Two-year colleges provide access and opportunity for students with various academic backgrounds to pursue a post-secondary education. While two-year colleges take pride in admitting any student with a high school diploma or equivalent, in recent years colleges have been under scrutiny for low completion and graduation rates. Particular attention…

In 2015, Tennessee community colleges initiated a wave of national reform that reimagined academic support and accelerated student success. Through innovations in the delivery of targeted learning support, such as the corequisite support model, students are more likely to achieve key milestones of success in their first year of college. Now, after…

In May 2013, the governor of Florida signed into law Senate Bill 1720, which fundamentally changed how institutions of higher education manage remedial programs. Institutions seemed to be responding to the high demand for education by channeling large percentages of incoming first-year students to remedial classes based on assessment test scores,…

Amidst the growing diverse student population, community colleges are enrolling an increasing number of adult immigrant-background students. However, recent research trends tend to focus on students who enter community colleges from the U.S. K-12 system (Generation 1.5 learners), leaving a significant gap in the research and a lack of cohesion in…

Despite evidence suggesting that standardized tests are an imperfect measure of academic readiness, many community colleges across the country rely on them alone to determine student course placement. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to transition to remote operations in spring 2020, proctoring in-person placement tests became…

This qualitative study investigated co-requisite courses which pair a developmental course with a college-level course and offer insight into how co-requisite instructors adjusted their curriculum and pedagogy for English language learners. Specifically, it examined faculty experiences teaching a co-requisite course combining a critical thinking…

This article details the efforts that the Texas Success Initiative (TSI) office at a large research university made toward piloting, refining, and scaling corequisite courses for students who require developmental education. House Bill 2223, passed by the Texas Legislature in June of 2017, requires public institutions to increase the percentage of…

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition that the traditional system of college mathematics remediation that relies on high-stakes placement tests and prerequisite, multi-level course sequences is associated with lowered chances of students completing developmental requirements and increased rates of student attrition. This…

For many students, developmental education is the largest obstacle to college success, hindering progress before they ever enroll in a college-level course. Postsecondary practitioners and researchers have been re-examining and challenging many traditional elements of developmental education from placement strategies to the sequence of courses…

This paper discusses the result of a statewide research effort in California to improve the accuracy of student placement in math and English in the California Community College system. We apply decision tree methods to high school and college transcript data to identify key measures of high school achievement that predict success in ten levels of…

Research suggests that far more students are referred to developmental education courses than necessary, and that developmental education presents a barrier to students' success. As a result, many in the field have called for reforms to developmental education to address these challenges. This report documents developmental education practices…

Research suggests that far more students are referred to developmental education courses than necessary, and that developmental education presents a barrier to students' success. As a result, many in the field have called for reforms to developmental education to address these challenges. This report documents developmental education practices…

Competency-based education (CBE) is widely viewed as an innovative alternative to traditional higher education, yet most programs serve only a narrow slice of the postsecondary population. Few are intended for adults who need to boost basic skills in order to succeed in college coursework. However, if designed with the needs of a broader range of…

Florida enacted legislation in 2008 for a statewide program known as the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI), which was intended to reduce the need for postsecondary remediation. The FCCRI consisted of testing grade 11 students to determine their college readiness and offering math and English college readiness and success…

Florida enacted legislation in 2008 for a statewide program known as the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI), which was intended to reduce the need for postsecondary remediation. The FCCRI consisted of testing grade 11 students to determine their college readiness and offering math and English college readiness and success…