Increased rates of college participation have been accompanied by more significant demand in the need for developmental or remedial education. Currently, nearly one-third of first-year college students require remedial education in reading, writing, or mathematics. The majority of remediation is provided in community colleges and less selective public universities. Developmental education courses, which generally do not count for credit towards a degree, usually must be completed before enrollment into credit bearing courses, and a degree program. Developmental education course work can range from one to four or more courses, and take one or more semesters to complete, depending on student performance in these courses. Student need for developmental education is directly linked with increased time to completion, as students spend more time taking courses that don't count towards their degrees.
Students who need developmental education are likely to enroll in a local community college - often because of its open admission/enrollment policy. In at least seven states - including Florida and Illinois - systems require students who need developmental education courses to take them at community colleges exclusively, so a student may not have a choice. Students in developmental education courses in community colleges may face additional constraints given the number of students seeking these courses, and other effects of institutional crowding.
Furthermore, students enrolling in developmental education often face the same lack of information about course choice experienced by many students. Evidence posits that only three to four of every ten students in a developmental education sequence continue after the first course. Among the factors contributing to exit after the first course, many students report course choice (e.g., did not correctly enroll in the first course in the sequence), rather than poor performance. Moreover, more than one-third of all students who did not finish their first developmental education course did not go on to complete any college-level courses within three years (Bailey 2009).
Additional student advising may be needed to ensure that students enroll in needed courses to build skills to transition into college-level courses. The City University of New York is expected to open a new community college with programs designed to overcome this remediation/credit-bearing divide (The NEW CUNY Community College Initiative). The new college - while maintaining open admissions - will require all students to take a comprehensive core curriculum, and begin to meet with a college counselor prior to enrollment. These choices in design reflect a desire to have students focus on credit accumulation and program/degree completion. Although controversial, all new students will also be required to take a minimum of twelve credits in their first semester to ensure a successful transition to college-level work.
Many community colleges have opted to implement interventions to support student acceleration with developmental education sequences. States and systems have put policies in place that support these different institution-level options for acceleration. For example, Virginia has a variable-credit structure so that colleges can offer courses of different credit loads calibrated to meet student remediation needs. The state also allows for courses to be offered outside of the traditional semester schedule, responding to the needs of working or non-traditional students. This policy also provides for compressed time and/or refresher courses for students scoring just below college-ready level on placement tests. At an institution level, the Community College of Denver's FastStart@CCD program accelerates learning by compressing two to four levels of developmental math, reading, or English into one semester. Students receive additional support for their academic courses in the form of study groups, an educational case manager, and access to learning labs and other support services. (Biswas 2007).
States have also begun to identify students who may need college remediation while they are still in high school. Most widely known, the California State University (CSU) Early Assessment Program tests high school juniors' readiness for college-level work in math and English. Those students who take the test and are "CSU-ready" can bypass the SAT or ACT. Those who do not qualify have the opportunity to improve their skills during the last year of high school. CSU and the California Department of Education also took steps to integrate university placement standards into high school standards.
Community colleges have initiated campus-wide learning centers offering online, self-paced developmental education courses, learning workshops on particular study skill topics, supplemental instruction, and extensive tutoring. Some colleges, such as Portland Community College in Oregon, have encouraged students with fewer developmental education requirements to utilize learning center services in complement to entry-level, credit-bearing college courses, thereby bypassing development education sequences. This option will allow some students to customize, or possibly shorten, the amount of time in developmental education. Indeed, a learning center approach to developmental education has been associated with increased retention in courses, higher grade point averages (GPAs), and faster movement through developmental education. However, this approach places additional demand on administrators who must coordinate services for students who need them, ensuring that students who opt for more rigorous courses are supported. Additional evidence is needed to test the widespread feasibility of the approach (Perin 2004).
For a full list of Developmental Education resources from the TTC database, click here.