During the Fall of 2015, faculty and staff at a large community college district with an enrollment of 55,000 in the Southwest United States were encouraged to apply for Innovation Challenge Grants. The goal of these grants was to allow faculty and staff an opportunity to create, innovate, and share ideas, so that the college could strive to be…

This pilot study explores the extent to which frequent quizzes given in a developmental Academic Critical Reading (ACR) course in a community college affects student success on a standardized CUNY (The City University of New York) assessment test on reading skills. Participants included 41 students in two class sections of ACR class who received…

This is the second brief in a series on strategies for Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training (TAACCCT) grantees and other educators. The Department of Labor's Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training (TAACCCT) program is providing nearly $2 billion in funds to build the capacity of the nation's…

This report presents the results of the Fall 2015 Developmental Education Report for the Maricopa County Community College District. Section 1 of the report provides numbers of students enrolled in one or more developmental courses in the Fall 2015 Term. Section 2 Deals with placement. The placement and performance sections of this report…

Why is "remedial" or "developmental" education such a hot issue? Partly because it costs time and money and casts doubt on the elementary and secondary education systems that we assume will prepare students for college. The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) explored solutions to the problem at a recent forum in…

The 2015 Minnesota Legislature enacted a state postsecondary educational attainment goal: 70 percent of Minnesota adults (age 25 to 44) will have attained a postsecondary certificate or degree by 2025 ("Minnesota Laws 2015 Chapter 69, Article 3, Section 6"). To achieve this goal, Minnesota must address disparities across the educational…

West Virginia Code §18B-1D-8 statutorily mandates the West Virginia Higher Education Report Card. This annual accountability report provides year-end higher education statistics for both of the state's higher education systems, the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (Commission) and West Virginia Council for Community and Technical…

Nationwide, pass rates of developmental education students barely reach 60 percent, cutting short the promise of higher education for too many students. The authors believe that a national pass rate of 80 percent or better is possible; indeed, it is a national imperative. In this article, the authors describe an ongoing project that aims to…

There is wide agreement that the well-paying jobs of the future will require postsecondary credentials. But for many students attending community college, developmental (or remedial) classes in reading, composition, and/or mathematics--the courses that students often must complete before they can enroll in courses that confer credit toward a…

The purpose of this multicase study was to explore with five students perceptions of their learning experiences and challenges faced while enrolled in a dental assisting course that is integrated with reading. The study was rooted in a constructivist framework both as a research paradigm and as a theoretical perspective regarding adult learning.…

This study explored relationships between placement decisions in English and reading courses and measures of college achievement and persistence for first-time degree- and certificate-seeking community college students enrolled at a large, public, suburban-serving community college in Maryland. Archived records were examined for students who had…

The passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which extended need-based financial assistance to the general population for the first time, has improved college access for American students, but more work remains to be done to improve college success. According to government statistics, in 2006, about one in six students had earned a degree or…

Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, this issue of "Data Notes" looks at three-year enrollment and attainment outcomes of students who persist through their first year. Additionally, first-year persisters (FYPs) were grouped based on the interaction of several student characteristics; analysis was conducted to…

The purpose of this study, funded by Jobs for the Future through a grant to the Massachusetts Community Colleges Executive Office, was to: (1) provide an update on the status of developmental education within Massachusetts community colleges; (2) shed light on the alignment between research-based best practices to advance success among…

Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, this issue looks at changes in cohort composition. The analysis addresses the changing composition of the Achieving the Dream student cohorts from 2002 to 2005. The data show that at Achieving the Dream colleges, the percentage of Hispanic students increased over the four cohorts…