Community colleges across the country confront a clear challenge: too many students arrive on campus unprepared, get placed into developmental (or remedial) courses where they fail to progress, and never complete a credential, graduate, or transfer to a four-year institution. At the same time, community colleges are subject to increasing expectations--and increased scrutiny--about their capacity to prepare workers for a global economy. Community colleges have implemented a variety of reforms in developmental education in recent years. While research shows modest effects for some of these efforts, it is increasingly clear that bolder change--and more evidence of what works--is needed to substantially improve completion rates for the hundreds of thousands of college students who are placed in remedial education each year. As part of MDRC's "Looking Forward" series, this memo provides suggestions for policymakers on ways to make progress on this critical issue.