Community colleges continue to increase their efforts to better serve students who enter their institutions with limited basic math, reading, or writing skills. In 2015, MDRC partnered with the Texas Coordinating Higher Education Board on a study to examine how colleges implemented state guidelines for students scoring below ninth-grade…

Learning assessments of the First-Year Experience (FYE) at universities have drawn increasing attention. Despite its current popularity, few pieces of literature on the FYE learning assessment exist in Japan. To present a case of FYE in the context of Japan, this paper examines the FYE course called the Vision Planning Seminar (VPS) at the Nagoya…

As the state emerges from another recession, jobs that remain and those opening require workers with higher-order skills most often acquired in postsecondary education. Increasing numbers of adults look to community colleges to learn those skills and to find a way out of a cycle of low paying, unstable jobs. Even workers with years of experience…

In this Brief the authors first report on evidence about the effectiveness (or, unfortunately, in too many cases, the ineffectiveness) of remediation and then provide information about the progression of students through the developmental sequence. They discuss problems associated with the crucial assessments and make a brief statement about…

Strong faculty relationships can benefit developmental programs by increasing referrals, creating a climate of support for developmental activities, and increasing resources available to programs; therefore, finding, keeping, and using faculty friends represent essential needs for such programs. Faculty friends may be generated in a number of ways…

Chaffey College, a three campus college with approximately 20,000 students located California's Inland Empire, has become the destination of many community college practitioners from around the country. The reason why? Over the past ten years, the college has become nationally-known as an institution with a "risk tolerant change-oriented…

This study focused on the factors that were positive contributors to the success of two-year college students at six colleges who were or had been enrolled in basic skill developmental programs. For study purposes, success involved student eligibility to continue in a chosen program. Variables used in evaluating student success/non-success…

The basic objective of this third research phase was to verify and further delineate factors that are constant and valid contributors to the success of postsecondary occupational students enrolled in developmental programs. Follow-up research on a longitudinal basis was conducted on nontraditional students at six New York colleges. Of…

The Critical Success Factors Report is the North Carolina Community College System's major accountability document. This annual performance report serves to inform colleges and the public on the performance of North Carolina's 58 community colleges. In 1993, the State Board of Community Colleges began monitoring performance data on specific…

The process of determining the effectiveness of developmental programs in two-year colleges was the focus of this study. It was limited to New York State, and designed in response to a request for proposals issued by Bureau of Grants Administration, New York State Education Department. The need for systematic review of developmental programs and…

As the second assessment study of developmental education programs at state-assisted higher education institutions, this 1978 study reviews reports from 27 of 57 programs receiving funds from the Ohio legislature. Reports dealing with attitudes and opinions of the programs indicated that the responses of the majority of students were strongly…

The impact of basic skill developmental programs on student success in career programs was investigated. Data collected from 61 two-year institutions provided the basis for selection of six survey sites. At each site, random samples of students in their initial enrollment in developmental programs, students previously enrolled in developmental…

The success of the Developmental Skills Program offered at Los Angeles Southwest College, a 96% black institution, is indicated by an average student grade equivalent gain of 2.3 years in one semester; a 5 year average accelerated academic growth rate that is 5.9 times the rate of academic growth black inner-city students have experienced in the…

This report provides descriptions and statistics on Georgia's ten Youth Development Centers designed for the care of delinquent children. Title I courses include business education, cultural enrichment, small appliance, furniture repair, and basic skills, with an emphasis on the latter. Results of the enrichment courses fall in the cognitive,…

In this chapter, the author explores the overlap between adult literacy programs and community colleges by examining the literacy skills of postsecondary education students, the remedial/developmental programs that serve them, and the effectiveness of these programs and adult basic education in helping students succeed. As he notes, to obtain…