This dissertation examined how adult learners who took developmental mathematics in a community college and passed the courses, viewed their self-efficacy and the roles they felt self-efficacy had on their successful completion of mathematics. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 adult learners in two U.S. community colleges.…

Beginning in 2019, California community colleges were required to use multiple measures to determine students' placement into initial math courses. Community colleges also created structured BSTEM and liberal arts (SLAM) math pathways beginning in 2017. This contemporaneous implementation could reproduce racialized stratification in math…

This is a testimony from Michael Weiss, a senior researcher at Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), a nonprofit, nonpartisan social policy research organization that is dedicated to learning what works to improve policies and programs that affect the poor. Founded in 1974, MDRC evaluates existing programs and develops new solutions…

The author examines the process for applying for National Association for Development Education (NADE) accreditation. The multi-year process began when the English faculty of the community college she works at reviewed data from the National Community College Benchmark Project. The data showed low success rates and poor persistence from…

Research studies indicated that learning support professionals, which includes postsecondary developmental education professionals, often lacked opportunities for training to engage with the population of students they work with, as well as current instructional practices and/or reforms. While the research is expansive, it has focused on the…

Recent reform efforts in developmental education have led to model-development of college literacy instruction without being informed by institution-specific investigations of whether, how, and to what extent new models align with the literacy rigors of next-level courses across pathways. Such work is essential to informing literacy programming at…

Most studies on remedial courses are based on their mandatory attendance. However, changes may have occurred in the attendance policy of developmental math courses since the state of Florida decided to overcome obligatory math remediation for unprepared students. Consequently, researchers have recently started focusing on voluntary math remedial…

The completion of developmental community college (DCC) courses is a crucial step in community college education to reach the national goal of increasing college success. DCC students are a unique population who require specific strategies such as vocabulary retention (VR) to achieve academic success. Prior research on vocabulary has been limited…

Developmental math courses have long been considered a barrier for students (Benken et al., 2015), especially for minority and low-income students, who are enrolled in developmental courses disproportionately to their peers (Chen, 2016). Research has shown that various redesign efforts (e.g., multiple measures placement, corequisite support,…

The purpose of this article is to explore SI's alignment to theories of adult learning and development which are the underpinnings of developmental education. We begin by identifying adult learning and development theories that have influenced the field of developmental education and then examine descriptions of SI in the literature to explore…

This critical reflective essay highlights three significant moments in one White woman's ongoing efforts to move beyond performative equity work. Through this narrative, the author sheds light on the unspoken rules of Whiteness that limited her engagement with race, reflecting on ways that colorblind etiquette prevented her from seeing her Black…

For decades, colleges and universities have been grappling with the task of closing the readiness gap for underprepared writers entering the higher education system. Traditional developmental education models are costly and inefficient at best, and detrimental to the matriculation of students at worst. Bridge programs have had moderate success,…

In the United States, students often graduate from high school unprepared to succeed in college. In Alabama, fewer than 25% of high school graduates are college ready. Frequently, unprepared students enroll in community colleges, which are tasked to help them transfer to a four-year institution or to enter the workforce. However, students who need…

This study focuses on students who are registered for the University of Pretoria's academic development programme, the Four-year Programme (FYP). The programme was introduced as a gateway for students who are under-prepared but have the potential to succeed. This programme helps them to then continue their studies in mainstream science programmes.…

Faced with many applicants with very low math skills, community colleges are responding with a variety of reforms, including restricting developmental courses to students with high-school-level skills. This brief provides context for the policy changes and describes the alternatives two colleges offer to those who don't make the cut. [This brief…