Research in the area of student engagement has shown that the more engaged minority students are with faculty and staff, with other students, and with the subject matter they study, the more likely they are to learn and persist toward achieving their academic goals. Secondary data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)…

California Community Colleges face unique challenges and opportunities in serving the state's largest new majority students who are also the state's most at-risk students. These students are the primary driver of the new economy, however they arrive at college with significant educational and economic disadvantages (Woodlief, Thomas, & Orozco,…

Learning assistance meets the demands of rigorous college courses through highly varied activities and approaches. The historic role of learning assistance in the larger scope of U.S. higher education is significant though sometimes low profile. Learning assistance bridges access for a more diverse student body. From students' perspectives, it…

This issue of "The Progress of Education Reform" will address the following three questions: (1) What are the challenges that developmental education programs face that affect their success? (2) Are developmental education programs an effective strategy for increasing college attainment rates? and (3) How can state policy improve the…

As career clusters and pathways are being implemented within the program of study requirement of the Perkins IV legislation, the current linkages between entry level occupations and careers requiring advanced certifications or degrees should be examined by career and technical education (CTE). This study examined the linkage in the healthcare…

Mastering stress management techniques can help college developmental class educators protect themselves from burnout. These techniques can also be taught to students in developmental classes to enable them to maximize the benefits from these classes. This paper outlines the causes of stress, identifies stressors, describes responses to stress,…

Using popular culture in my developmental writing course has prompted me to reconsider what it means to create successful developmental writing assignments. Having slipped into the questionable habit of assuming that removing complexity makes an assignment appropriate for developing writers, I pared down a fairly open-ended "media…

Criticisms have been raised about large scale community college involvement in developmental education. A number of these criticisms seem valid, while others clearly are not. Some of the most commonly voiced concerns include the following: (1) "The community college is the wrong place to provide developmental education"; (2)…

In recognition of the need to improve the delivery of basic skills instruction and other learning assistance services to its students, the Washington community colleges established a statewide support system to encourage resource sharing, promote professional growth, and assess the status of developmental education in the state's 27 two-year…

In 1982, the California Postsecondary Education Commission conducted a statewide survey of remedial education in California's community colleges for the 3-year period, 1978-79, 1979-80, and 1980-81. College of the Sequoias's (COS's) response to this survey included the following information: (1) COS offered 6 remedial reading courses, 4 remedial…

The effectiveness of two academic achievement courses in improving quality point averages (QPAs) of educationally disadvantaged students was compared. One of the voluntary study skills courses taught specific study skills (study orientation skills--SOS), while the other purported to teach students to think like achievers (achievement motivation…

Midlands Technical College has developed a model for a developmental science program which offers assistance to students through a three-phase "spanning for success" approach in which the transition from developmental to curriculum course work is gradual; and the developmental instructor works closely with the student from the time that s/he…

A developmental education evaluation model designed to be used at a multi-unit urban community college is described. The purpose of the design was to determine the cost effectiveness/worth of programs in order to initiate self-improvement. A needs assessment was conducted by interviewing and taping the responses of students, faculty, staff, and…

Suggests that community colleges respond to increasing numbers of students with inadequate reading skills through informal assessment of students' ability, focus on study and discovery skills, comprehension development strategies, and the linguistic approach. Considers future needs and facilities. (DMM)

Provides information on the definition, etiology, and incidence of dyslexia. Presents guidelines to help developmental educators identify and test dyslexic students. Suggests helping strategies and discusses the basics of language retraining in the areas of reading, spelling, and writing. Includes a 50-item bibliography. (DMM)