Retrospective reports gathered from developmental education students as part of a learning assessment revealed the use of several strategies for writing a summary based on a text. Participants were selected for the study based on the richness and variety of their verbal descriptions of task performance in structured, individualized interviews.…

In essay form, the director of the developmental education program at Cochise College (Arizona) describes her struggle to be personally and professionally effective with Chicano students from Spanish-speaking homes in a racially and culturally prejudiced community. Appended are a description of the program and a list of course offerings, as well…

This paper discusses an investigation that compared college students' reading gains when using general or specific diagnosis. It reports that significant gains were made on many subskills of the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test by the group that had the prescriptions developed as a result of a differential (specific) diagnosis and that there were…

A study was conducted to measure the effect and compare the results of developmental reading instruction for college students as prescribed from the specific results of a diagnostic reading test and a general, more traditionally used, survey reading test. The sample consisted of 226 students enrolled in different sections of a reading course…

This paper examines remedial programs in colleges and discusses the relationship of those programs to diagnostic testing. The Basic Skills Placement Test (BSPT) is required of all College freshman in New Jersey public colleges. Mercer County Community College, used as an example throughout this paper, uses the BSPT as a basis for placing students…