While most community colleges admit all students who apply for admission, the vast majority have required students to demonstrate specified levels of literacy and numeracy before they can take college-level courses. Typically, students have been assessed using a single placement test, such as the College Board's ACCUPLACER. Colleges--or sometimes…

Less than 25 percent of college students who take any developmental education courses earn a credential within eight years. Over the past three years, the six states in the Developmental Education Initiative have developed and enacted unprecedented changes in policy and practice in an effort to reverse these dismal outcomes. "Ahead of the…

Developmental education, also termed remedial education, refers to curricula intended to improve the academic skills and knowledge of students who are underprepared for undergraduate coursework, particularly in the areas of mathematics, reading, and writing. Many practitioners and researchers agree that developmental education should be improved,…

Replies to a questionnaire relating to development programs in 40 community colleges and technical institutes in North Carolina and Virginia are provided. The questions that comprised the questionnaire were: (1) Describe your procedure for determining the math and English proficiencies of entering freshmen; (2) Do you require for those students…

When remedial/developmental programs at community colleges are examined on a national level, four areas of concern are apparent: (1) administrators frequently fail to provide the funding and personnel necessary to meet the needs of a diverse student population; (2) instructors are often intellectually and culturally unprepared to teach…