The Post-Traditional Remedial Learner in higher education is a student constituency that has historically been "Hidden in Plain Sight" and strikingly absent from substantive discussions that foreground their lived experiences, relevance, and success in post-secondary education. Though physically present on campus and numerically…

Developmental education has existed as a thread of American higher education since the founding of Harvard College in 1636, when tutors provided supplemental Latin programming for underprepared students. In recent years, developmental education is most prominent at community colleges: ninety-eight percent of the colleges offer some form of…

State community college systems and their two-year colleges have spent the 2010s reexamining and redesigning decades-old developmental education tracks to ensure students get what they need--and only what they need--with an eye toward moving them more quickly into college-level courses and, eventually, the degree or certificate they want.…

A significant number of students enter community colleges with developmental education (DE) needs in reading, writing, and mathematics. Many of these students are typically referred to more than one level of DE courses before they can enroll in a college-level course. This has led to lower than desired success rate of DE students over the years.…

Guttman Community College (GCC), a newly-established, urban community college, part of the City University of New York (CUNY), enrolls a largely traditional student body which is also predominantly minority. Students enter the college with an average high-school grade-point average of 75% (C average), and are required to enroll in three first-year…

While most community colleges admit all students who apply for admission, the vast majority have required students to demonstrate specified levels of literacy and numeracy before they can take college-level courses. Typically, students have been assessed using a single placement test, such as the College Board's ACCUPLACER. Colleges--or sometimes…

The problem investigated in this study was the low completion rates of students in mandated developmental education courses at a local community college in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that may contribute to the persistence of community college students who have completed mandated…

This study explores the impact of a first-semester learning community (LC) program on the experiences of developmental students in community college. Through a series of semi-structured interviews, students shared four central benefits of beginning their college careers in an LC program, including: (1) access to a supportive social and…

Student's low reading and writing proficiency in higher education has been the subject of a large body of research (e.g., Bahr, 2011; Bailey, 2010; Carlino, 2005, 2010, 2012; Flink, 2017; Jaggars, 2014 Pacello, 2014; Perin, 2011; Perin et al., 2013). The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how students in a first-year developmental…

Poor completion outcomes in community colleges' developmental education programs have spurred reforms in developmental education policies and practices in order to increase students' chances of success. In the case of developmental math, the focus of this article, such changes include revisions to testing and placement policies, amendments to the…

The college completion agenda, in concert with recent research, has brought scrutiny to the shortcomings of community college remedial programs. Remedial, or developmental, education has come to be seen as a hindrance to student progress and attainment rather than as a support. In this chapter, the authors describe new approaches to help students…

Developmental education programs and services have long provided underprepared and unprepared postsecondary students with the academic tools and life-management skills necessary to successfully complete collegelevel coursework. Legislation and policy changes, including implementing statewide minimum admissions requirements and restricting…

The City University of New York (CUNY) is the largest urban public university system in the United States with approximately 100,000 students enrolled in associate degree programs. Similar to trends nationwide, many associate degree students come to CUNY underprepared for college-level classes and are assigned to take remedial or developmental…

California is projected to fall 1.1 million bachelor's degrees short of economic demand by 2030. Expanding access to higher education could help shrink the gap, but California also needs to boost the likelihood that students who enroll in college will stay on track to earn degrees. The share of adults with bachelor's degrees is slightly larger in…

Most community college students are referred to developmental education courses to build basic skills. These students often struggle in these courses and college more broadly. CUNY Start is a prematriculation program for students assessed as having significant remedial needs. CUNY Start students delay matriculation for one semester and receive…