To accelerate students’ completion of remedial courses and eligibility for college-level courses, the Community College of Denver developed FastStart, a program that compresses delivery of remedial content by combining multiple levels of courses and includes additional support through a learning-community approach, a college success course, a case manager, and wrap-around services. This study examines the progress of FastStart students over two to three years, tracking completion rates of remedial courses, math and English gatekeeper courses, and two-year degrees, as well as transfer and retention rates

In an effort to provide developmental reading instructors with stronger evidence-based practices for use in the classroom, researchers examine the findings from two experimental implementations of an intervention on summarizing. In both implementations the intervention group showed improvement in their summarizing ability; however, these gains did not transfer to other areas of reading comprehension. Nevertheless, the authors note the promise of improvement for students who have sufficient opportunity to practice new skills.

Drawing on data from four large-scale surveys of community college students, faculty, and administrations, the Center explores the benefit potential of 13 promising practices for student success, with a particular focus on students’ early experiences within the college setting (e.g., assessment and course placement, first-year experiences, learning communities). The report includes specific examples of schools’ implementation of these practices and provides guidance on how colleges can design and bring their own programs to scale.

Research shows that the more developmental courses a student takes, the lesser the chances of successfully completing a degree or certificate. This report examines the performance outcomes between students enrolled in an accelerated developmental English course (one semester) and those enrolled in a two-semester developmental sequence at one California community college, where students choose between the two pathways regardless of placement score. Using longitudinal data, the author presents findings showing that students who had taken the accelerated English course completed college English at significantly higher rates than those who had taken the developmental sequence. The author discusses implications of developmental education and the need to reform its traditional, multi-leveled sequence to improve student completion rates.

ALP is in innovative approach to basic writing programs that accelerates basic writing students through their developmental writing course and ENG 101 in one semester. ALP builds on the strengths of earlier approaches such as mainstreaming, studios, learning communities, and bridge programs. It is showing great promise in improving the success rates of students. This site highlights Baltimore's programs and offers various materials and resources on the ALP program.

The more time students spend in a developmental course sequence, the less likely they are to progress to college-level work. This report uses existing research to explore models of acceleration designed to move students more quickly through developmental education. These models included compressed courses, paired developmental and college-level courses, and college-level courses linked to supplemental support. With findings available that show benefits linked to each course type, the author offers recommendations for working through the structural and pedagogical reform processes, from issues of assessment, placement, and curricular alignment to dealing with faculty resistance and recruiting students to newly designed course programs.

This case study describes the progress of the Virginia Community College System’s (VCCS) participation in Achieving the Dream. Using the resources and framework provided by the initiative, VCCS increased their capacity for data collection and analysis across all 23 campuses and used the data to frame conversations with instructors and examination of policies. Based on their experience, VCCS highlights several key factors in their effort, including building a committed and supportive leadership team, the implementation of a strong statewide data system, and making student success the focus of all policy decisions.

Aiming to reduce the sequence of remedial coursework that underprepared students need to take, colleges explore alternative approaches to accelerate learning opportunities. This report assesses the effectiveness of developmental summer bridge programs as a strategy for college readiness preparation and improved student outcomes. Using data from eight developmental summer bridge programs in Texas, the study presents findings on the academic outcomes of students two years following their participation in the bridge program and implications for consideration.

Developmental education and ESL students are less likely to earn a certificate or degree or transfer to a four-year institution. This report identifies three distinct types of basic skills students—recent high school graduates, returning adults earning a certificate or degree, and older adults with significant basic skills needs. For each group of basic skills students, researchers examine student success outcomes as well as course-taking patterns and demographic factors that affect student success. The research points to specific student support services that can enhance the success of basic skills students.

A guide to assist community college faculty, staff, and administrators as they begin their work to rethink and redesign their systems, programs, and instruction to improve student completion.

Among first-time community college students, the credential completion rate is low but the rates of completion are even less successful for low-income students. This paper uses quantitative data of a single cohort from the state of Washington to chart the rates at which students, especially socioeconomically disadvantaged students, enter a concentration, take remedial courses in each concentration, earn certificates or degrees, or transfer to four-year institutions. The authors examine the course-taking behavior of low-income students and find that compared to their peers from higher socioeconomic levels, low-income students are more likely to start in adult basic courses and less likely to enter a concentration in a field of study. Of those who select a concentration, low-income students are more likely to enter in career technical education, where completion rates are lower.

