Nobody wants to be here. In remedial English, earning no credit, stuck. Now--after months of commas, clauses, and four-paragraph essays--students have one last chance to write their way out. Twenty students sit at computers, poised to start the final in-class essay for English 002 at Montgomery College. Anybody can enroll here, and all kinds do.…

Before last year, public colleges in Tennessee had a very good reason to fill classroom seats through the first couple of weeks of the term. Each institution's share of the state appropriations for higher education was largely based on enrollment at that point in the semester. Now, however, those colleges stand to lose state money if students do…

Remedial courses meant to get underprepared students ready for college-level work are often not an on-ramp but a dead end, leaders of four national higher-education groups said, recommending sweeping changes in how such students are brought up to speed. Students required to take a sequence of remedial, or developmental, courses before they can…

The Tennessee Technology Center system has become something of a darling among college-completion advocates. Comprising 27 locations across the state, the system boasts graduation and job-placement rates that many colleges only dream of: 75 percent and 83 percent, respectively. Such achievements are even more noteworthy given the population the…

Many community colleges, along with some public-school districts and family-literacy programs, are overhauling their GED curricula and support services. Nearly 40 million American adults do not have high-school or GED diplomas, according to 2009 data from the American Council on Education, which developed the GED test. Another of the council's…

In the United States, people think of elementary and secondary education as fundamentally different from higher education. The first two levels are where students are expected to learn the building blocks for lifelong learning, while college is meant to confer higher-order thinking and more-specialized skills. How students are treated flows…

Besieged by poverty, American Indians have historically trailed other minority groups in attending and finishing college. Many lack the literacy skills to succeed in college courses or job-training programs--natural routes to employment. But as the country focuses on increasing college attainment and reducing unemployment, basic education for…

The open-door policy at community colleges is unique in American higher education. It allows all comers--a retired grandmother, an Army veteran, a laid-off machinist--to learn a skill or get a credential. That broad access--the bedrock of the community-college system--has prepared hundreds of millions of people for transfer to four-year colleges…

Studying the effects of remedial education is a little like studying the effects of heart surgery. Simply comparing the fates of those who underwent it with those who did not yields terribly misleading results. After all, one group generally starts out in much worse shape. Three new studies of the effects of remedial programs seek to overcome this…

This article reports that the incoming chancellor of California's enormous community-college system is facing a crucial choice amid tough times. Jack Scott, a longtime chair of State Senate's committee on education, will take the helm of the California community-college system in January. But in a twist of state politics, his influence over the…

As is typical in a recession, many community colleges are experiencing a surge in enrollment, at precisely the same time that they must--like many enterprises, both public and private--contend with choking constraints on resources. The reality for community colleges is this: No matter how good this nation's colleges are today--and they do…

As at many two-year colleges around the country, the pass rate among Montgomery County Community College students who take remedial-math classes, which cover material students are typically expected to master in high school, is much lower than school officials would like. Of the roughly 1,350 new students at Montgomery County who took a…

In 2003, the Lumina Foundation for Education assembled several dozen of the nation's leading experts on community colleges. They wanted to discuss raising transfer and graduation rates, particularly those of minority and low-income students, at two-year colleges. They wanted to build a campus-based movement to increase community colleges'…

Describes the battle of one English professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville against the special academic help provided to athletes at that institution. Notes a possible investigation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, media attention, and the professor's proposal that all academic tutoring be overseen by an academic…

Kaplan Educational Centers and Sylvan Learning Centers, private remedial instruction programs, are being used increasingly to move students through college remedial programs more quickly, either through oversight or teaching. One uses its own instructors; the other hires teachers already employed by client colleges. Some find the services…