Much of recent research in postsecondary developmental education leaves the distinct impression that most remedial courses in community colleges are unsuccessful in helping students and that they should be entirely overhauled. Legislators and administrators are now taking these recommendations very seriously and are ready to cut programs that are…

Many writing teachers provide feedback to their students through writing conferences; however, the existing literature indicates teachers may unintentionally harm their weaker students by using this strategy. To better understand the effect of the writing conference on developmental writing students, the researcher created a mixed design ANCOVA to…

Developmental education is a pedagogical challenge, especially since students are grappling with academic material they have seen before (some recently). In this article, the author discusses developmental mathematics and describes the typical developmental mathematics sequence. She also proposes to build new pathways for developmental…

Every year tens of thousands of students step foot on community college campuses, many for the first time. These students all have one thing in common: hope. They enter these institutions with lofty goals and a fervent expectation that the educative experience they are about to embark upon will fundamentally improve their lives. Yet, their hopes…

Postsecondary literacy instruction--the teaching of basic writing and transitional, or developmental, reading in community colleges and 4-year colleges--is an important and growing field, but also one still developing in key areas. In this article, we discuss three of these areas within which postsecondary literacy instruction can continue to…

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the perceptions of underprepared college students who had participated in a first-year learning community at an urban, culturally diverse, commuter campus in the southeastern United States. Perceptions of graduates and those who earned at least 30 college-level credit hours were compared to…

In the last two columns the authors introduced the idea of ethical reasoning and discussed its importance to education. They dealt with the problem of egocentric thinking as a barrier to ethical reasoning. And they focused on the importance of distinguishing ethics from other modes of thought with which it is often confused, namely social…

This article addresses conflicting perspectives regarding research in developmental education. Subsequent to examining opinions regarding the rigor of research in the field to date, recommendations for a research agenda are proposed. The study's review of research strengths and weaknesses suggests multiple types of evidence, potentially pointing…

Colleges are facing an increasing population of students who begin their college experience in developmental education classes in reading, math, and/or English. Many of these students are unsuccessful in attaining a degree, sometimes because they are deterred by their lack of preparation and the delay of two or more semesters before they begin…

Studies of students enrolled in computer-based instruction have yielded mixed results, with some reporting a high dropout rate. Tis article describes a quantitative study examining the probability of students' withdrawal from a computer- versus lecture-based developmental math course based on learning style, reasons for selecting the instructional…

Frank Christ is the founder and co-director of the Winter Institutes for Learning Assistance Professionals and has been actively involved with learning assistance and learning centers for the past 40 years. In this interview, Christ talks about how learning centers today differ from those with which he was associated at the beginning of his…

This paper discusses a pilot study of the effects of a curriculum focus intervention on students' prealgebra achievement. Elements of the intervention include identification of high-priority learning objective; structured repeatable testing; and a coherent, rubric-based feedback component. This research differs from traditional mastery learning…

This study examined barriers experienced by veteran school paraprofessionals attempting to complete a 4-year degree leading to public school teaching credentials. The study followed culturally and linguistically diverse, nontraditional student-participants through their 1st and 2nd years as sophomore/junior students in a large urban university.…

This qualitative study examines current community college library practices in developmental education. Based on semistructured telephone interviews with 27 librarians across the United States, analysis of the results shows that there are librarians who proactively integrate basic library skills into developmental education and academic success…

Dr. Byron McClenney is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Administration and serves on the staff of the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas-Austin as Project Director for Achieving the Dream. He was previously the President of the Community College of Denver. As President of the Community College of…