Evan Weissman

Bridging the Gap: An Impact Study of Eight Developmental Summer Bridge Programs in Texas

The National Center for Postsecondary Research is a partnership of the Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University; MDRC; the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia; and faculty at Harvard University. Across the country, a growing number of recent high school graduates are participating in summer bridge programs. These programs provide accelerated and focused learning opportunities in order to help students acquire the knowledge and skills needed for college success. The state of Texas has given particular attention to summer programs as a way to increase students’ college readiness. During the past several years, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) has provided support to colleges establishing developmental summer bridge programs offering intensive remedial instruction in math, reading, and/or writing, along with an introduction to college. In contrast with traditional developmental education course sequences, which may span several semesters, the summer bridge programs were designed to help underprepared students build competencies over the course of several weeks before entering college.

Entrepreneurial Endeavors: (Re)Producing Neoliberalization through Urban Agriculture Youth Programming in Brooklyn, New York.

Driven by social and environmental criticism of the neoliberalization of agro-food systems, urban agriculture today enjoys renewed interest throughout the United States as a primary space to engage the politics of food. Using Brooklyn, New York as a case study, I employ mixed qualitative methods to investigate the contradictions that arise in tensions between the goals of urban agriculture and its practice. Education and youth development programming figure prominently in Brooklyn’s urban agriculture movement and provide insights into understanding the neoliberalization of food politics, especially an emphasis on market mechanisms as central to human well-being and the disciplining of youth in the skills and modes of conduct required by the neoliberal economy. Although current trends indicate that urban agriculture youth programming works to (re)produce neoliberalism and undercuts the political efficacy of Brooklyn’s urban agriculture, these projects simultaneously produce openings for building political solidarities.

The Impact of Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Education A Synthesis of Findings From Randomized Trials at Six Community Colleges

Community colleges play a vital role in postsecondary education, enrolling more than one in every three postsecondary students. While their importance has grown over the past 50 years, their students’ success rates remain low. Consequently, community college stakeholders are searching with mounting urgency for approaches that increase students’ success rates. “Learning communities” are one popular strategy. This article describes the results of one of the largest (n ≈ 7,000) independent randomized trials in higher education history—an evaluation of the effectiveness of learning communities for students in developmental education at six community colleges throughout the United States. The estimated overall average effects of learning communities are positive, although quite modest.

A Case Study: Advancing Public Health through Gardens for Healthy Communities (GHC) in New York City: The Role of Anti-obesity Objectives in Urban Agriculture Policy

This case study explores the effectiveness of the urban gardening program Gardens for Healthy Communities (GHC) as a public health strategy intended to reverse obesity trends in New York City. The GHC program originated from the Obesity Task Force, a multi-agency work group commissioned by Mayor Bloomberg in 2013 charged with identifying innovative policies to prevent as well as reduce obesity. 18 in-depth interviews with garden advocates and GHC garden members (7 and 11 interviews respectively) reveal that the driving motivation for participating in the selected GHC gardens was less about obesity, specifically, and more about the public health and community development benefits including: a meeting place for civic engagement and environmental awareness, a space for community and health-oriented partnership, and a social bridge to build community cohesion. Through the community right to public space and gardens, the GHC gardens reveal the power of engaging anti-obesity objectives in driving community development and urban agriculture forward.