Recent publications raise three concerns about the traditional senior year: it lacks rigor, it fails to provide students with clear pathways to work and postsecondary education, and it does not prepare students for a successful transition from high school to post-secondary experiences. These documents suggest that high schools should transform the…

Describes a continuing education course designed to develop students' confidence by equipping them with the skills needed for serious study. (JOW)

States that freshmen college students are not developmentally ready to demonstrate higher-level thinking skills, particularly evaluation. Describes the Perry Scheme of intellectual and ethical development and Chickering's seven vectors of college student development as they assist faculty in comprehending the challenges freshmen face when…

Describes a series of popular elective courses at the University of Georgia that avoid the stigma associated with developmental education while providing similar opportunities for skill development. Courses cover such things as learning to learn, strategies for academic success, critical thinking and writing skills, adjusting to college, and needs…

In a previous column, standards for professional growth in educational technology for developmental educators were discussed. These standards focus on competence with technology applications for improving instruction. How these standards might be implemented through four stages of technology integration: adopting, adapting, appropriating, and…

Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, this issue of "Data Notes" highlights some of the differences that exist between states. In addition to Achieving the Dream data, this report includes data from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) for the 2008-09 academic year to…

This report contains trend data on the retention, graduation, and transfer rates of first-time, full-time students at Maryland community colleges from 1997 to 2007. Specifically, the report presents retention and graduation data for students two, three and four years after matriculation into a community college. The data is presented for the…

Latinos are far more likely to begin postsecondary education in community colleges, and in fact roughly 51% are concentrated in this sector. Yet it is well documented that few manage to successfully complete the transition from a two- to a four-year college or university, making transfer the key leakage point in the pathway to the baccalaureate.…

Founded in 2007, the "Technology Centers That Work" (TCTW) school improvement model is designed to assist shared-time technology centers in preparing graduates for postsecondary studies and employment in high-demand, high-wage, high-skill fields. "TCTW" was modified from SREB's "High Schools That Work" ("HSTW") design to address shared-time…

Remedial education, although widely used and disguised with other names, was rarely talked about for it could tarnish a school's reputation if widely discussed. Today, more and more colleges and universities are ditching the old stigma associated with remedial education, reinventing their remedial education and retention programs and, in the…

Parents who have not had opportunities to attend college themselves have neither experience with the process of college preparation and college going nor sufficient access to needed information. This article describes a collaborative venture between a university department of education and a cluster of local schools designed to help parents of…

This case study examines a P-20 action research partnership involving a university, a nonprofit organization, and several middle and high schools with sizeable enrollments of underserved students. The partnership's goals were rooted in a cultural change model designed to encourage college awareness and attendance among largely Latino and African…

The vast majority of high school students plan to attend college, but little is known about the postsecondary enrollment of students who exit high school with certificates of completion or individualized diplomas. With as many as 10% of all high school completers in some states earning documentation other than the high school diploma, it is…

Designed to investigate the impact of service-learning on developmental-level students' success and retention, this study reports the results of pre-and postcourse surveys with service-learning and nonservice-learning sections of developmental courses at Miami-Dade College. Knowledge gained, course pass rates, and both in-class and…

In El Paso, Texas, the public institutions of higher education have joined with area school districts to create the El Paso College Readiness Initiative. Through a great deal of coordination and cooperation among the participating institutions, high school faculty, students, and parents are introduced to the placement test used by the city's…