Category: Blog

Developmental education reform is an effort that involves several key stakeholders. Over the years, higher education has seen policymakers, the philanthropic community, researchers, and advocates work to resolve issues within developmental education. However, that hasn’t been enough, as critical voices have previously been absent. This blog highlights the role students and faculty voices might play in improving developmental education.

This month, Strong Start to Finish announced the selection of our four new sites. These sites include the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE), the Louisiana Board of Regents (LA BOR), the Michigan Center for Student Success (MCSS), and the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR). These state systems and associations will be implementing developmental education reforms that focus on placement, acceleration, and/or alignment. Our Site Strategist, Julie Adams, authored a blog that shares more on this exciting milestone.

Strong Start to Finish (SStF) will award four state higher education systems and associations — Colorado Department of Higher Education, Louisiana Board of Regents, Michigan Center for Student Success, and Tennessee Board of Regents — $230,000 each to expand ongoing developmental education reform initiatives.

The State Policy Framework for Developmental Education Reform was developed to support postsecondary leaders in their efforts to scale effective reform practices. This blog further examines the intersection of postsecondary policy at the state and system levels with four developmental education reform practices: multiple measures for placement, acceleration through co-requisite models, alignment of first credit-bearing math courses to degree pathways, and strategic use of data.

The 2023 Learning Network Convening launched a new phase of Strong Start to Finish’s work. Network partners, faculty, funders, advisory board members, SStF sites and other experts joined the event to learn more about the proven success of developmental education reform. Read more about the meeting, which featured a panel discussion with students who took corequisite courses.

Persistent racial disparities in educational outcomes aren’t natural. Many instructors effectively draw upon the strengths of Black, Latinx, Native American and other racially minoritized students. This blog discusses activities the author employed to draw on students’ strengths and become an effective variable in their success.

Culturally sustaining student supports and offerings are developed in response to students’ expressed needs and evolve over time in response to the needs of the student population. Culturally sustaining developmental education reform will be characterized by institutions supplementing quantitative data and existing research findings with qualitative information from key stakeholders to improve or develop interventions that address student obstacles.

Developmental education (DE) reforms are addressing some barriers in college progression that students in traditional prerequisite course structures face, especially students who are racially minoritized, students with low incomes and adults returning to college. In fact, many of the structural changes often produce better outcomes data in the aggregate than when traditional placement and course models are used. However, after disaggregating these data, leaders who notice outcome differences between student groups have asked us, “How can I address this disparity, and what should I do with these data?” In this blog, I share outcomes from DE reforms and offer a tool that helps to refine the approach to DE reform by using outcome data to address ineffective institutional policies and practices.

Every year, a majority of students entering community college for the first time are assessed as needing remediation in math or English. Colleges have directed them to enroll in developmental courses, where they spend time and money without accruing credits toward a college degree. However, many students who enroll in developmental courses never make it into college-level courses.