A survey was conducted with 166 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education and developmental reading classes to determine student background knowledge in three major areas: study and coping skills; current events, geography, and history; and general vocabulary. Among the findings were the following: (1) Students in both groups spent more…

This Digest reviews ERIC documents and journal articles on the roles currently being played by two-year college learning resources centers (LRCs) in instruction and instructional development. After acknowledging that community college students have different needs for bibliographic instruction than their counterparts at four-year institutions, the…

This report examines the relationship between affective variables and academic success among high-risk college freshmen. It summarizes research conducted on the impact of student goals, learning styles, mathematics and test anxiety, other sources of stress, and level of development on achievement among Developmental Studies students. Results are…

The Tennessee State University and Community College System is focusing special attention on a particular population of nontraditional students--academically underprepared adults. In 1985, the State Board of Regents implemented the Academic Assessment and Placement Program (AAPP) at the system's universities and two-year colleges. The entry-level…

Recent research and trends in the humanities are discussed in terms of their implications for community colleges. First, initial results of a survey of students in Washington community colleges are outlined, including the findings that 46% of the students attended the colleges straight from high school and that the more liberal arts courses the…

Program descriptions, articles, an annotated bibliography, and a survey report on programs and services for students who are underprepared for college work as freshmen are presented. The survey report considers program design and delivery strategies at about 300 colleges, and the program descriptions concern: advising, basic skills instruction and…

As a continuation of a study of the effects of mandatory student placement in communications courses at Oakton College, a follow-up study was conducted of students enrolled in Communications 051, a developmental course. The study sought to assess the patterns of behavior of students enrolling in developmental communications courses, completion…

A profile is presented in this report of Project HELP (Higher Education Learning Package), a liberal arts instructional program alternative developed to assist high-risk, first-time community college students, with multiple deficiencies in reading, writing, and computational skills, to succeed and continue in college. Introductory material…

A project was undertaken by three faculty members at Northern Kentucky University (a history teacher, a reading specialist, and a composition teacher) to apply their own experiences and the research of others into a systematic and comprehensive mastery learning program for developmental classes in the spring of 1980. The program was designed to…

Sponsored by a special interest group of the International Reading Association, the focus of this journal issue is on college reading improvement. Chapter titles include "College Level Developmental Reading and Study Skills Programs: Survey Report and Overview"; "Providing Assistance to College Science Teachers"; "Sitting in on Doctors Pompous and…

Elaborates some strategies for incorporating soap opera into a composition course for remedial English students. Approach provides an instructional uniformity--everyone will be writing on the same subject matter; and plot, narrative, characterization, structure, etc. can be discussed and essay topics developed. (NKA)

A program to recruit and retain minority group optometry students is described, including the program's design, student financial aid, a preenrollment enrichment program to ease the adjustment to professional school, and the personal and academic program outcomes. (MSE)

Describes students' perceptions of their studies in the Preacademic School at the Hebrew University and discusses their attitudes, expectations, and opinions with regard to a desirable preacademic preparatory program. Students expressed concern about deficiencies in learning skills. (ML)

Through focus group interviews, this study explores at risk high school students' perceptions of their communities. Participants are members of a Maine Upward Bound program that pre-identified them as low SES, and first-generation college bound students. My purpose for this study is to discover if students who are at risk of public school failure…

A joint study was undertaken by the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and Montgomery College (MC), in Maryland, to determine the characteristics of MCPS graduates enrolled at MC and patterns in their developmental course placement. Data were collected for 13,575 MCPS graduates from 1992 and 1993 who enrolled in regular semester terms within…