A Multi-College Evaluation of the California Acceleration Project
This third-party evaluation examines outcomes for 2,500 accelerated students at the first 16 California community colleges working with the California Acceleration Project. The study compared accelerated students’ completion of transfer-level English and math with students in traditional remedial sequences, using statistical methods to control for pre-existing differences between students. The researchers found that in “high-acceleration” English pathways, students’ odds of completing college English were 2.3 times higher than students in traditional remediation. In accelerated statistics pathways, students’ odds of completing transfer-level math were 4.5 times higher than in traditional remediation. They further found that all students had better outcomes in accelerated pathways, including all racial groups and placement levels, students in lower socio-economic groups, non-native English speakers, and students with disabilities.