Since Breneman and Haarlow (1998) first estimated the national cost of developmental education to be approximately $1 billion dollars, the developmental education landscape has shifted in numerous ways. This paper provides an update to their estimate in light of both these changes and improved data that disaggregates the cost to community colleges…

Developmental education has increasingly become part of the national debate in higher education. This is particularly true for developmental mathematics courses which, in general, have the highest rates of failure and non-completion of any developmental subject area. This manuscript describes the current state of the art in developmental…

Though a large percentage of U.S. students enter higher education with mathematics deficiencies, many institutions allow these students to decide the timing of their enrollment in developmental mathematics courses. This study of 3476 first-time-in-college students entailed the review of student outcomes (Fall GPA, Fall-to-Spring retention,…

Drawing on critical multicultural education scholarship, this article discusses an alternative assessment of academic support programs. It highlights the importance and value of supplementing traditional assessments with direct student participation. Through a discussion of data from a summer bridge program at a large research university, the…

Developmental education has increasingly become part of the national debate in higher education. This is particularly true for developmental mathematics courses which, in general, have the highest rates of failure and noncompletion of any developmental subject area. This manuscript describes the current state of the art in developmental…

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…

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…

This article presents an interview with Dr. Muriel Harris who is considered as one of the most influential figures in writing center research and practice for over three decades. She is currently Professor Emerita of English at Purdue University. She founded The Purdue Writing Center which she directed from 1976 until 2003. She also founded…

Many developmental students begin college ill-equipped in the social and emotional competencies to be successful. Thus, it is essential that institutions of higher education address the broader needs of these students. The purpose of this article is to present collaborative learning as a tool for addressing the social and emotional inhibitors that…

Much lip service is given to the notion that students are learning to think critically. Studies consistently show that though faculty say that critical thinking is important to their instruction, they have difficulty articulating a clear conception of it and demonstrating how they foster it. In order for students to learn critical thinking,…

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 the results of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) administered to college students in order to identify similarities and differences between time of diagnosis of a learning disability and the development of learning strategies related to will, self-regulation, and skill components. Findings indicate that early…

In our previous two columns, we discussed the potential for using blogs and wikis with developmental education (DE) students. Another Web 2.0 technology, virtual environments like "Second Life", provides a virtual world where residents create avatars (three-dimensional [3-D] self-representations) and navigate around an online environment (Caverly,…