Category: Blog

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.

Given the impacts on higher education during the pandemic, students need access to high quality, well trained advisors to help them make sense of dizzying career and academic choices. For many students, particularly Black, Brown, Asian American and Indigenous students, returning adults and students from low-income backgrounds there are significant barriers to attaining their degrees. 

In May, Strong Start to Finish hosted our annual Learning Network Convening in Denver, Colo. For many, this event, Celebrating Our Work and the Promise of Dev Ed Reform, was their first time attending an in-person convening since the pandemic began. Designed as an invitation-only event to create an intimate experience, we curated sessions featuring the work of our SStF network from 2018–2021.

Rapid technological changes are creating new, high-demand career paths for students, many of which require college math. However, long-standing structural barriers impede many students’ completion of college-level math courses. In this blog, Elisha Smith Arrillaga, from The University of Austin at Texas, discusses how corequisite math courses increase student success and lead to more equitable access to emerging career paths.

The needs of Black, Brown, Asian American and Indigenous students are often overlooked in college classrooms, creating challenges and barriers to course completion. This blog post from Vanson Nguyen of College of Alameda and Jamylle Carter of Diablo Valley College asserts that faculty are uniquely positioned to improve students’ experiences and outcomes in the classroom. It also highlights the importance of hearing directly from students to understand what they need to be successful.

Over the past several years, Lauren Schudde’s research team has been examining how community colleges in Texas responded to a statewide mandate for corequisite coursework. They discuss several common strategies to smooth the transition to corequisite reforms used by high implementation colleges (those exceeding state targets and moving rapidly to scale).

Our blog post from Karon Klipple of Carnegie Math Pathways and Alison Kadlec of Sova Solutions asserts that leaders at every level have a shared responsibility to ensure faculty receive the support they need to implement new models and provide students with the high quality education they deserve.

ACUE and Complete College America teamed up for a blog post on how college faculty can be empowered to take ownership of student success goals and developmental education reforms.