integrity of forcing variable standard, partially satisfies the continuity, functional form and bandwidth standards, and does not satisfy the attrition standard.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Enrolled in any college |
Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses vs. Business as usual |
3 Months |
Cohort 1 students in math courses;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- | |
|
Enrolled in any college |
Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses vs. Business as usual |
3 Months |
Cohort 1 students in English courses;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- | |
|
Enrolled in any college |
Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses vs. Business as usual |
3 Months |
Cohort 2 students in math courses;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- | |
|
Enrolled in any college |
Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses vs. Business as usual |
3 Months |
Cohort 2 students in English courses;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- |
|
Outcome measure |
Comparison | Period | Sample |
Intervention mean |
Comparison mean |
Significant? |
Improvement index |
Evidence tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Graduated high school or equivalent |
Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Cohort 1 students in math courses;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- | |
|
Graduated high school or equivalent |
Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Cohort 1 students in English courses;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- | |
|
Graduated high school or equivalent |
Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Cohort 2 students in English courses;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- | |
|
Graduated high school or equivalent |
Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI): College readiness and success courses vs. Business as usual |
0 Days |
Cohort 2 students in math courses;
|
N/A |
N/A |
No |
-- |
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Other or unknown: 100% -
Rural, Suburban, Town, Urban
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- B
- A
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- I
- H
- J
- K
- L
- P
- M
- N
- O
- Q
- R
- S
- V
- U
- T
- W
- X
- Z
- Y
- a
- h
- i
- b
- d
- e
- f
- c
- g
- j
- k
- l
- m
- n
- o
- p
- q
- r
- s
- t
- u
- v
- x
- w
- y
Florida
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Race Other or unknown 100% -
Ethnicity Other or unknown 100% -
Eligible for Free and Reduced Price Lunch Other or unknown 100%
Study Details
Setting
The study took place in over 450 public high schools in Florida districts.
Study sample
Over 100,000 grade 12 students were included in the study. The exact number of students was not reported in the study. This review used 11,000 students per group based on information provided in a table note, resulting in an analytical sample size of 88,000 across various outcomes and two cohorts of students. The study does not describe the characteristics of the sample. Students were eligible to receive the intervention if they scored below a given threshold on a state grade 11 Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) to assess their college preparedness. Students who scored above the threshold were assigned to the comparison group.
Intervention Group
Students in the intervention group were offered grade 12 college readiness and success courses, a component of the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI). The FCCRI is designed to reduce postsecondary remediation. The college readiness and success courses are designed to develop student readiness for college by better aligning the content in high school math and English courses to first year college courses. Schools offered one college readiness and success course in math and one in English out of five approved courses. Three of the five approved courses were one-semester courses: Mathematics for College Success, Reading for College Success, and Writing for College Success. Two of the five approved courses were two-semester courses: Mathematics for College Readiness and English 4: College Prep. Most high schools offered the two-semester courses. The Florida Department of Education set the topics covered in each course. However, the content and rigor of the courses varied across courses. Between about a half to two-thirds of students in the intervention condition enrolled in the college readiness and success courses.
Comparison Group
Students in the comparison condition also participated in the FCCRI but were not required to take the college readiness and success courses. All students were required to take 4 credits in math and 4 credits in English. Students in the comparison group were more likely to enroll in courses that provided honors or college credit than students in the intervention group. Between 5 and 25% of students in the comparison group chose to enroll in college readiness and success courses.
Support for implementation
Districts and high school administrators implemented the intervention with support from the Florida Department of Education. The Florida Department of Education provided the assessments and funding for high schools to administer them to students. The Florida Department of Education also set the topics to be covered in the college readiness and success courses, but the schools had discretion on how to implement the courses. The study cited challenges implementing the courses during the study period, lack of preparation time for the courses, lack of adequate materials, lack of funds at the school or district for adequate materials, and lack of clear goals for the course as implementation challenges.
Department-funded evaluation
Review Details
Reviewed: April 2024
- Department-funded evaluation (findings for Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI))
- The study is ineligible for review because it does not use an eligible design.
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Study sample characteristics were not reported.An indicator of the effect of the intervention, the improvement index can be interpreted as the expected change in percentile rank for an average comparison group student if that student had received the intervention.
For more, please see the WWC Glossary entry for improvement index.
An outcome is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are attained as a result of an activity. An outcome measures is an instrument, device, or method that provides data on the outcome.
A finding that is included in the effectiveness rating. Excluded findings may include subgroups and subscales.
The sample on which the analysis was conducted.
The group to which the intervention group is compared, which may include a different intervention, business as usual, or no services.
The timing of the post-intervention outcome measure.
The number of students included in the analysis.
The mean score of students in the intervention group.
The mean score of students in the comparison group.
The WWC considers a finding to be statistically significant if the likelihood that the finding is due to chance alone, rather than a real difference, is less than five percent.
The WWC reviews studies for WWC products, Department of Education grant competitions, and IES performance measures.
The name and version of the document used to guide the review of the study.
The version of the WWC design standards used to guide the review of the study.
The result of the WWC assessment of the study. The rating is based on the strength of evidence of the effectiveness of the intervention. Studies are given a rating of Meets WWC Design Standards without Reservations, Meets WWC Design Standards with Reservations, or >Does Not Meet WWC Design Standards.
A related publication that was reviewed alongside the main study of interest.
Study findings for this report.
Based on the direction, magnitude, and statistical significance of the findings within a domain, the WWC characterizes the findings from a study as one of the following: statistically significant positive effects, substantively important positive effects, indeterminate effects, substantively important negative effects, and statistically significant negative effects. For more, please see the WWC Handbook.
The WWC may review studies for multiple purposes, including different reports and re-reviews using updated standards. Each WWC review of this study is listed in the dropdown. Details on any review may be accessed by making a selection from the drop down list.
Tier 1 Strong indicates strong evidence of effectiveness,
Tier 2 Moderate indicates moderate evidence of effectiveness, and
Tier 3 Promising indicates promising evidence of effectiveness,
as defined in the
non-regulatory guidance for ESSA
and the regulations for ED discretionary grants (EDGAR Part 77).