Accelerating the Academic Achievement of Students Referred to Developmental Education

Acceleration, which involves the reorganization of instruction and curricula in ways that facilitate the completion of educational requirements in an expedited manner, is an increasingly popular strategy at community colleges for improving the outcomes of developmental education students. This Brief, based on a longer literature review, explores the evidence on the effects of acceleration on student outcomes and describes the various acceleration models that are used with developmental education students. It concludes by discussing ways of dealing with challenges involved in implementing and scaling up acceleration strategies

Credential Production by Field and Labor Market Alignment at Minority-Serving Institutions: A Descriptive Analysis

Scholarship on minority-serving institutions (MSIs) has established the critical role they play in spite of significant financial constraints. At the same time, descriptive statistical analyses have also found that MSIs, as a group, have lower completion rates than the national average. More research is thus needed on the factors underlying the institutional performance of MSIs. This CAPSEE working paper presents broad analyses intended to provide a snapshot of one facet of MSI institutional performance—credential production. The authors conduct a descriptive analysis of credential production by field of study across the two- and four-year postsecondary education sectors and compare results for MSIs and non-MSIs. They find that for each credential type they examine—certificates, associate degrees, and bachelor’s degrees—MSIs and non-MSIs have very similar credential production patterns by field. They also find that much of the credential production is concentrated in a relatively narrow set of fields. The authors complement the credential production analysis with an exploratory analysis of the extent to which the fields in which these credentials were earned align with employment in Alabama and California. They find state-level differences in the alignment between high-employment industries and the production of credentials in certain fields. They conclude the paper with a discussion of the research and policy implications of these findings

Teaching Matters and So Does Curriculum: How CUNY Start Reshaped Instruction for Students Referred to Developmental Mathematics

Adult proficiency in numeracy in the United States lags behind that of other developed nations, and the nonselective institutions that dominate the higher education sector struggle to address the learning needs of the sizeable proportion of students who enroll in their institutions and are deemed academically underprepared in mathematics. Research on curriculum and pedagogy in developmental (or remedial) mathematics indicates that typical teaching approaches emphasize memorization, often at the expense of the kinds of conceptual understanding that prepare students for college-level mathematics and the numeracy demands of the workforce. This paper examines CUNY Start, an innovative pre-matriculation developmental education program developed by The City University of New York (CUNY) that reimagines the design and implementation of remedial instruction to better serve students with weak academic preparation. Using data from interviews, classroom observations, an instructor survey, and curricular materials, this paper describes four key features of the CUNY Start mathematics instructional approach, paying particular attention to how these features differ from traditional developmental education. These features are: (1) the use of a highly detailed curricular document as a primary resource for instructors; (2) an emphasis on real-world contexts and number relationships, which serve as the instructional starting point (rather than rules and procedures); (3) a pedagogical approach that elicits student talk and discussion through questioning; and (4) explicit attention to students’ organizational and study skills. This paper also elaborates on the processes, structures, and resources built into CUNY Start that support its implementation. This paper is part of an ongoing random assignment evaluation of CUNY Start undertaken with MDRC that so far finds that the program has significant positive effects on students achieving college readiness in mathematics (longer-term effects will also be estimated). This evidence strongly suggests that CUNY Start’s structures, processes, and resources enable instructors to teach mathematics in a different way that may boost student achievement

Developmental Education: An Introduction for Policymakers

Developmental, or remedial, education courses are designed to develop the reading, writing, or math skills of students who are deemed—usually through standardized tests—underprepared for college-level courses. Offering these noncredit courses allows community colleges and less selective four-year colleges to open their doors to students who might otherwise be shut out of higher education. Millions of students—disproportionately students of color, adults, first-generation students and those from low-income backgrounds—enroll in developmental education at two- and four-year colleges. They include students who did not receive an adequate academic foundation in high school and those who have been out of school for years and need a math or English refresher. Although colleges have offered developmental education programs for decades, state policymakers have begun to pay more attention to the growing data that show the weaknesses of developmental education and its impact on college completion, workforce development and equity goals. The goal of developmental education is to improve students’ skills to increase their chances of success in a credit-bearing, college-level program. However, barriers on campus and in federal, state, and institutional policies can slow students’ progress toward a degree, which has long-term implications for students and states. This ECS/CAPR brief discusses the importance of and challenges surrounding developmental education and suggests ways in which policymakers can address these challenges

Resources and Reform: Thinking Through the Costs of a Developmental Math Redesign

What college resources are required to implement a statewide redesign of developmental mathematics? This presentation looks at the most significant costs for colleges implementing a math redesign in Virginia, drawing on interviews with faculty, administrators, and staff. It also highlights several considerations for policymakers planning for large-scale instructional reform

Acceleration Through a Holistic Support Model: An Implementation and Outcomes Analysis of FastStart@CCD

