Leveraging Technology and Engaging Students (LTES)
Leveraging Technology and Engaging Students (LTES)
LTES is a collaboration between the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR), and the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California. Our goal is to provide actionable insights into the challenges and responses of LACCD to the Covid-19 pandemic.
LTES is a member of the Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges (ARCC) Network, a collaborative of partners working on nine projects in total.
The Leveraging Technology and Engaging Students: Evaluating Covid-19 Recovery Efforts in the Los Angeles Community College District project is fully funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305X220018 to the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
About LACCD
The Los Angeles Community College District consists of nine campuses in the Los Angeles area. In fall 2022, LACCD enrolled over 90,000 students, making it one of the largest individual community college districts in the country. LACCD serves a diverse population of students and offers a range of educational opportunities and programs of study.
Our Research
LTES addresses four research strands:
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Influences of the Covid-19 pandemic on LACCD, particularly student enrollment, academic success, and decision-making around engagement with LACCD
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Responses of LACCD to the challenges of Covid-19, particularly innovations in course modality and the relationship of those changes with student psychosocial outcomes and faculty wellbeing
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Impact of these changes on students, with a focus on the impact of online and hybrid course modalities on student academic outcomes
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Continued improvements and scaling, with a focus on costs, optimal proportion of distance education course offerings in LACCD’s overall schedule, and considerations for students choosing between modalities for a given course
We are using a mix of causal, descriptive, and mixed methods to answer our research questions, drawing on LACCD administrative data, student and faculty survey responses, student and faculty focus groups, observations, and public data.
2026 Research and Reports
Financing Community Colleges: Current Landscape and Future Directions
This chapter describes the community college landscape with a focus on state funding formulas, enrollment declines, and federal recovery investments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2025 Research and Reports
Delivering at Scale: Implementation Integrity of Enhanced Success Coaching in a Community College Promise Program
This brief examines the implementation of an enhanced student coaching pilot for the Los Angeles College Promise in LACCD, finding strong implementation fidelity but limited student take-up, which may constrain impacts on persistence and completion.
The Price of Flexibility? Evaluating the True Cost of Distance Education
This brief analyzes the costs of distance education in LACCD, finding that asynchronous courses require the most faculty time and that faculty labor dominates instructional costs across modalities.
How Remote is Success? The impact of course modality on community college student success
This brief examines how online and hybrid course modalities affect student outcomes in LACCD, finding small but persistent negative impacts on GPA and persistence that have diminished since the pandemic and vary by modality and course mix.
Going the Distance or Growing More Remote? The Academic Impacts of Course Modality following Pandemic-Era Investments
This brief examines how online course participation affects student outcomes in LACCD, finding slight GPA reductions, no effect on credits earned, and moderate negative impacts on persistence that vary by modality, dosage, and course subject.
Navigating the Path to Success or Drifting Off Course? Analyzing the Impacts of Online Course Formats in LACCD
This brief examines faculty perceptions and student outcomes related to online education in LACCD, finding that course modality influences academic success in ways that vary across subjects despite expanded investments in online learning.
The Los Angeles College Promise
This brief examines the Los Angeles College Promise in LACCD, finding that participating students show stronger enrollment intensity, persistence, and completion outcomes than other first-time students, with ongoing efforts to further improve persistence.
2024 Research and Reports
Labor Market Opportunities and Declining Community College Enrollment in the Pandemic Era
This brief shows that stronger post-pandemic labor market opportunities—especially higher earnings and increased workforce participation—likely contributed to declining community college enrollment in Los Angeles County.
Regaining Ground: Enrollment Trends in the Los Angeles Community College District in the Wake of COVID-19
This brief examines enrollment trends in LACCD before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, finding accelerated enrollment declines and uneven recovery across student populations, with important equity and fiscal implications.
2023 Research and Reports
"We Will Not Go Back to What We Had”: Faculty’s Efforts to Deliver Effective Distance Education in the LACCD
This brief shows that while LACCD faculty are deeply committed to making distance education work for students, sustaining high-quality online and hybrid instruction requires stronger institutional supports for faculty practice and well-being.
Four Lessons on Remote Learning: Los Angeles Community College District Faculty Share Strategies for Student Engagement in Distance Education Courses
This brief examines faculty experiences with distance education in LACCD, drawing on focus groups conducted as part of the LTES study following significant pandemic-era investments in online learning.
In the News
Navigating the Path to Success or Drifting Off Course? Analyzing the Impacts of Online Course Formats in LACCD
Are Labor Market Opportunities Diverting Potential Community College Students? Lessons From Los Angeles County
Examining Losses and Recoveries in Community College Enrollment: Lessons From the Los Angeles Community College District
Meet the LTES Team
Our project team is comprised of experts in community colleges, higher education, program evaluation, and course modalities. Project team members are currently at research institutions, community colleges, and local non-profit organizations. Each brings expertise and practical experience invaluable to LTES. To learn more about our team members, read below!
Contact LTES
If you have questions about the study, please reach out to ltes@gse.harvard.edu