Not Just Faster: Equity and Learning-Centered Developmental Education Strategies

• In Event: 69.035 - Where Are the Minority Students in Higher Education? Focusing on Race Within Developmental Education

Abstract

Missing from the work on Developmental education reform is an emphasis on four-year colleges and universities and two-year and four-year MSIs. Developmental education programs are too expensive for students and too costly for institution to know so little about, which program models actually work in these critical contexts. This project coalesced and supported five MSs within California, Maryland, Texas, and South Carolina, intensely focusing on the developmental of solutions to a common and persistent problem that impedes degree completion and developmental education. The participating MSIs utilized models that either accelerated or eliminated the semester-long, developmental education courses for first-year students, or focused on curricular redesign and faculty development. Found in this study were promising models that increased the academic achievement and decreased the time to credit-bearing courses for the participants who tested into Developmental Education.
This Report includes a summary of the DE interventions, evaluation, strategies, and program outcomes performed at five MSIs. Additionally, it offers descriptions of the evidence-based models that have been effective for DE at the six MSIs. The paper highlights the effective strategies utilized by the campuses in an effort to scale the initiatives and lessons to consider for scaling such models. Finally, it concludes with recommendations for advancing developmental reform efforts to improve teaching and learning while simultaneously addressing equity issues.
Each institution was given a pre and posttest to determine if the interventions for Dev. Ed were effective. California State University-San Bernardino implemented an intensive Math program, where 98.7% of the students were able to successfully test out the required Dev. Ed course after completing the program. Claflin University employed an extended course model. Students in the program enrolled in the extended English 101 course had a lower passing rate than the control group similar students participating in the traditional English 101 course (88% vs. 99.3%). Morgan State University created a developmental humanities initiative, which includes hands-on interdisciplinary projects across the disciplines of Reading, English, and History. Students in the program group had higher pre and post-test scores and higher attendance (showed a correlation with grades) than the control group. Texas Southmost College developed an accelerated developmental math course. The students in the accelerated math program had higher retention, course completion rates, and grades, than the students in the traditional course model. University of the Incarnate Word implemented a co-requisite model of college algebra with a mandatory lab for students requiring Dev. Ed. Students who would have otherwise been placed in traditional Dev. Ed course but were enrolled in a traditional college-level math course with an additional math lab had similar final course grades and slightly lower final test scores than students who did not test into DE courses.

Authors

• Amanda E. Assalone, Southern Education Foundation, Inc.

• Tiffany Nicole Jones, Education Trust