Students enrolled in Student Development courses (SDEV) have higher productive grade rates and persistence rates than students not enrolled in SDEV.
Alamo Colleges
Active in Achieving the Dream:
2004 - present
Leader College:
2010 - 2013
Leader College
Participating Institution
Student development courses (SDEV) for first-time-in-college (FTIC) students improve first semester productive grade rates, and seem to influence increased retention, persistence, and completion rates at the Alamo Colleges.
What We Are Doing:
Since 2007, more than 34,400 FTIC students have taken courses to improve academic and personal success.
- Cohorts of students who earned an A, B, or C in Foundations for College Learning (SDEV0370), a first-year seminar, had productive grade rates of 71% to 76% in all courses
- Cohorts of students who earned an A, B, or C in College Success (SDEV0170) had productive grade rates of 72.4% to 76% in all courses
- Cohorts of students who did not take either course had productive grade rates of 60% to 66%
Who We Are:
The five Alamo Colleges—San Antonio, St. Philip’s, Palo Alto, Northeast Lakeview, and Northwest Vista—serve San Antonio and the surrounding Bexar County communities.
In Fall 2010, 20% of the 58,000 students enrolled at the Alamo Colleges received Pell grants. While 52% of the colleges’ students are Hispanic, 70% of FTIC students are Hispanic.
With 84% of the colleges’ FTIC students referred to developmental education courses and more than 80% of these students placing into developmental math, the Alamo Colleges’ Achieving the Dream work focuses on decreasing the number of developmental math courses that students, particularly Hispanic students, need to take.
How We Work:
Alamo leaders continue to work toward scaling interventions that improve student performance.
To establish a district-wide accelerated developmental education option, the college added Prep for Accuplacer Student Success (PASS) at all five campuses. The free, 15-hour math refresher course improves students’ math skills and performance on math placement tests.
Developmental Math faculty members are developing a Faculty Data Coach Program to support and promote effective uses of data to improve student learning.
Trustees use monthly reports on student success measures to inform their policy-making. They are in the process of ending late registra- tion and requiring student development courses to support student success.
Student success remains our core activity; it is our number one priority. It is why we are an Achieving the Dream college district.
Bruce H. Leslie, Chancellor, Alamo Colleges
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Student Success Strategies
Alamo Colleges is using the following strategies to impact student success:
