The adoption of the Accelerated Learning Program from Community College of Baltimore County. Students co-enroll in the upper level, of two levels, of developmental writing and English I.
Northampton Community College
Active in Achieving the Dream:
2006 - present
Leader College:
2010 - 2013
Leader College
Participating Institution
Results from the Applied Skills for Academic Success are so positive for students in developmental education that Northampton Community College (NCC) scaled up the course in Fall 2009.
What We Are Doing:
After piloting Applied Skills for Academic Success (COLS150) the course is now required for entering students who need both developmental reading and writing.
- As a group COLS150 students consistently have higher nextterm retention rates than all new students
- The COLS150 course has succeeded in improving the retention of students and in narrowing the performance gaps between students from different backgrounds
Who We Are:
NCC is the college of choice for one in four graduates of high schools in Northampton County and almost one in six graduates of high schools in Monroe County. It has one of the most diverse student bodies in northeastern Pennsylvania in terms of age, academic interests, and ethnicity. NCC is one of the rare community colleges that offer on-campus housing.
In Fall 2010, NCC had 11,300 students, and of those students 27% were students of color, 36% were first-generation students, and 34% received Pell grants.
To broaden faculty engagement in Achieving the Dream, NCC devotes time during departmental and professional staff meetings to discuss issues relevant to the student success agenda.
How We Work:
NCC’s Achieving the Dream work focuses on improving mathematics and addressing the most underprepared students’ needs.
Smart Path Math, a free online math refresher, helps adult students brush up on rusty math skills. The goal of the refresher is to provide students the opportunity to place into a higher level of mathematics than the course they initially tested into.
A project-based approach to Elementary Algebra was adopted based on data showing its efficacy, especially for minority students.
Smart Start gives at-risk students a one-week, jump start in the summer. The 2010 cohort of 20 students had a 100% fall-to-spring retention rate.
The first cohort of 22 participants in Spartan Pros, a mentoring program for African American male students, had a 91% fall-to-spring retention rate in 2010.
It is not enough to get students in the door. We must make sure they succeed once they have entered, and Achieving the Dream helps us do that.
Arthur L. Scott, President, Northampton Community College
PDF Version:
Student Success Strategies
Northampton Community College is using the following strategies to impact student success:
COLS150 Applied Skills for Academic Success was designed to close performance gaps. As of Fall 2009, COLS150 is required for students who need both ENGL026 Writing Skills II & READ017 Critical Reading, before taking ENGL101 English I.
Reduced section size from 35 to 24 students, shifted to Accuplacer, created Pre-Algebra course (enrolls about 30% of the developmental math students), aligned developmental math course outlines, and instructional changes in Fall 2010 included new text book, project-based approach & common fin
