In response to soaring developmental education enrollments in Texas, the Pioneer Prep Program at Texas Woman's University (TWU) was designed as an alternative pathways-to-placement program for students who neither passed the Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSIA) nor met other college-readiness benchmarks needed to enroll in college-level…

Today's college and career-ready standards emphasize developing students' ability to interpret and analyze complex texts and to assert and defend claims relating to those texts in extended pieces of writing. By providing secondary English language arts teachers with professional development and instructional materials, the UC Irvine Writing…

The Latino population is the fastest-growing community in the United States yet falls behind in the percentage of students who successfully graduate from college compared to other cultural groups. While trends of Latino students applying to college are on the rise, many cannot successfully obtain a degree due to detrimental barriers. These…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact early college high school, and dual credit programs had on students grade point average, the number of college credits earned, persistence rates, and completion rates at a central Texas community college. The researcher used a non-experimental quantitative study, with secondary non-identifying…

This project examined the effects of a state-wide curricular shift in developmental education course offerings on student success in college-level courses at public community colleges in Texas. Specifically, it evaluated the efficacy of accelerated developmental integrated reading and writing (INRW) courses compared to non-accelerated, separate…

In 2013, the 83rd Texas Legislature established the Foundation High School Program, which allows for significant local variation in graduation planning and represents one of the most substantial changes to Texas curricula in recent history. The new policy (HB5) lowered graduation requirements for mathematics, science and social studies;…

We study GO Centers, a college information program that is run by student peers and provides information about all aspects of the college-going process to academically prepared students on the margin of attending college. We use the semi-random rollout of the program along with detailed panel data on the universe of Texas public school students to…

Students' perceptions of intelligence have been shown to have an effect on learning. Students who see intelligence as something that can be developed, those with a growth mindset, often experience academic success, while those who perceive intelligence to be a fixed entity are typically less likely to take on challenging learning experiences and…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) are strategies designed to improve how teachers teach and students learn. The designs encourage teacher collaboration and creativity and offer flexible frameworks for building lessons in all disciplines. Their purpose is to engage students to read challenging…

Developmental summer bridge programs are a popular strategy for increasing college readiness among recent high school graduates. Aimed at providing an alternative to traditional developmental education, these programs provide accelerated and focused learning opportunities in order to help students acquire the knowledge and skills needed for…

Early college high schools are improving student outcomes in Texas. This performance is being achieved by youth who are underrepresented in college, including Hispanic youth, economically disadvantaged students, and first-generation college goers. In improving readiness for college and careers, early college schools have become an essential part…

Nationwide, about 40 percent of college students take at least one remedial course to prepare for college-level coursework. One cause of this high rate of remedial enrollment is the misalignment of high school graduation standards and college academic expectations. College readiness partnership programs attempt to address this problem by…

Ninth grade often is considered a make-or-break year in determining whether students will be successful in high school and beyond. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) created the Texas Ninth Grade Transition and Intervention Program to ease the transition of at-risk students into high school and increase the likelihood that they graduate on time and…

In 2007, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) funded 22 colleges to establish developmental summer bridge programs. Aimed at providing an alternative to traditional developmental education, these programs involve intensive remedial instruction in math, reading, and/or writing and college preparation content for students entering…

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…