12 for 2012 - 12 for 2012 is an ECS “read of the field,” built on our scrutiny of new reports and research, and our analysis of emerging drivers of change. The 12 policy areas do not represent an exhaustive list of the critical issues for the coming year, nor is this report intended to dictate your education policy priorities for 2012. Rather, 12 for 2012 is intended to stimulate thinking around how best to craft the “2.0” of powerful policy across the states. (ECS, 2012)...

Rebuilding the Remedial Education Bridge to College Success PDF - In this paper, Getting Past Go describes the current policy landscape for remedial education, explores the critical policy levers that guide the delivery of remedial education on college campuses and studies how policy has either facilitated or impeded innovation in the delivery of remedial education. It outlines some initial findings from the work to date and offers a proposed framework for further study of state and system policy related to remedial education. (Bruce Vandal, ECS, May 2010)...

An American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funding Opportunity: Redesigning Remedial and Developmental Education MS Word PDF - This ECS Alert describes the various sources of ARRA funds and offers suggestions for how states and postsecondary institutions might use this funding for one-time investments in education technology and curriculum development. Such investments would help meet the education and training needs of the growing dislocated worker population while also increasing the long-term level of institutional productivity. (Bruce Vandal, Education Commission of the States, June 2009) ...

The Progress of Education Reform: Developmental Education PDF - This issue of The Progress of Education Reform will address the following three questions: 1. What are the challenges that developmental education programs face that affect their success? 2. Are developmental education programs an effective strategy for increasing college attainment rates? 3. How can state policy improve the success of developmental education programs? (ECS, March 2008) ...

Developmental Studies/Remedial Education: What is the impact of policy and practice? - Access related research titles from the ECS Research Studies Database. Links embedded in titles will take you to each study's major findings and recommendations....

Developmental Studies/Remedial Education: What role does and can it play in college completion? - Access related research titles from the ECS Research Studies Database. Links embedded in titles will take you to each study's major findings and recommendations....

Developmental Education: A Barrier to a Postsecondary Credential for Millions of Americans - Bottom line, community colleges are under the gun from two directions: too many students arrive unprepared, and expectations are higher than ever for the colleges to produce educated, career-ready workers. What do we know? Completion rates are low because students don't survive developmental ed. Short-term reforms have short-term results. Comprehensive reforms are hard to scale up. Showing promise: letting student enroll in regular classes with a companion developmental class. Next? Aligning common core high school standards with college standards so students come in better prepared. (MDRC, February 2013)...

First-Year Undergraduate Remedial Coursetaking: 1999-2000, 2003-04, 2007-08 - Rates of remedial course taking have dropped since 1999-2000, this report suggests. In 1999-2000, 26% of first-year undergraduates reported taking remedial courses, 19% in 2003-04 and 20% in 2007-08. While the authors say these numbers may indicate increased college readiness, they don't control for such policies and practices as an acceptance policy that requires developmental work to be done before admission, or changes in evaluation of student need.(NCES, January 2013)...

What Can a Multifaceted Program Do for Community College Students?: Early Results From an Evaluation of Accelerated Study in Associate Programs for Developmental Education S - The City University of New York’s ASAP program requires full-time attendance and offers comprehensive supports to community college students for three full years. Early results from a random assignment study show that ASAP increases credits earned, full-time enrollment, and completion of developmental (or remedial) coursework. (MDRC, June 2012)...

Remediation: Higher Education's Bridge to Nowhere - This report finds that too many students entering college need remediation, and that most of these students don't make it through college level gateway courses or graduate. The report then identifies four steps states should take to address this problem, including: strengthen high school preparation; start students in college-level courses with built-in, co-requisite support; embed needed academic help in multiple gateway courses, and; encourage students to enter programs of study when they first enroll. (Complete College America, April 2012)...

The Opposing Forces that Shape Developmental Education: Assessment, Placement and Progression at CUNY Community Colleges - Based on a case study of the City University of New York's six community colleges, this report proposes a new opposing forces framework for understanding the dysfunction of the developmental system. The authors identified three sets of opposing forces that shape developmental policy and practice. Within each set, both goals are important and worthy, both are championed by key stakeholders in the system, and both have direct impacts on developmental policy. However the two goals tend to work in opposition to each other. (Community College Research Center, Teacher College-Columbia, November 2011)...

