What do you do when a change in enrollment policies leaves you with more than 600 students in a first-term university calculus class, three-quarters of those students had a failing mark in mathematics in the pre-enrollment test, you planned a series of remedial activities for the second term, and the COVID-19 pandemic shuts the university down…

It has been twenty-seven years since a small group of faculty at the Community College of Baltimore County, faced with the discovery that two-thirds of students placed in our upper-level basic writing course never passed first year composition, began the development of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), one of the earliest corequisite…

Malagasy adolescents face severe challenges in accessing and completing basic education. Among those students who complete the primary cycle, one in four does not transition into lower secondary school. Economic constraints among vulnerable households coupled with low-quality education result in widespread dropout and poor learning outcomes.…

Young people in East and Southern Africa need greater access to reliable information about health and education in order to make informed decisions on health matters--focusing on HIV and teenage pregnancy--and to increase basic education outcomes. Young 1ove organization, established in March 2014 in Gaborone, Botswana, is a grassroots, youth-led,…

Increasing numbers of high schools are offering senior-year transition curricula in math and English to better prepare graduating students for college. These transition curricula are typically full-year, high school credit-bearing courses taken by students at risk of being placed into developmental (also known as remedial) courses upon enrollment…

It is common for freshmen students to enter Calculus I with a wide range of levels of preparation and mastery of background material. In addition, many of the students struggle with the adjustment from high school to college. In an effort to help the students to solidify their understanding of concepts as they progress through the course, as well…

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…

When they arrive at community colleges or open-enrollment universities, most students take placement exams in English and mathematics to determine whether they are ready for college-level courses. Students with low scores are referred to developmental--remedial--courses. Forty percent of all entering college students and over half of entering…

The Tennessee Technology Center system has become something of a darling among college-completion advocates. Comprising 27 locations across the state, the system boasts graduation and job-placement rates that many colleges only dream of: 75 percent and 83 percent, respectively. Such achievements are even more noteworthy given the population the…

Should remediation in higher education be ended? A recent report from Complete College America says exactly that. The authors call for all public institutions of higher education in the United States to stop offering it and instead ensure that students who need extra help take co-requisite requirements, such as extra tutoring. Their…

As the state emerges from another recession, jobs that remain and those opening require workers with higher-order skills most often acquired in postsecondary education. Increasing numbers of adults look to community colleges to learn those skills and to find a way out of a cycle of low paying, unstable jobs. Even workers with years of experience…

Pueblo Community College has 13 correctional facilities within its service area. Former offenders are faced with numerous challenges that may prevent them from successfully redirecting their lives. The current three-year recidivism rate in Colorado is 53.2%. Data collected at the end of the first year of the HOPE Bridge Program indicates that…

This article traces diverging trajectories in a situated, participatory research project in 2 public schools in Ontario. While the project operated within a consistent set of objectives to promote educational equity for immigrant, linguistically diverse students and their families, it generated 2 substantially different models of educational…

In this Brief the authors first report on evidence about the effectiveness (or, unfortunately, in too many cases, the ineffectiveness) of remediation and then provide information about the progression of students through the developmental sequence. They discuss problems associated with the crucial assessments and make a brief statement about…

Philadelphia made early investments in reforms designed to address the challenges of large neighborhood high schools, including supports for the critical ninth grade transition year. Well over a decade later, our research shows that freshman year interventions are frequently not implemented in ways that maximize their effectiveness. This policy…