Critical race theory (CRT) continues to push a hot button within education. In higher education, these discussions often center 4-year colleges and universities, leaving community colleges out of the conversation. On top of that, developmental mathematics remains a racialized impediment for students from minoritized backgrounds. In this article,…

Developmental courses in community colleges often leave students unprepared, demeaned, and uninspired. These gatekeeper courses need reform, especially in terms of curriculum and instruction. One framework -- Dr. Gholdy Muhammed's Historically Responsive Literacy (HRL) -- could be useful for developmental courses and students. HRL is a teaching…

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…

The Iowa Department of Education (Department) collects information on developmental education (dev. ed.) from Iowa's 15 community colleges on an annual basis. Dev. ed. courses are offered in mathematics, reading, writing, English as a Second Language (ESL), and in other subject areas, such as financial literacy and skill building. These credits do…