Unlocking the Gate: What We Know About Improving Developmental Education--Executive Summary - One of the greatest challenges that community colleges face in their efforts to increase graduation rates is improving the success of students in their developmental, or remedial, education programs. Emphasizing results from experimental and quasi-experimental studies, this literature review identifies the most promising approaches for revising the structure, curriculum, or delivery of developmental education and suggests areas for future innovations in developmental education practice and research. (MDRC, June 2011)...

Shining a Light on College Remediation in Colorado: The Predictive Utility of the ACT for Colorado and the Colorado Student Assessment Program - These findings suggest that a strategy of targeting efforts to improve all students' academic skills across all subgroups (ethnicity, socioeconomic status, students with disabilities) before they graduate from high school and enter postsecondary institutions, the workforce or the military could potentially reduce the amount of remediation required in postsecondary institutions. (Colorado Department of Education, March 2011)...

Effective Basic Skills Instruction: The Case for Contextualized Developmental Math - Recent research on students entering California community colleges found that less than 10% of students entering at the basic arithmetic or pre-algebra math level successfully complete college-level math. Overall, fewer than 20% complete a college-level math course, earn a certificate, degree or transfer to a four-year university within six years. In 2006 regulations were changed to strengthen the core curriculum for the California community colleges associate degree. Many occupationally-focused and "contextualized" math courses were eliminated. These integrated courses often focus on the mathematics required in specific occupations, starting with basic arithmetic or pre-algebra and progressing into intermediate algebra, and have significantly higher success rates than traditional math courses. Unfortunately, these contextualized courses were eliminated as they no longer meet the requirements for the associate degree. But the low success rates that are common in remedial math courses in the academic model mean that few students will be able to acquire the occupational skills necessary to complete an advanced occupational course, certificate or degree. (PACE, January 2011)...

Improving Developmental Mathematics Education in Community Colleges: A Prospectus and Early Progress Report on the Statway Initiative - At the heart of the Statway Initiative is a novel approach to improvement-focused organizational learning and development that is designed to create promising solutions to critical, high-leverage problems of teaching and learning. The approach, called Design Educational Engineering Development has been conceptualized in a number of papers from prominent individuals. (Jenna Cullinane and Philip Treisman, National Center for Postsecondary Research, September 2010)...

Remedial and Developmental Education Policy at a Crossroads - The Education Commission of the States and the Center for Postsecondary Research on Preparation, Access and Remedial Education (PRePARE) at the University of Massachusetts Boston, have released a new paper that contends remedial education has and will continue to play a critical role in ensuring access to higher education and increasing college completion rates among the large population of Americans who now need a college credential to fully participate in a rapidly changing, knowledge-based, global economy. (Getting Past Go, August 2010)...

Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Reading: An Impact Study at Hillsborough Community College--Executive Summary - This report presents results from a rigorous random assignment study of a basic learning community program in Florida of six participating community colleges focusing on effectiveness of the program in helping students in need of developmental education. Findings show: The most salient feature was co-enrollment of students into linked courses, creating student cohorts; overall the learning communities program did not have a meaningful impact of student success. (Michael Weiss, Mary Visher and Heather Wathington, National Center for Postsecondary Research, June 2010)...

Promoting Gatekeeper Course Success Among Community College Students Needing Remediation: Findings and Recommendations from a Virginia Study - This summary report discusses a Community College Research Center study that examined student characteristics, course-taking patterns, and other factors associated with higher probabilities that students in community colleges who require remediation will take and pass math and English gatekeeper courses. (Davis Jenkins, Shanna Smith Jaggars and Josipa Roksa, Community College Research Center, November 2009)...

Strategies for Promoting Gatekeeper Course Success Among Students Needing Remediation - Study designed to help community colleges develop strategies for improving the rate at which academically underprepared students take and pass initial college-level (or "gatekeeper') courses in math and English. (Jospia Roksa, Davis Jenkins, Shanna Jaggar, Matthew Zeldenberg and Sung-Woo Cho, Community college Research Center, November 2009)...

Toward Information Assessment and a Culture of Evidence - This report discusses the myriad ways in which colleges have used both traditional measures of student performance as well as more innovative forms of assessment and data collection to improve pedagogical practice and to enhance student learning. (Lloyd Bond, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, May 2009)...