Research has shown that community college students who enroll in a remedial math, reading, or writing course have lower success rates than students who start college-ready. Using quantitative data, this study investigates developmental course-taking patterns and related student outcomes, and using qualitative data, examines related policies and practices among California’s community colleges. The authors describe the characteristics and course-taking patterns of developmental education students as well as current issues within developmental education. Additionally, the authors identify the different approaches to the practice of developmental education and the need for innovation and effective practices to move students through remedial coursework quickly and successfully.

Within the larger Achieving the Dream Initiative, the Developmental Education Initiative (DEI) supports participant schools as they undertake reforms to reduce student dependence on developmental education. In furtherance of this goal, DEI created this self-assessment to help schools identify areas of strength and weakness across multiple dimensions. While created for Achieving the Dream schools, this tool may be useful to any school considering reforming their approach to developmental education.

Since 2009, six states have worked with the Developmental Education Initiative (DEI) to increase student success in completing developmental education and progressing toward a degree or certificate. This report shares information on the efforts of participant states in implementing DEI’s three-phase policy strategy that addresses data-driven improvement processes, financial investment to encourage innovation, and policy supports to reform college readiness and placement standards and performance funding.

Through recent changes in regulation, California community colleges have been eliminating contextualized math courses since they often do not have an elementary algebra prerequisite. This study documents both the scarcity and the effectiveness of contextualized developmental math in California community colleges. Report findings suggest that students in the contextual group passed their developmental math course at much higher rates than students in a control group.

Part of the Community College Research Center’s Assessment of Evidence Series, this literature review examines research on the effectiveness of contextualized and integrated instruction in assisting low-skill students. While rigorous research is in short supply, the review shows evidence that providing students a contextual framework for reading, writing, and math skills can lead to improved basic-skill and content-area achievement.

The more developmental courses students must take, the less likely they are to earn a degree or credential. This paper examines how developmental summer bridge programs, designed to provide recent high school graduates with remedial instruction in reading, writing, or math, along with an introduction to college, may support students in their transition from high school to college. Researchers study the effectiveness of a developmental summer bridge program model implemented at eight Texas colleges and describe students’ progression through developmental education, student success in college-level courses, and persistence into the second year of college. Among the early findings, the evidence suggests that summer bridge program students had improved success rates in entry-level college courses in math and writing.

I-BEST for Developmental Education is a pilot program with the goal of developing models that extend I-BEST (Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training) into developmental education. The site include program summaries and guidance on creating your own I-BEST program.

Far too many community college students, especially developmental education students, are at risk of failing, and thus at greater risk of not earning a living wage or advancing through job opportunities. This policy brief examines the challenges of developmental education and the efforts that states can pursue to increase the success of students enrolled in remedial courses, leading to improved rates of transition to credit-bearing courses. The authors recommend that state policymakers consider policy changes affecting data systems, assessment and placement, concurrent developmental and college-level course taking, financial aid eligibility, support services, and funding for new models of delivery. These recommendations are discussed along with brief examples of what a few states have done to increase student transition out of developmental education.

This PowerPoint presentation from the American Youth Policy Forum on Increasing Postsecondary Success highlights the FastStart and College Connection accelerated programs, briefly describing key program components, student profiles, and course completion rates. The FastStart model compresses two to four semesters of developmental math or English courses into a single semester in a program that includes wrap-around services for students, while College Connection’s intensive eight-week or one-semester bridge program provides academic, emotional, and logistical support services to recent high school graduates and GED recipients.

Over the past two decades, Chaffey College has evolved into a postsecondary institution that provides strong integrated support services to give its students their best chance for success. In this case study, the authors examine how the school developed a change-oriented culture that allowed it to overhaul its approach to developmental education and support services, eliminating redundancies and creating stronger collaboration between instructional departments and supplemental services.

