Although there exists an extensive amount of research on subscores and their properties, limited research has been conducted on categorical subscores and their interpretations. In this paper, we focus on the claim of Feinberg and von Davier that categorical subscores are useful for remediation and instructional purposes. We investigate this claim…

Remedial courses have been part of the college landscape in the United States since at least the 1800s when nearly 250,000 students were placed into remedial courses. Traditionally, students who enrolled in remedial courses were placed into that course solely based on one test score. Students who enrolled in traditional remedial courses were more…

The distinguishing feature of dynamic assessment (DA) is the dialectical integration of assessment and instruction. However, how to design the targeted instruction or mediation has been relatively underexplored. To address this gap, this study proposes the attribute-based mediation model (AMM), an English-as-a-foreign-language listening mediation…

Research suggests that using only standardized placement test scores to determine which new college students should take developmental coursework is inadequate, as many students may be unnecessarily assigned to developmental courses. These courses generally take one or more semesters to complete, delaying entry into college-level coursework, and…

Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), like other community colleges, does not require Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores or similar entrance examinations for admission. However, new college applicants must demonstrate their levels of reading, writing, and mathematics skills to determine whether they need developmental courses to prepare…

Every year, millions of college students are referred to developmental courses (also called remedial courses). Success rates in these courses are low: Fewer than half of developmental students pass the course sequences to which they were referred. Being referred to developmental education is also highly correlated with dropping out of college.…

California Assembly Bill 705 (AB 705) began full implementation in fall of 2020 for California community college English departments. This Bill requires schools to reconsider developmental education saying that students can no longer be required to take classes below transfer-level in English unless the school can show a student would not be able…

Utilizing a conceptual approach, this study explores several political factors that coalesced to paralyze secondary education reform initiatives in Trinidad and Tobago. It discusses how changes in government impact reform priorities, and examines key strategies for overcoming political obstacles. One such strategy is the application of incremental…

The article provides recent state and system wide developmental education (DE) policy mandates and reforms for all 50 states. The rationale is to determine how states are refining the assessment, placement, instruction, and advisement of students deemed noncollege ready and who are advised or mandated to enroll in traditional or innovative DE…

Colleges throughout the United States are evaluating the effectiveness of their strategies to place entering students into college-level or developmental education courses. Developmental, or remedial, courses are designed to advance the reading, writing, and math skills of students who are deemed academically underprepared for college-level…

Throughout the years, career and technical education (CTE) has focused on teaching technical competencies and related academic skills that prepare students to enter and advance in a variety of career fields and postsecondary education. Program and course descriptions are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the technical and academic skills…

DE programming in higher education should be designed to increase student success, and well-designed corequisite models have shown great potential as an accelerated option for completion of the first college-level course in math. With the support of a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board grant, Tarleton State University, a member institution…

Several states have changed their statewide achievement tests over the past 5 years. These changes may pose difficulties for educators tasked with identifying students in need of additional support. This study evaluated the stability of decision-making accuracy estimates across changes to the statewide achievement test. We analyzed extant data…

Prerequisite skill structures have been closely studied in past years leading to many data-intensive methods aimed at refining such structures. While many of these proposed methods have yielded success, defining and refining hierarchies of skill relationships are often difficult tasks. The relationship between skills in a graph could either be…

This research explored how different models of Web-based dynamic assessment in remedial teaching improved junior high school student learning achievement and their misconceptions about the topic of "Weather and Climate." This research adopted a quasi-experimental design. A total of 58 7th graders participated in this research.…