Originally designed for students who test into at least two levels of developmental education in a particular subject area, FastStart is a compressed course program model launched in 2005 at the Community College of Denver (CCD). The program combines multiple semester-length courses into a single intensive semester, while providing case management, career exploration, and educational planning services. This report discusses the development of FastStart, its program features, and student perspectives, and it presents findings from a quantitative analysis of the FastStart math program. The authors find that participation is associated with higher rates of enrolling in and passing college-level math courses but not with increased persistence or with increased accumulation of college-level credits. The analysis suggests that FastStart makes it possible for students to complete the developmental math sequence and required gatekeeper math course more quickly than would otherwise be possible, without harming other long-term academic outcomes. The report also analyzes pedagogical features of FastStart drawn from classroom observations and interviews

Online Learning Practitioner Packet

Since 2010, online college course enrollment has increased by 29 percent. Currently, 6.7 million students—or roughly one third of all college students—are enrolled in online courses. Community colleges in particular have embraced online education as a way to better serve their large numbers of nontraditional students, many of whom juggle multiple responsibilities. In 2008, 97 percent of two-year colleges were offering online courses—compared with only 66 percent of all postsecondary institutions. Despite this rapid growth in online education, little is known about the effectiveness of online courses for community college students. Over the past two years, CCRC has sought to fill this gap in knowledge by conducting studies of online course outcomes at two large statewide community college systems, one in a southern state and one in a western state. Student outcomes in online courses trail considerably behind those in face-to-face courses. In order to gain insight into why this might be, CCRC undertook a series of studies that examined 23 high-demand, entry-level online courses at two community colleges in one state. CCRC researchers observed the online courses, reviewed course materials, and interviewed course instructors as well as 46 students who were enrolled in at least one of the courses. Together, these studies shed light on the fact that it is important for online instructors to actively and visibly engage with students in the teaching and learning process—perhaps with even greater intentionality than in face-to-face courses. In interviews, online students said that they placed a high value on interaction with their instructors, and a quantitative analysis indicates that higher levels of interpersonal interaction were correlated with better student performance in online courses. Drawing on our research, the following guide discusses how instructors can increase their presence in online courses in ways that may contribute to improved student retention and performance. It also describes a case study of a course in which the instructor used some basic interactive technologies to create a meaningful instructor presence

Accelerating the Integrated Instruction of Developmental Reading and Writing at Chabot College

This paper uses qualitative and quantitative data to compare the outcomes of students at Chabot College who participated in an accelerated, one-semester developmental English course and their peers who participated in a two-semester sequence. The sample included first-time students who entered college between summer 1999 and fall 2010; students were tracked for up to five years. Propensity score matching and regression analyses show that participation in the accelerated course was positively associated with a range of positive short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes, including entry-level college English completion, credit accumulation, grade point average, transfer to a four-year institution, and certificate and degree attainment. To better understand the quantitative findings, the authors draw on data from interviews with faculty, administrators, and staff; student focus groups; and classroom observations. The authors posit that the benefits of an accelerated course structure are amplified at Chabot College by a developmental English curriculum that is well aligned with college-level English and that develops critical academic literacy skills

Strengthening Developmental Education Reforms: Evidence on Implementation Efforts From the Scaling Innovation Project

In this paper, the authors draw on empirical data from the Community College Research Center’s Scaling Innovation project to examine trends in developmental education instructional reform and outline a framework for reform adoption and adaptation. The paper’s findings are based on two qualitative data sources: a scan of developmental education reforms that involved changes to curricula, course structure, and/or pedagogy; and fieldwork conducted at 11 colleges working to replicate highpotential instructional innovations developed at other colleges. The data suggest that colleges tend to enact developmental education reforms in ways that may unintentionally undermine their potential benefits. The authors present a framework for engaging practitioners in activities that will increase the impact of their developmental education reforms while strengthening institutional capacity

A Model for Accelerating Academic Success of Community College Remedial English Students: Is the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Effective and Affordable?

The Community College of Baltimore County's Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) permits upper-level developmental writing students to enroll directly in English 101 (ENGL 101) while simultaneously taking a companion course, taught by the same instructor, that provides extra academic support. The aim of the ALP course, which has only eight students per classroom, is to help students maximize the likelihood of their success in English 101. Our results suggest that among students who place into the highest level of developmental writing, participating in ALP is associated with substantially better outcomes in terms of English 101 completion and English 102 completion, the two primary outcomes ALP was designed to improve. In the sample used in this study, 82% of ALP students passed ENGL 101 within one year, compared with 69% of non-ALP ENGL 052 students. More than a third (34%) of ALP students passed ENGL 102, compared with only 12% of the non-ALP ENGL 052 students. The current paper includes a cost-effectiveness analysis and a rough cost““benefit analysis of ALP. Our results also show that, compared to the conventional approach, ALP provides a substantially more cost-effective route for students to pass the ENGL 101 and 102 sequence required for an associate degree ($2,680 versus$3,122 per student). In our cost-benefit analysis, we found that the benefits of ALP are more than double the costs. With the methods used here, we can only make inferences about the correlation between participating in ALP and the outcomes observed. Because of possible selection bias, we cannot say, based on these results, that ALP caused these outcomes. However, because of the promising preliminary findings on the program, CCBC is in the process of scaling up ALP such that by next year, the majority of students who are referred to the highest level developmental English will be enrolled in ENGL 101 with the concurrent ALP support course