We Sit Side by Side: How Course Peers Shape the Achievement and Success of At-Promise Students

Higher education scholarship reflects no consensus on the impact of peers on academic outcomes. This inconsistency may stem from the absence of a common methodological approach to estimate peer effects. Using administrative records of two cohorts of low-income students participating in a comprehensive college transition program across three campuses, we employ complex systems network thinking to estimate if students impact and are impacted by their peers’ performance in loose-cohort learning community courses. Findings provide evidence of peer/spillover effects in cumulative GPA, persistence, and credits attained. Loose-cohort learning communities promote academic achievement and success for students with varying prior academic performance.