Drawing from an extensive literature review and interviews with faculty and administrators in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), this study report examines successful practices in basic skills instruction in community colleges. After providing background on the importance of basic skills programs in light of the increasing number…

Researchers are concluding that high school and college students do not have a well-balanced repertoire of effective independent learning strategies. Another line of research has focused upon the question of the "process" or the "how" underlying such learning strategies. Three insights from this research are pertinent to developmental educators.…

The academic success of students enrolled in remedial English and mathematics programs was compared at two large state universities, California State University, Northridge, and San Diego State University. The sample consisted of three successive freshmen classes, those entering in fall semesters 1981, 1982, and 1983. The remedial English programs…

The history of competency testing and legal issues related to it are reviewed briefly in light of the responsibility of school districts for providing remediation programs for students who have failed the test. The mathematics competencies of the state of Idaho are identified and keyed to four sets of readily available, secondary level Apple…

The final meeting of a community project called "University Education as a Public Issue" was held in Carbondale in April 1977, and concluded a series of five town meetings held in southern Illinois. The project was designed to clarify the differing values in the present confusion over the identity and role of the university, to engage…

This discussion asserts that there is no significant difference between traditional instruction and remedial/developmental instruction in improving the academic achievement of skill-deficient students. Because the cognitive style of each learner reflects how learning tasks are approached and completed, matching strategies are needed that deal with…

An interim status report is presented on a study of predictors to aid in reducing the 35-40% dropout/failure rate in general chemistry at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College, Perkinston Campus. Data from 1974-75 and 1975-76 were used to develop a formula whereby potentially weak students could be identified before they failed or dropped out…

A summer program aimed at mastery of instructional objectives in reading and mathematics was provided for 110 deaf children (5-14 years old), many of whom were from non-English speaking or bilingual homes. Participants were administered, as a pretest, selected criterion-referenced tests from the Santa Clara Inventory of Developmental Tasks…

An extensive comparative analysis of dysfunctional sentences found in the writing of prefreshmen at Bowling Green State University (Ohio) was conducted to examine and to describe possible differences in dysfunctional sentences produced by remedial and nonremedial writers. Writing samples consisted of randomly selected freshman placement…

The effect of Title I reading instruction was examined in a group of students as they progressed from grade two through grade six. The number of students who fell below the twenty-third percentile on a reading achievement test (the criterion for Title I participation) was tabulated for each year to determine the program's effectiveness both in…

In most colleges and universities, the task of assigning students to basic or remedial writing courses is handled the same way--students are tested during a summer orientation program by a combination objective and essay examination or during the first few days of the term by a composition instructor. Whereas the intentions of the testing are…

Research on the causes, prediction, and specific problems of learning disabled children is reviewed for the years 1967-1978. The literature on the following questions is examined: Can learning disabilities be predicted and will early identification help alleviate the problem? Can training programs significantly remediate reading disabilities? What…

This paper describes a one-semester remedial biology course for freshmen college students. It includes rationale for such a course at the college level, course content and organization, and instructional strategies associated with specific problem areas such as the inability of students to categorize and distinguish between categories. Appendices…

Of primary interest in this study was the effect of general ability on learning. It was hypothesized that students higher in general ability would obtain higher posttest scores on the average than lower ability students, and that verbal and figural explanatory supplements to minimal instructional materials would reduce the regression of general…