This study examined the relationships between first semester participation in a community college developmental writing course and short and longterm academic performance. The study examined whether developmental writing course participants earned higher grades at higher rates at the end of a 3-year period following initial college enrollment when…

The diverse higher education members of the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education independently partner with the Hartford Public Schools and deliver more than forty programs in the schools. These programs are varied and include such areas as college access, professional development for teachers, technology initiatives, tutoring, and science…

Over a 27-year teaching career in schools in North London and the Zambian bush I have relished the challenge of helping the disaffected or reluctant learner. Most of my teaching was in the area of business and vocational education, where learners have often been placed not through choice but because they were not seen as high enough achievers to…

Background/Context: In the last several decades, a college education, in particular the bachelor's degree, has become the key to higher earnings, and overall, to a middle-class lifestyle in the United States. In an increasingly globalized economy, privileging information and communication technologies, it is more than likely that this emphasis on…

The phenomenon of student attrition is an increasingly challenging problem confronting American higher education. Unfortunately, there exists virtually no consensus on root causes; and disagreements continue over what intervention strategies might help to reduce the rates with which young collegians abandon their studies and leave campus. Data…

A rite-of-passage program as a course of action for successfully transitioning Black young people into adulthood and fostering positive outcomes in their lives is the focus of this study. The program draws upon African traditional culture to impart values, improve self-concept, and develop cultural awareness. Utilizing data from a larger study,…

Using popular culture in my developmental writing course has prompted me to reconsider what it means to create successful developmental writing assignments. Having slipped into the questionable habit of assuming that removing complexity makes an assignment appropriate for developing writers, I pared down a fairly open-ended "media…

Leaders representing the major professional organizations involved with learning assistance and developmental education and learning assistance conducted a strategic analysis of the field and reflected upon these organizations in particular. These organizations were: Association for the Tutoring Profession, College Reading and Learning…

Mastering stress management techniques can help college developmental class educators protect themselves from burnout. These techniques can also be taught to students in developmental classes to enable them to maximize the benefits from these classes. This paper outlines the causes of stress, identifies stressors, describes responses to stress,…

Criticisms have been raised about large scale community college involvement in developmental education. A number of these criticisms seem valid, while others clearly are not. Some of the most commonly voiced concerns include the following: (1) "The community college is the wrong place to provide developmental education"; (2)…

In recognition of the need to improve the delivery of basic skills instruction and other learning assistance services to its students, the Washington community colleges established a statewide support system to encourage resource sharing, promote professional growth, and assess the status of developmental education in the state's 27 two-year…

In 1982, the California Postsecondary Education Commission conducted a statewide survey of remedial education in California's community colleges for the 3-year period, 1978-79, 1979-80, and 1980-81. College of the Sequoias's (COS's) response to this survey included the following information: (1) COS offered 6 remedial reading courses, 4 remedial…

The effectiveness of two academic achievement courses in improving quality point averages (QPAs) of educationally disadvantaged students was compared. One of the voluntary study skills courses taught specific study skills (study orientation skills--SOS), while the other purported to teach students to think like achievers (achievement motivation…

Midlands Technical College has developed a model for a developmental science program which offers assistance to students through a three-phase "spanning for success" approach in which the transition from developmental to curriculum course work is gradual; and the developmental instructor works closely with the student from the time that s/he…

A developmental education evaluation model designed to be used at a multi-unit urban community college is described. The purpose of the design was to determine the cost effectiveness/worth of programs in order to initiate self-improvement. A needs assessment was conducted by interviewing and taping the responses of students, faculty, staff, and…