Across the U.S., an estimated 60% of incoming community college students require developmental courses to be ready for college-level work, according to estimates by experts. As these courses act as a gateway to further studies, those who fail are most often lost to higher education: Less than a quarter will earn a degree or certificate within…

This study investigates the effect of word study instruction on the orthographic knowledge of college students enrolled in a developmental reading course. Results revealed significantly greater improvement in orthographic knowledge in students who received word study instruction when compared with those in a control group, suggesting that the word…

Carnegie's Community College Pathways (CCP) offers two pathways, Statway® and Quantway®, that reduce the amount of time required to complete developmental mathematics and earn college-level mathematics credit. The Pathways aim to improve student success in mathematics while maintaining rigorous content, pedagogy, and learning outcomes. It is…

Due to poor student success rates in developmental mathematics, many institutions have implemented various forms of redesign into their developmental math curricula. Since the goal of redesign is to increase student success, it is salient to explore all aspects of the redesign process. Many studies have focused on the positive outcomes of redesign…

Underprepared students often need assistance building writing skills and maintaining confidence in their abilities and potential. The authors share the philosophy, pedagogy, and experience of freshman developmental education and the writing center at a four-year, private, not-for-profit urban college. They describe high-impact educational…

This paper aims to critique and develop neo-Vygotskian work in mathematics education from (i) within the Vygotskian and activity theoretic tradition, and where necessary from (ii) a Bourdieusian perspective. First, I critique Roth and Radford's (2011) version of Cultural-historical Activity Theory, suggesting that a classroom episode presented as…

Attrition for entry-level, non-traditional college students taking developmental reading courses is a concern for higher education institutions. Students need to complete basic developmental reading courses in order to progress in their vocational or collegiate studies. This phenomenological study followed a social constructivist approach to…

Less than 100 years ago, only 16.8 percent of all 17-year olds in the U.S. had graduated from high school. At the same time, less than 5 percent of those 18-24 years old was enrolled in higher education. The K-12 and higher education systems rapidly expanded over the next century to accommodate larger and larger portions of the population, but…

This study tracks students' progression through developmental math sequences and defines progression as both attempting and passing each level of the sequence. A model of successful progression in developmental education was built utilizing individual-, institutional-, and developmental math-level factors. Employing step-wise logistic regression…

This paper discusses the findings of a group of co-researchers involved in a participatory action research (PAR) project conducted with adults in a developmental education program. The co-researchers were mostly individuals of Hispanic descent, who had struggled in the past with schooling. Because the educational experiences of Hispanics often…

The relative age effect (RAE) suggests that athletes may be provided with greater opportunities for success depending on the position of their birthdate in a sport's selection year. While the effect has been well established in men's sports, less is known about women's sports. This study examined the RAE in developmental girls' hockey in Ontario.…

This article provides a review of the evolution of the developmental academic advising approach and a brief analysis of its relationship to the emergent contemporary approaches to academic advising.

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.

Many recent high school graduates who enter community college are required to take remedial or developmental education courses before enrolling in college-level courses. Developmental courses essentially reteach high school- and junior high school-level content in reading, writing, and math. In some cases, students are referred to two or even…

This qualitative study offers critical insight into how language policy interacts with daily classroom decisions at a large and highly diverse urban community college in the United States. Specifically, it examines the challenges that faculty teaching developmental writing courses for English language learners experience when determining what…