Can Colleges Discontinue Developmental Education? Faculty and Policymaker Beliefs About Supporting Student Success

• In Event: The End of Remediation in California's Community Colleges: Policy Implementation, Student Outcomes, and Faculty Experiences

Abstract

The policy implementation literature suggests that implementing agents -- who each have their own attitudes, beliefs, and emotions about policy -- are consequential in whether and how policy goals are achieved (Spillane et al., 2002). Informed by a policy sense-making framework (Spillane et al., 2002), we surveyed faculty and administrative leaders in the nine colleges of the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), the largest in the CCC system to explore policy attitudes and beliefs and the extent to which these may shape AB705 implementation. This survey is part of a larger case study that includes interview, document, and student outcomes data.

The survey had four interrelated goals: to (1) determine what stakeholders knew about the policy and implementation, (2) document sources of policy information, (3) identify faculty, staff, and leaders’ beliefs as they relate to placement and preparation for college level work, and (4) understand perceived challenges with the policy. All English, math, and counseling faculty, and administrators in both academic and student affairs received the survey (n=1045). 486 individuals completed at least one item, for a response rate of 46.5%. This paper describes patterns in survey responses. Here, we briefly describe the findings pertaining to beliefs about students’ ability to succeed under AB705.

On average, respondents are concerned about students’ ability to succeed in transfer-level courses, with an average response of 2.35 on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree students can succeed) to 4 (strongly agree students can succeed). Respondents were more likely to believe that students could succeed with support than without, and were more optimistic about students’ ability to succeed in English than in math. Counselors tended to be the most optimistic about students’ abilities, followed by English faculty. Math faculty expressed the most concern about students’ abilities to succeed. This suggests that implementing actors are somewhat pessimistic about AB705’s theory of action--that students will succeed in transfer-level courses if given a chance--and that beliefs vary by discipline.

We also found that 67% of math, and 77% of English, faculty agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “below transfer-level [math/English] courses offered at my college prior to AB705 effectively addressed the needs of students deemed underprepared for transfer-level coursework,” This suggests that many faculty still believe DE as a solution to college preparation despite compelling evidence that it has been an ineffective intervention (Valentine et al., 2017).

Interview data suggest that even among faculty who believe that most students should be able to complete transfer English and math in one year, some students would benefit from DE (e.g., students with learning disabilities, students long out of high school). Some added that students should be able to take DE if they think they need it and that by eliminating DE, community colleges will leave these students behind.

These findings, along with additional results related to policy messages, information, and support, suggest that policymakers may need to address the cognitive and normative aspects of policy implementation in order to fully achieve policy goals.

Authors

• Tatiana Melguizo, University of Southern California

• Cheryl Dy Ching, University of Massachusetts Boston

• Elise Swanson, Harvard University

• Elif Asli Yucel, University of Southern California

• Federick Ngo, University of Nevada - Las Vegas