Carnegie is addressing the low success rate of students in developmental mathematics by providing alternatives to the current community college mathematical sequence and content. The Statway™ Network, which went live in fall 2011, is designed to take developmental math students to and through transferable college statistics in one year. The Quantway™ Network, which will be taught beginning January 2012, provides an alternate and accelerated pathway with an innovative quantitative literacy focus in which students use mathematical skills and quantitative and algebraic reasoning to make sense of the world around them.

While most schools offer developmental courses, often the students who would most benefit from remediation do not enroll in recommended classes. Researchers used data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (high school class of 1992) to examine the nationwide availability of remediation courses, the demographic characteristics of the students who enroll in the classes, and the effects of remedial coursework on degree completion for various student populations at two- and four-year institutions.

Geared toward a researcher audience, this report presents a critical analysis of the existing research on improving student outcomes through four broad practices: advising/orientation programs, learning communities, developmental education, and collegewide reform. The authors use this analysis to identify effective practices and promising areas for further research, evaluate the current research efforts by community colleges, and recommend ways to improve research in the future.

In this era of community college reform, college leaders are focused on increasing student success, but their efforts to create change are not always supported by current policy conditions. Based on the collaboration of California community college chief executive officers and members of their boards of trustees, this report captures their evidence-based recommendations and proposes a new policy agenda that creates conditions conducive to reform. The agenda comprises a breadth of specific recommendations for changes in local policies and practices as well as changes in state policy — given the political and economic climate — that are needed for community colleges to improve student success.

This evaluation examines the efficacy of an eight-week, accelerated college connections program designed to prepare out-of-school youth for entry to community college. Program participants received support from coaches in core subject areas including math, English, reading, career exploration, academic advising, and college success. The program showed positive impacts on participants, with more than 80% enrolling in credit-bearing college courses.

As community college systems undergo major transformations to advance the student success agenda, leadership from the college president and the board of trustees has become more important than ever to guide this reform. In this collection of six essays, community college chancellors and presidents provide insight into the challenges and possibilities encountered as they lead their institutions through transformations aimed at improving outcomes and equity for students. The leaders describe efforts to leverage the role of the board of trustees, provide access to all students, reform developmental education, and engage all stakeholders in their commitment to lead change.

For too many postsecondary students, remedial courses act more as a barrier than a support to attaining their degree or credential. Using data on college readiness, this report describes how the current developmental education model is failing to move students along on a successful path to completion. The report proposes specific practices for better preparing students for college-level work before they begin college and a new model in which, in lieu of remedial courses, all students enroll in first-year college courses that include embedded tutoring and support. The report presents 33 state profiles, each showing demographics of students in need of remediation and the rates at which students are completing remediation and college in that state.

Each year, states participating in the Developmental Education Initiative complete a self-assessment to identify their progress in developing policies that promote innovative reforms to improve the delivery of developmental education. This brief uses the data from these assessments to explore what policies have been put into place in each of the areas defined by the Initiative’s framework and what steps states are taking to ensure lasting change.

In learning communities, a group of students enrolls together in multiple courses (often thematically linked) in order to provide them with greater sense of community and support. This report examining the necessary components to build and maintain strong learning community programs at community colleges is the first from the national Learning Communities Demonstration, a longitudinal study of six community colleges. At this early stage, and with the range of implementation, the report cannot fully assess the impact of learning communities on student achievement; it does, however, highlight the requirements for scaling up a strong learning community program.

Drawing from the EdSource research study, Course-taking patterns, policies, and practices in developmental education in the California Community Colleges, this report examines how California’s community colleges can adjust developmental education programs to help students succeed in the face of new and stricter completion standards. In addition to encouraging innovation in developmental education policies and practices, the authors suggest developing common, statewide standards for college readiness to reduce the number of students requiring remediation.

Using data on 35,000 first-time students in Florida community colleges, this research brief explores the factors impacting academic outcomes of traditional and older students. The authors specifically focus on student outcomes from enrollment in developmental course pathways and earned-credit milestones (i.e., completing 20 credits or 50% of a program). Findings suggest that students of different age groups are impacted differently by enrollment pathways and credits earned, and the authors note ways support services can take these differences into account.

