The corequisite model is a promising developmental education reform effort that is helping students transition into college-level coursework more quickly. The purpose of this Brief is to offer recommendations to college leaders, faculty, and staff involved with implementing the corequisite model at their institution. Our recommendations are from a…

Effective professional development for course instructors in higher education has long been a point of interest in terms of how not only ongoing training can benefit instructors but also how those benefits could possibly improve student experiences and learning outcomes. This qualitative case study specifically examines a population of teachers…

A state-wide educational policy change in Texas mandated that the exit levels of developmental reading and writing coursework in every public institution of higher education in the state be merged into one accelerated and integrated developmental reading and writing course. This project examined that curricular shift through the perspectives of…

Research for Action (RFA) in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin is engaged in a five-year mixed-methods study of the reforms associated with California AB 705. Over the course of the study, our team will assess the implementation, impact, and cost effectiveness of reforms associated with the law. This second interim report,…

English Learners (ELs) attend community colleges at a greater rate than four-year schools, making community colleges primary sites of ESL education in American higher education. These institutions' recent embrace of the corequisite structure -- a pairing of a non-credit developmental course with a credit-bearing disciplinary content course in…

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…

Despite the overrepresentation of students of color in developmental education, there is a lack of research on programs that promote the success and transfer of these students beginning in developmental education, especially Latinx students. Since 2012, the Dream Catchers program in Texas has targeted the recruitment, retention, and completion of…

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…

Over the past 50 years, state legislatures have placed mandates on higher education institutions to lower attrition, thereby increasing student retention and completion. This study investigated and sought to understand the relationship between the Louisiana Granting Resources and Autonomy for Diplomas Act, or the LA GRAD Act (2010), and…

Universities and colleges are embracing and utilizing technology to a rapidly increasing extent, responding to its cost-effectiveness and efficiency as well as the regularity with which 21st century students rely upon it in their everyday lives. Chief amongst the technology used in higher education are Learning Management Systems (LMS), such as…

Transitioning Learners to Calculus in Community Colleges (TLC3) is a research project aimed at transforming institutional approaches to matriculating underrepresented racial minority (URM) students into and through Calculus II in the nation's 1,023 public associate degree-granting institutions (community colleges). The broader goal of the TLC3…

The New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE), with support from Lumina Foundation, investigated whether the use of Khan Academy could increase community college student success in developmental math coursework, support embedded math content in technical courses, and prepare students to take or retake college placement tests. Khan Academy, an…

This paper documents the perceptions and experiences of faculty members in the midst of statewide reform efforts in Virginia and North Carolina to integrate developmental reading and writing courses. Using interview and focus group data from 161 faculty and administrators in both states (combined) as well as three detailed case studies of faculty…

Technology plays a vital role in education by linking students to resources around the world. In the past three to five years, community colleges in the southeast region of the United States have received funding through various initiatives, allowing them to make significant changes. In 2013 North Carolina Community College System website listed…

Three community college faculty members used improvement science techniques to design, develop, and refine contextualized developmental mathematics lessons, where language and literacy pedagogy and related supports figured prominently in these instructional materials. This article reports on the role that their design experiences played in…