Historically, colleges have used standardized testing to determine whether a student is ready for college-level work or requires developmental courses first, but this method has been criticized as inaccurate. To obtain more accurate placements, nearly three-quarters of colleges now use multiple measures assessment (MMA) systems. These systems…

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…

This chapter explores early impacts from the Florida College system's bold experiment in making placement testing and developmental education optional for most students.

American colleges are redesigning the ways in which they offer remedial courses, including mainstreaming students into college-level courses and making greater use of learning-technology to tailor the curriculum to students' specific academic needs. Exploiting a statewide cutoff on a remediation placement exam along with data on student outcomes…

How should colleges determine whether students are placed into developmental or college-level courses? Each year, colleges place millions of students into developmental math and English courses upon enrollment. To do so, colleges most often use a high-stakes placement test, which numerous research studies have shown to be highly inaccurate in…

In October 2022, the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) released a systematic review of evaluation literature on developmental education reforms to identify interventions found to have positive effects on student outcomes entitled, "Five Principles for Developmental Education: A Review of the Evidence" (see…

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…

This report provides data on the effects of developmental education on students at Colorado's public higher education institutions and aims to inform the ongoing dialogue regarding preparation for college. Specifically, it documents the data gathered by the Colorado Department of Higher Education (DHE) on students from the Colorado High School…

In 2011, under the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI), Florida made college placement testing mandatory for 11th-grade students who had scored in the midrange of its standardized 10th-grade assessment. Those with placement test scores below college-ready were assigned in 12th grade to college readiness and success…

When students first enroll in college, they are required to demonstrate readiness for college-level work. Course placement depends on standardized assessments, and students who do not attain a satisfactory score are typically assigned to developmental (e.g. remedial) education courses. The theory behind this approach has been that remedial…

Community college students invest considerable time and money into attending college, but too few of them complete their programs of study. This paper discusses how the development of an overall framing vision for student success, the implementation of evidence-based practices, and the establishment of a culture that is both committed to student…

This article reports a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that use regression discontinuity to examine the effects of placement into developmental education. Results suggest that placement into developmental education is associated with effects that are negative, statistically significant, and substantively large for three outcomes:…

Precollege courses, also known as "developmental" courses, help students prepare for introductory college courses, most often in math and English language arts (reading/writing). Most colleges use entrance exams, prior coursework, or other evaluations to determine whether students should start in a college level or precollege course for…

This report presents the results of the Fall 2015 Developmental Education Report for the Maricopa County Community College District. Section 1 of the report provides numbers of students enrolled in one or more developmental courses in the Fall 2015 Term. Section 2 Deals with placement. The placement and performance sections of this report…

In March, 2016, the state of New Mexico established a Remediation Task Force to examine remediation reform efforts across the state's higher education institutions. On March 11, the Task Force met for the "New Mexico Corequisite Remediation at Scale Policy Institute" in order to learn about the results of the latest national reform…