Developmental education has existed as a thread of American higher education since the founding of Harvard College in 1636, when tutors provided supplemental Latin programming for underprepared students. In recent years, developmental education is most prominent at community colleges: ninety-eight percent of the colleges offer some form of…

The recent focus on improving college completion rates has resulted in the paring down--or complete removal--of semester-long developmental education courses. Considering the magnitude these policies have on placement, teaching, and learning outcomes, this study examined faculty observations (N=420) about students' current and longitudinal college…

A high incidence of college students required to complete non-credit remedial courses and the associated cost burden for students, colleges and states has been of great public concern. Connecticut legislators have intervened to revamp college remediation by passing the bill, Public Act 12-40 (PA 12-40) which impacts institutions in the Connecticut…

Only 25% to 38% of secondary education graduates in the United States are proficient readers or writers but many continue to postsecondary education, where they take developmental education courses designed to help them improve their basic academic skills. However, outcomes are poor for this population, and one problem may be that approaches to…

Christine McPhail formerly served as president at Cypress College in California and is founder and professor emeritus of the Community College Leadership Doctoral Program at Morgan State University in Maryland. She is the Managing Partner for The McPhail Group LLC and currently serves as a Leadership Coach for more than a dozen community colleges…

This was a mixed methods study that examined the developmental education program at an urban public Maryland community college. The data were collected from interviews with a former English Chair, a former Math Chair, and the Director of Institutional Research. Each was selected because of his and her expertise. Data were also collected from one…

Discusses avenues developmental studies staff can take in programs, including winning extradepartmental faculty support, strengthening the flow of information to administrators and faculty, and building administrative trust. Emphasizes that administrators need concrete evidence that these programs benefit students and the college. (CAM)

Drawing from the experiences of the remedial/developmental program at Rockland Community College (RCC), this paper suggests a series of strategies for serving the educationally disadvantaged community college student amidst the economic and political pressures of the 1980s. Introductory comments identify the objectives for the development of…

Presents two case studies of problems faced by developmental program administrators and faculty. One case focuses on the problem of defining success for developmental programs and the repercussions for who defines it. The second case addresses the campus location of developmental programs and the issue of centralized versus decentralized programs.…

Argues that online instructors have a great impact on the quality of a student's online experience. Demonstrates through the author's personal experience as an online instructor that written communication skills are essential in an online classroom. (Contains seven references.) (NB)

Investigates the daily interactions between nontraditional students and the faculty, staff, and administration of a small, rural southeastern community college, based on ethnographic interviews, institutional documents, and observations. Reports on faculty perceptions of students, their lives and ambitions; students' emotional and support…

Reports on study designed to determine students' and instructors' comfort with asking for and providing accommodations for community college students with learning disabilities. Finds that students and faculty indicated neutral levels of comfort, but that further analyses of responses showed wide variability in the types of accommodations with…

The team-teaching component of the College Skills Program at Burlington County College (New Jersey), a coordinated cognitive and affective curriculum for remediating basic skills deficiencies, is briefly described. Four-person teams consisting of a social sciences teacher, a reading teacher, an English teacher, and a counselor are used in the…

Basic skills programs being implemented in New Jersey colleges are examined, and the statewide need for a centralized research and training institution that would inform, train, and provide technical assistance to college and secondary school educators and administrators involved with remedial and developmental instruction is proposed.…

The Transitional Curriculum Program at Virginia State University, which is designed to develop underprepared, dependent learners into independent university students, is described. After distinguishing several types of underprepared learners, the following variables are considered: learner success, role of the instructor, and instructor…