A study was conducted at Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) to provide a profile of the characteristics and academic performance of PVCC students in developmental reading and writing courses. Specifically, the study focused on student demographics, performance in developmental courses and college-level English courses, and the relationship between performance in developmental courses and college courses. Data from the transcripts of 191 students who took at least one developmental course during fall 1981 were analyzed. Study findings included the following: (1) 62% of the sample group were under 22 years old, 86% matriculated within 1 year of their target year, and 50% were female; (2) almost 50% came from the three high schools closest to PVCC, and 83% were Virginia residents; (3) blacks accounted for 8% of the total PVCC student population, but 27% of the developmental students; (4) curricular choices remained fairly stable from matriculation to the end of the student's course of study; (5) 41% of the group were in good academic standing at the end of their course of study, 30% were on academic warning status, 13% were on probation, and 13% took no college-level courses; (6) over 50% of the students who took developmental courses eventually took college-level courses; (7) 74% of the students who received a satisfactory final grade in their developmental course went on to take a college-level course, as opposed to 40% of those who received a final grade of "repeat"; and (8) 47% of those who received a satisfactory developmental course grade received an A or B in their first college-level course. (EJV)