Rethinking Developmental Education in Community Colleges - This brief reviews evidence of students who enter community college with weak academic skills, and it summarizes study findings on the effectiveness of developmental education. It suggests that, on average, developmental education is not very effective in overcoming student weaknesses. (Thomas Bailey, Community College Research Center, February 2009)...

Technology Solutions for Developmental Math: An Overview of Current and Emerging Practices - This report looks at the challenges of remediation math skills in community colleges and the potential of technology to address these challenges. (Colorado Community College System, January 2009)...

Referral, Enrollment, and Completion in Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the patterns and determinants of student progression through sequences of developmental education starting from initial referral. The results indicate that only three to four out of 10 students who are referred to remediation actually complete the entire sequence to which they are referred. (Community College Research Center, Thomas Bailey, Dong Wook Jeong and Sung-Woo Cho, December 2008)...

Remediation in the Community College: An Evaluator’s Perspective - Remediation is the most common policy choice for preparing students academically and socially during their early stages of college. But despite its profound importance and its significant costs, there is very little rigorous research analyzing its effectiveness. This paper provides a conceptual framework for the evaluation of remedial education programs. (Henry Levin and Juan Carlos Calcagno, Community College Research Center, May 2007)...

Accelerating Remedial Math Education: How Institutional Innovation and State Policy Interact - One of the most pressing challenges facing community colleges is improving outcomes for students who place into developmental math courses. This policy brief looks at efforts in three community colleges, two of which are Achieving the Dream institutions, to revamp their remedial math programming. It focuses on the ways in which state and system policies interact with institutional reform efforts—and how policies can either support or slow institutional change. (Radha Roy Biswas, Jobs for the Future, 2007)...

Stepping Stones to a Degree: The Impact of Enrollment Pathways and Milestones on Older Community College Student Outcomes - This report presents findings from a study of the experiences and outcomes of older and younger community college students, comparing the impact of enrollment pathways (such as remediation) and enrollment milestones (such as attaining a certain number of credits) on educational outcomes of older students – those who entered college for the first time at age 25 or later – with those of traditional-age students. Results suggest that reaching milestones such as obtaining 20 credits or completing 50% of a program is a more important positive factor affecting graduation probabilities for younger students than it is for older students. Although enrollment in remedial courses decreases the odds of graduating for all students, older students who enroll in remediation are less negatively affected than are younger ones who do the same. Also available is a report summary. (Juan Carlos Calcagno, Peter Crosta, Thomas Bailey and Davis Jenkins, Teachers College, October 2006)...

Remedial Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions in Fall 2000 - This publication features nationwide data on the prevalence and the characteristics of remedial coursework, instruction and student participation at postsecondary institutions in fall 2000. It also explores changes in remedial education since 1995. Researchers found that 76% of all Title IV degree-granting two- and four-year institutions offered at least one remedial reading, writing or mathematics course for incoming freshman. They also found that 28% of entering freshman enrolled in at least one remedial course and completed remediation in one year or less. Distance education and the use of technology in the delivery of remedial education also is covered in this extensive report. (Basmat Parsad and Laurie Lewis, National Center for Education Statistics, 2003)...

No One To Waste: A Report to Public Decision-Makers and Community College Leaders MS Word - Written by a long-time advocate for the underprepared student, No One To Waste argues that remedial education should be a higher priority not only because it is inseparable from the philosophy of access, but also because the nation cannot afford to lose potential workers. The study found that students who are successfully remediated become productively employed. Almost 16% become professionals; 53.7% obtain mid-level, white-collar or technical positions; 19.8% become high-skill, blue-collar workers; and only 9.2% remain in unskilled or in low-skill jobs. The report, which also includes findings and recommendations, is not available online but can be ordered from the American Association of Community Colleges, One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 410, Washington, DC 20036, 202-728-0200. (Robert H. McCabe, Community College Press, 2000)...

Remedial Education at Higher Education Institutions in Fall 1995 MS Word - This survey was designed to provide current national estimates about the extent of remediation on college campuses. It examined participation in college-level remedial education, characteristics of remedial courses and programs, and policies or laws that affect remedial education. (National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, 1996)...