This study examined the comprehension subsection of Nelson-Denny Reading Test Form G (Brown, Fishco, & Hanna, 1993a) and some urban developmental students' performance on it. Three types of question-answer relations were identified using Pearson and Johnson's taxonomy. Students' performance was expressed in their scores on the three types of…

In this article, we discuss the importance, specifically for developmental educators, of understanding diverse students' use and perceptions of learning centers. Among the results of a survey of students' perceptions of the mathematics program in the General College, University of Minnesota, we found statistically significant differences in how…

The field of college developmental reading does not have a unified, agreed-upon approach to creating effective and efficient readers at the college level, as Reynolds and Werner (2003) have pointed out. For example, Keefe and Meyer (1991) assert the appropriateness of a holistic, whole-language approach for adult readers, while Bohr (2003)…

Working from a cognitive perspective, a range of studies have supported the relationship between study strategies and academic performance of college students (e.g., Peverly, Brobst, Graham, & Shaw, 2003). In particular, self-regulatory processes comprised of learner-directed activities geared toward promoting academic achievement have been linked…

In college-level courses, the vast majority of students read expository textbooks with a primary purpose in mind: to memorize and, hopefully, understand enough information to receive a particular grade on a course exam. Intuitively, this kind of reading is different than the kind of reading that these same students do when reading a novel while…

The use of a complex battery of reading strategies has been found to be obligatory for those English as a Second Language (ESL) students desirous of a high level of English language literacy and success in US academic institutions. Even though we know of the importance of reading strategies, little research exists on whether or not ESL males and…

Using authentic materials, this study compared the oral reading miscues of 20 university students with reading related learning disabilities to 20 controls matched for age, gender, ethnicity, college GPA, reading achievement score, and college of major. All participants orally read two passages with different text structures from a college…

This exploratory study investigated the effects of a structured writing strategy on the quality of expository compositions produced by 36 African-American college undergraduates with learning disabilities. The strategy was structured to assist students in developing a topic sentence and main ideas into body paragraphs, and in using transition…

This study compared 34 lower-achieving (developmental) first-time college students' self-reported self-regulation strategies from a Likert scale to those they reported in structured interviews. Likert scales have offered convenient administration and evaluation and have been used to identify what and how learners study. The reported study activity…

The author of this article discusses the needs of developmental Latino/Latina students. As a white, middle-aged, female developmental educator, she is aware of the cultural differences. She has tried telling herself that when teaching developmental English, what matters is her knowledge of English composition. Good organization, solid development,…

Upon entering college, some African American students experience difficulty with literacy tasks requiring text analysis, active problem solving, and critical thinking. Many of these difficulties can be traced to the high school as the source. To understand some of the underlying causes for this situation, phenomenological interviews were conducted…

This article describes the developments in the assessment journey of a tutoring academic support program in a community college. The goal of our study was to determine if the Learning Center was doing what it said it was doing and what it could do to improve its services. Traditionally, the center had been evaluated on such accomplishments as…

Many instructors supply online lecture notes but little attention has been given to how students can make the best use of this resource. Based on observations of student difficulties with these notes, a strategy called parallel note-taking was developed for using online notes. The strategy is a hybrid of research-proven strategies for effective…

Although the issue of redefining the developmental education profession has been a constant in its history, the urgency to reexamine it has never been greater. As practice advances and changes, so must the language to describe it. A reexamination can be an opportunity to transform the work of the field, expand its borders, and redefine its…

This study provides empirical evidence to support the validity of using a content-specific reading test for college placement decisions. A content-specific reading test presents passages exclusively from the subject area for which the placement decision is intended. Forty-nine students in a human anatomy class were administered a content-specific…