Developmental Education Summaries

Institutional Decision Making for Increasing Academic Preparedness in Community College, New Directions in Community Colleges: Responding to the Challenges of Developmental Education, vol. 129, pp. 27-38.  

Author: Dolores Perin
Date: Spring 2005

This article provides an overview of current organizational and instructional approaches to developmental education at fifteen community colleges across the country. The study, part of the National Field Study conducted by the Community College Research Center, found a great variety of practices at the colleges, highlighting a lack of consensus on how best to increase academic preparedness. The author provides a template for institutional decision-making to improve developmental education outcomes: a four-step process to guide college administrators and faculty so they are better able to plan for preparing students for college curricula.

Remediaton Beyond Developmental Education: The Use of Learning Assistance Centers to Increase Academic Preparedness in Community Colleges. Community College Journal of Research and Practice. 28: 559-582. 

Author: Dolores Perin
Date: 2004

A second study by Dolores Perin examines the use of learning assistance centers and specialized skill labs in fifteen community colleges around the country.  This study concludes that academic support centers are an important means of increasing students' academic readiness for college-level work, providing an important remedial role in math, reading and writing, primarily through tutoring and computer-assisted instruction. The colleges in the study reported increases in retention in English and increases in GPA. Perin recommends that future research compare the effectiveness of learning assistance services and developmental education courses in boosting students' basic academic skills.

Addressing the Needs of Under-Prepared Students in Higher Education: Does College Remediation Work?
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Author: Eric P. Bettinger and Bridget Terry Long
Date: April 2005

Eric Bettinger and Bridget Terry Long, Professors from Case Western Reserve University and the Harvard Graduate School of Education respectively, examined the effects of math and English remediation in a study using a dataset of 28,000 Ohio freshmen. The results suggest that students in remediation are more likely to persist in college when compared to students with similar test scores and backgrounds who were not required to take the courses. Students placed in developmental education are also more likely to transfer to a higher-level college and to complete a bachelor's degree than similar students who were not required to take developmental courses. The authors emphasize that their findings may be less relevant for students who come to college with seriously deficient in English and math skills. The methodology used in this study may lend itself to replication or adaptation for study in other states with good data systems.

How College Affects Students. Volume 2. A Third Decade of Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. pp. 373- 444.
Author: Ernest Pascarella and Patrick Terenzini.
Date: 2005

Ernest Pascarella and Patrick Terenzini have published a new edition of their comprehensive review of research on how college affects students. The chapter on educational attainment and persistence (Chapter 8) synthesizes research on a range of factors that affect persistence, including programmatic interventions such as developmental education, first-year seminars, advising and counseling, and supplemental instruction. A very useful introduction to the research evidence on program effectiveness in improving attainment and persistence.

Building Learning Communities: Early Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration at Kingsborough Community College. New York: MDRC.
Author: Dan Bloom and Collen Sommo.
Date: June 2005

Opening Doors is a research project led by MDRC testing special programs designed to increase student persistence and achievement at six community colleges. One of the participating colleges is Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York. Kingsborough is testing a learning communities model for freshmen students, most of whom failed one or more placement tests in reading, writing, and math. The program places incoming freshmen in cohorts up to 25 students for three first-semester courses, supported by extra tutoring, counseling, and a voucher to purchase books. The rigorous evaluation by MDRC has found that the first group of participating students have achieved higher course pass rates, particularly in English, and were more likely to complete remedial English requirements after one year than peers in the control group. Future reports will assess results for more students over a longer time.