This report describes the Strengthening Pre-Collegiate Education in Community Colleges initiative, which is designed to introduce innovation to the teaching and learning of developmental education in the community college classroom. Currently underway at 11 California community colleges, the initiative encourages a data-driven culture in which educators work together to improve student learning. To address the challenges facing students who may not believe themselves to be “college material,” the initiative includes a variety of student supports, including learning communities, tutoring, and explicit instruction.

Student success courses are designed to orient new students, giving them a stronger foundation of study skills and introducing the support services the school offers. Originally accompanying a presentation at the 2010 AERA meeting, this one-page summary provides an at-a-glance evaluation of the impact of these courses on student achievement within the Virginia Community College System.

As large proportions of students arrive to college — especially community colleges — unprepared for the rigor of college-level coursework, states are turning to assessments as a critical tool for increasing college readiness. This report describes how Florida’s Division of Colleges partnered with K–12 using the state’s rich K–20 longitudinal student data to design and implement a new 11th grade college placement test that simultaneously places students in remedial or college-level courses and measures high school students’ college readiness. Based on interviews conducted for this case study, the author discusses the changes made at both the secondary and postsecondary levels statewide, reflecting an alignment of standards, ownership of the issues by faculty, and a collaboration across these two sectors to reduce remediation and accelerate developmental instruction.

In the current developmental education model, few students who start more than one level below college proficiency ever complete their developmental education requirements. This report discusses the role of state policy in six Achieving the Dream states, presenting a framework that identifies the highest-impact policy levers for improving developmental education delivery and outcomes. The framework addresses three major components: a data-driven improvement process, a state-level innovation investment strategy, and policy supports for innovation and scale-up of effective practices.

The process of assessing underprepared students, placing them into an appropriate developmental education course sequence, and advancing them through to college-level coursework is broken. 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 education system. The authors discuss the tensions inherent in the framework — systemwide consistency versus institutional autonomy, efficient versus effective assessment, and promotion of student progression versus enforcement of academic standards — and use CUNY as a case study to describe how each of the opposing forces shape developmental policies, practices, and student progression patterns.

The Puente Project is a national award-winning program with the mission to increase the number of educationally disadvantaged students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn college degrees and return to the community as mentors and leaders to future generations. The program is interdisciplinary in approach, with writing, counseling and mentoring components.

The Completion by Design initiative supports four states — Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas — in developing and implementing a completion-focused policy agenda informed by data on student outcomes. This publication describes how Jobs for the Future (JFF) is helping the lead organization in each state change its college-completion state policy and capacity-building efforts. In addition to discussing JFF’s three-part change strategy for how it helps these states accelerate institutional change efforts, this publication presents an overview of key policies supporting the Completion by Design framework as well as the Completion by Design state policy calendar.

In California, placement assessments identify 90% of incoming community college students as needing remediation in math, and 70% place into developmental English. Strengthening Pre-Collegiate Education in Community Colleges (SPECC), a multiyear research project, examined the impact of these developmental courses on student outcomes, and this report specifically focuses on methods of gathering and using student data to improve instruction. Because SPECC relied heavily on data and asked participating schools to gather more in-depth data and feedback than is standard, the schools developed a variety of tools to fulfill this obligation. This report examines these innovations, including an appendix with site-by-site descriptions and data tables.

Community colleges continue to explore innovative approaches to increasing the graduation rates of their students. This report examines one such program: CUNY’s Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), a multifaceted and long-term program with the goal of graduating 50 percent of its students within three years. Aimed at helping community college students graduate, ASAP provides supports and incentives for overcoming barriers to student success throughout the three years. Presenting promising early findings, the authors discuss the effects on full-time enrollment, credits earned and completed developmental coursework, and semester-by-semester retention.

Improving the success of college completion and transfer rates requires new innovations aimed exactly at those efforts. This report profiles five California community colleges that have implemented practices or programs focused on completion and transfer to a four-year university or the workforce. Additionally, this report presents four commonalities, based on the work of these community colleges, that serve as a framework for any effort to improve student success: information matters, working together, supporting students outside the classroom, and college leaders are key.