Improving the outcomes of students in developmental or remedial math remains a puzzle in higher education. Concerns with low persistence and completion rates have motivated proponents of reform to reconsider the delivery of developmental math. Lengthening the amount of time in math is thought to be an intervention that improves academic…

Objective: Changing how community colleges deliver developmental education has become a key policy lever to increase student achievement. Alternative development education models reduce the amount of time a student spends in remediation, provide students with supplemental instruction and support, and contextualize content to align with student…

This policy brief highlights the trajectories of Latina/o students who test into developmental coursework at California community colleges and brings attention to the obstacles created by these courses. The authors use quantitative data from the Basic Skills Progress Cohort Tracking Tool (Progress Tracker) from the California Community Colleges…

Little is known about the importance of instructional quality in American higher education because few recent studies have had access to direct measures of student learning that are comparable across sections of the same course. Using data from two developmental algebra courses at a large community college, I found that student learning varies…

A significant challenge in higher education is to narrow the educational attainment gap between academically prepared and unprepared students. To this end, developmental or remedial education is intended to improve the academic skills and knowledge of students who are unprepared for undergraduate coursework, particularly in the areas of…

Community college stakeholders are searching with increasing urgency for approaches with the potential to improve the success rates for community college students, particularly those in need of developmental education. "Learning communities," which place cohorts of students together in two or more courses for one semester, are a popular…

Abundant research chronicles the backgrounds and characteristics of community college students assigned to developmental reading. Many are members of underrepresented groups and first in their families to attend college. English may not be their primary language. Developmental students often struggle with learning disabilities. Nontraditional…