Until recently, many colleges provided academic support to students by requiring students to complete one or more developmental education courses in a subject area before they could enroll in college-level coursework. As early as 2010, research indicated that very few students were making it out of these developmental education courses and into…

Until recently, many colleges provided academic support to students by requiring students to complete one or more developmental education courses in a subject area before they could enroll in college-level coursework. Now colleges have been experimenting with new approaches that accelerate students into college courses, including corequisite…

Jobs for the Future (JFF) is leading an effort to explore how competency-based education (CBE) can be adapted to meet the needs of underprepared adult learners, in order to help members of this large and economically vulnerable group earn college credentials and advance in the U.S. workforce. With support from the ECMC Foundation, JFF is reaching…

This mixed-method study explored the alignment of expected student learning outcomes (SLOs) and expected student entrance skills, as stated within "course outlines of record" (CORs), for basic skills courses in one California community college district. Researchers evaluated consistencies and discrepancies in course alignment. There were…

For years, colleges have used placement exams to determine whether to deem incoming students "college ready" or assign them to developmental education. But emerging information reveals the tests have little correlation to students' future success, casting doubt on their use even as the high stakes for students of taking remedial courses…

For young people entering the twenty-first-century job market, high school graduation is no longer the finish line, but the starting line. While one-third of students will fail to graduate from high school, too many students who do graduate and make it to the postsecondary starting line find that they are underprepared for postsecondary work. A…

In 2007, the Illinois General Assembly passed Public Act 0950694, "The College and Career Readiness Pilot Act", in an effort to reduce remediation within Illinois' community colleges. An important objective of this legislation was to better prepare students to be successful in transitioning from high school to college. According to the…

This paper presents findings from five separate investigations undertaken as part of the Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative, a legislatively mandated program to increase the number of students attending and succeeding in college. It highlights activities designed to improve alignment between high school and college. These activities…

Perhaps more than most academic issues, remedial education evokes fervent emotions and unyielding opinions. Consensus is hard to reach even about the nomenclature, with remedial conveying a sense of deficiency in need of correction pitted against the developmental approach that focuses on change and growth. On campus, the many aspects of the…