This article explores one basic writer's evolution as he moves from the lowest level of developmental English at a community college to graduate with a Bachelor's degree. Combining personal narrative, essay excerpts, and textual analysis, this piece aims to expand the borders of scholarship in composition studies to include basic writers as…

This paper presents the findings from a follow-up quantitative analysis of the Community College of Baltimore County's Accelerated Learning Program (ALP). The results suggest that among students who enroll in the highest level developmental writing course, participation in ALP is associated with substantially better outcomes in terms of English…

The Learning Communities Demonstration is a national research project that is testing the effectiveness of learning communities in six community colleges across the United States: Merced College in California; The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) in Baltimore, Maryland; Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida; Houston…

The current study examined differences in student performance and retention rates for those who completed remedial reading or remedial writing courses and those who did not in a private university in South Florida. International students also were compared to non-international students on academic performance and retention rates. The conceptual…

The purpose of this case study was to describe the role of teacher knowledge in the instructional methods of a community college developmental literacy instructor and determine in what ways that knowledge may have impacted the perceptions of the student participants regarding their authority over their academic progress in the class. Therefore,…

This study examined the relationships between first semester participation in a community college developmental writing course and short and longterm academic performance. The study examined whether developmental writing course participants earned higher grades at higher rates at the end of a 3-year period following initial college enrollment when…

Unless questions about student performance and student retention can be answered and unless educators are proactive in finding and publicizing such information, basic writing programs cannot determine if what they are doing is working. Hard data, especially from underrepresented groups, is needed to support these programs. At Arizona State…

This is a qualitative study of four women receiving assistance through the Trade Readjustment Act (TRA) and who were enrolled in a developmental writing course. The TRA provides money to displaced workers for the purposes of retraining them to reenter the workforce. The four women in the study were nontraditional students and displaced garment…

Identifies traits associated with conditionally admitted students that differentiate them from the total freshmen population, establishes characteristics associated with the most and least successful students in the developmental writing classes, and then uses the findings to better serve students in all components of the developmental program.…

This study investigates a basic writing course within a freshman learning Community at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). Multiple layers of data, both qualitative and quantitative, provide a thick description of what occurred overall in that classroom over the course of one semester. My findings suggest that basic writing…

Asserts that taking Introduction to College Writing, a fundamental writing course at Central Missouri State University, improves student academic achievement by developing their basic writing skills and preparing them for more advanced, general education writing courses. (VWC)

Upon entry to New River Community College (NRCC), placement tests are administered to students enrolling in curricula and to students enrolling in English and mathematics classes. Based on preestablished cutoff scores on the placement tests, students are advised by counselors to take appropriate courses. In 1990, NRCC tracked students from…