This case study focused on the Open Campus™ initiative at Bossier Parish Community College (BPCC). Open Campus™ is the nation's first free, online, non-credit, developmental, cross-curricular course portal. The courses are self-directed and can be utilized by anyone with an internet connection, regardless of the Bossier Parish affiliation. In the…

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…

Students who arrive on campuses unprepared for college-level work find that it costs them potentially extra time and money to complete developmental courses they would not have needed had they arrived fully prepared in all subjects. Institutions of higher education face their own costs and capacity challenges when trying to teach students the…

The Community College Pathways initiative consists of two pathways, Statway® and Quantway®, that accelerate post-secondary students' progress through their developmental mathematics sequence and a college-level course for credit. Launched in 2011, the Pathways have been remarkably successful, helping thousands of students achieve success in…

This study focused on a redesigned reading program that integrated project-based activities through the contextualization of reading and information literacy strategies using library databases. Students completing the new reading curriculum were compared to students who had completed a traditional reading curriculum to assess for differences in…

This chapter describes how the authors are using data and professional learning to mobilize change in developmental English and mathematics curricula and pedagogy across multiple community colleges in California.

This study examines the educational structures of a pre-college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education program that has been effective in preparing African American students for postsecondary education and to pursue degrees in technical disciplines. A critical race analysis of the educational structures of the program…

This chapter describes a promising new approach to teaching developmental arithmetic and prealgebra, and presents research findings that demonstrate how a faculty support network helped instructors adopt new teaching strategies and gain confidence in teaching the reformed course.

This chapter tells a story of course reform, describing in a fresh and candid way the steps taken toward change and the results achieved. The authors emphasize that instructors need considerable support in order to teach differently, as well as underscore the need to consider scalability of reform even at the pilot stage.

For the past decade, MDRC has evaluated a number of interventions designed to improve the outcomes of community college students, including enhanced counseling, learning communities, and financial incentives. Encouragingly, many of these strategies have produced positive effects, affirming that changes in institutional practices and policies can…

The authors describe an Enhanced Formative Assessment and Self-Regulated Learning (EFA-SRL) program designed to improve the achievement of community college students enrolled in developmental mathematics courses. Their model includes the use of specially formatted quizzes designed to assess both the students' mathematics and metacognitive skill…

The Community College Pathways (CCP) program had an outstanding second year. In 2012-2013, the program reproduced the positive outcomes realized in the first year of implementation, including successful course completion rates of over 50 percent for both Pathways. Simultaneously, the administration of the Pathways has continued to develop and…

Marla Kincaid (Adjunct Instructor, Austin Community College M.A., Developmental Education Department of Curriculum and Instruction Texas State University-San Marcos) interviewed the following leaders in the field of Developmental Education: (1) Dr. Olatunde Ogunyemi, Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Grambling State…

For the past decade, MDRC has evaluated a number of interventions designed to improve the outcomes of community college students, including enhanced counseling, learning communities, and financial incentives. Encouragingly, many of these strategies have produced positive effects, affirming that changes in institutional practices and policies can…

Three community colleges--El Paso Community College, Bunker Hill Community College, and Patrick Henry Community College--incorporated technology into the curriculum to support student progress in mathematics through developmental education. Each college took its own path: El Paso developed a self-accelerated emporium-style computer lab, Patrick…