Building Student Success From the Ground Up: A Case Study of an Achieving the Dream College

Achieving the Dream teaches community colleges to use student data to improve programming and student success. Since participating, Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina has become a data-driven, success-oriented institution and has seen promising trends in student achievement. This study offers lessons for other colleges undertaking similar institutional reform

Promising Instructional Reforms in Developmental Education: A Case Study of Three Achieving the Dream Colleges

This report examines the experiences of three of the 83 colleges currently involved in the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count project, an initiative of Lumina Foundation for Education, and their efforts to improve instruction in developmental education classrooms. Using the Achieving the Dream model as a framework, each college implemented a system of reforms aimed at reaching developmental learners who have a variety of skill levels and experiences

The Changing Landscape of Developmental Education Practices: Findings from a National Survey and Interviews with Postsecondary Institutions

Research suggests that far more students are referred to developmental education courses than necessary, and that developmental education presents a barrier to students’ success. As a result, many in the field have called for reforms to developmental education to address these challenges. This CAPR report documents developmental education practices used in broad-access two- and four-year colleges across the country based on a 2016 survey of public two- and four-year colleges and private, nonprofit four-year colleges as well as interviews with institutional and state leaders. It examines practices in assessment, placement, instruction, and support services and finds that many colleges are experimenting with changes to traditional developmental education. A growing number of public colleges are using measures in addition to standardized tests, such as high school grades, to assess college readiness. Additionally, many colleges are implementing instructional reforms. The most prevalent of these are compressing developmental courses into shorter periods, offering diverse math courses that align with students’ careers, allowing students to determine their own learning pace, and integrating developmental reading and writing instruction into one course. However, while widespread, these reforms typically reach less than half of students at the colleges. Key findings: Most two-year and four-year public colleges offer developmental courses, though they are more prevalent at two-year colleges. Multisemester prerequisite sequences make up a substantial proportion of these courses. Most colleges use standardized tests to assess students’ college readiness. However, since 2011, there has been a 30-percentage-point increase in the proportion of colleges using multiple measures to assess students’ college readiness. The most popular additional measure used is high school performance. Many colleges, particularly two-year colleges, are experimenting with different instructional approaches in developmental education; however, these approaches tend to make up less than half of colleges’ overall developmental course offerings

Gaining Ground: Findings From the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways Impact Study

Many college students are required to take at least one developmental math course, but as many as half of them fail to complete their developmental math requirements and never matriculate into college-level courses. To address this issue, the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin created the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) to help colleges implement math pathways aligned with students’ programs of study in both developmental and college-level courses, accelerate students’ progress to and through college-level math, develop strategies to support students as learners, and integrate evidence-based practices in instruction. The Dana Center also created curricula the colleges used for three course pathways (focused on statistical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and algebra/calculus). This CAPR study looks at how four Texas community colleges implemented DCMP and how instruction in DCMP courses compares with traditional developmental and college-level math courses. Through a randomized controlled trial involving 1,422 students who entered the study from fall 2015 through spring 2017, the researchers examined the impact of DCMP on student outcomes for up to four semesters. The study also considers student perspectives on the reforms and the start-up and ongoing costs of DCMP to the colleges. Researchers found that the colleges were successful in revising pre-existing policies, curricula, and pedagogy in order to launch and then scale DCMP courses to reach more students. They also found that instruction in DCMP courses looked very different from that in colleges’ standard developmental course offerings and college-level algebra courses. Finally, researchers found that DCMP students enrolled in and passed college-level math at higher rates than non-DCMP students, indicating that DCMP played a part in helping them overcome some of the pitfalls of developmental education and reach a crucial milestone. Key Findings: DCMP had a positive impact on students’ completion of the developmental math sequence and their likelihood of taking and passing college-level math. The impacts of DCMP appear to be greater for part-time students and students assessed as needing multiple developmental courses. Start-up and net ongoing direct costs to the colleges to implement and maintain DCMP were fairly low

Implementing and Scaling Multiple Measures Assessment in the Context of COVID-19

State systems have played an increasingly prominent role in encouraging community colleges to implement effective developmental education reforms, and some states have begun to recommend or require multiple measures assessment for placement. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly created opportunities for state systems to facilitate institutional adoption of multiple measures assessment. In spring 2020, as large numbers of colleges across the nation moved to remote learning and work, it was often infeasible to continue offering in-person, proctored placement tests. Institutions sought out new ways to assess and place students. This brief discusses four states—Indiana, Virginia, Texas, and Washington—that supported large-scale changes to placement practices, with greater emphasis on multiple measures. Based on interviews with system leaders and college administrators, faculty, and staff in these states, the authors of the brief present four short case studies that summarize how each state changed its placement policies and supported colleges in reaction to the pandemic. The brief addresses common multiple measures assessment implementation challenges such as facilitating buy-in; providing implementation support; combatting initiative fatigue; and establishing data-informed evaluation processes

Turning the Tide: Five Years of Achieving the Dream in Community Colleges

In 2004, Lumina Foundation for Education launched “Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count,” a national initiative aimed at improving success among community college students, particularly low-income students and students of color. Now encompassing more than 130 institutions in 24 states and the District of Columbia, Achieving the Dream helps community colleges build a “culture of evidence” by using student records and other data to examine students’ performance over time and to identify barriers to academic progress. From there, community colleges are expected to develop intervention strategies designed to improve student outcomes; conduct further research on student progress; and bring effective programs to scale. As a result, it is anticipated that colleges will see measurable improvements over time in student outcomes, including increased progress through developmental education and college-level “gatekeeper” (introductory) courses, grades, persistence, and completion of credentials