Evaluating the ABS TPP's Effect on Adult Learners
Highlights
- Oregon wants to improve the Adult Basic Skills program.
- Abt is evaluating benefits of the Transition Planning Process.
- Abt will complete the evaluation in 2019.
Research found that Oregon's Adult Basic Skills (ABS) programs, run by community colleges, could better support students' GED® completion and transition to postsecondary programs. In response, Oregon created the ABS Transition Planning Process (TPP), a step-by-step program designed to help students complete their GED® credential and obtain a postsecondary credential. Oregon wants to evaluate the TPP to determine its impact and whether it needs revising.
Abt researchers are evaluating the impact of the TPP program through a randomized controlled trial in which students enrolled in ABS programs at community colleges are randomly assigned to receive either the support of ABS program staff (the control group) or the support of ABS program staff plus the additional support of TPP facilitators (the treatment group). We're comparing treatment and control student success in GED® test taking, earning a GED® credential and enrollment in a postsecondary course. Learn more.
When the project is complete in 2019, Abt will provide its evaluation of the efficacy of the TPP program. The project will hold a briefing on the results at the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission. The project will provide the findings to other practitioners and researchers through a publicly available free written brief made available online and through presentations and publications for both practitioner and academic professional organizations and journals.