In education, practitioners are increasingly looking for strategies to bring data and evidence into decisionmaking and to roll out programs in intentional ways that allow for ongoing improvement. This toolkit acts as a guide to improvement strategies for teams of practitioners at colleges, providing them with the knowledge and tools they need to…

This overview introduces "Right from the Start: An Institutional Perspective on Developmental Education Reform," a series of three practitioner briefs on developmental education. Created by Achieving the Dream and MDC, the briefs spotlight successful reform efforts in developmental education at seven Achieving the Dream colleges. [The…

For the past decade, MDRC has evaluated a number of interventions designed to improve the outcomes of community college students, including enhanced counseling, learning communities, and financial incentives. Encouragingly, many of these strategies have produced positive effects, affirming that changes in institutional practices and policies can…

For the past decade, MDRC has evaluated a number of interventions designed to improve the outcomes of community college students, including enhanced counseling, learning communities, and financial incentives. Encouragingly, many of these strategies have produced positive effects, affirming that changes in institutional practices and policies can…

Three community colleges--El Paso Community College, Bunker Hill Community College, and Patrick Henry Community College--incorporated technology into the curriculum to support student progress in mathematics through developmental education. Each college took its own path: El Paso developed a self-accelerated emporium-style computer lab, Patrick…

This brief summarizes efforts to reform developmental education at Zane State College and the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC). Focused on accelerating student success and progress, the two schools pursued distinctive approaches to reform that aligned with their institutional missions and student populations. Recognizing that the…

Transitioning Learners to Calculus in Community Colleges (TLC3) is a research project aimed at transforming institutional approaches to matriculating underrepresented racial minority (URM) students into and through Calculus II in the nation's 1,023 public associate degree-granting institutions (community colleges). The broader goal of the TLC3…

As described in this brief, Tacoma Community College and South Texas College each focused on contextualization as a cornerstone of developmental education reform, albeit with different approaches. With a comprehensive look at the experience at Tacoma Community College and a supplementary example from South Texas College, we begin to understand how…

Having garnered national attention, high failure rates in developmental education present a significant barrier to state and national policymakers' goals of increasing the percentage of adults who earn a college credential. However, a majority of the research fails to consider why students place into developmental education. This piece examines a…

Discusses objections opponents of public sponsorship of preschool education might have and points out consequences of failure to apply research findings concerning brain growth periodization. (RH)

The "Ready-Set-ABE" project was initiated to address the special needs of students entering adult basic education (ABE) programs directly from literacy training or others at a low level of ABE performance. The program was designed to provide these students with the tutoring they need to function successfully in mainstream ABE classes by…

Identified are four requirements of successful management of college real estate, such as commitment to total resource management and an entrepreneurial spirit, and three problems--taxes, communication, and administrative conflict. (DB)

Initially drawing from, yet then expanding on the research discussed in this volume, this article discusses specific measures that practitioners, researchers, and policymakers can take to support purpose among youth. Strategies for educators include utilizing practical purpose teaching tools, such as purpose interviews, purpose-related…

This paper reports on the planning of a pilot developmental kindergarten program for a school district that traditionally emphasized an academic kindergarten program. Background information is presented which explains the reasons for initiating the change. Steps taken to plan the program are explained, and a list of possible impediments to…

This booklet notes that adolescents and young adults are a primary risk group for contracting Acquired Immune Defficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and asserts that public schools must assume a key role in giving students the information they need to avoid contracting AIDS. It recommends that teaching about AIDS take place within the context of a…