Are all students developmental?  We’ve assigned the developmental label to those students who arrive at the college needing to take courses to help them be “college ready”.  While I agree that the courses themselves are “developmental”, I believe that all students are developmental.  All students come in to college at various stages of development regardless of their academic preparedness.  Some students come in knowing what they want to do, while others haven’t a clue.  Some students arrive with strong technological skills, while others have just learned to turn on a computer.  You get the point.

As I blog about developmental education, I often feel constrained to focus only on those students who are in “pre-college” math and/or English when the reality is that all students are in various social/emotional and academic stages.  The implication when we talk about developmental education as including only those students in remedial classes, is that all other students are fully developed, and we know this isn’t true.

I post this today because I want to expand my definition of “developmental” to include students who arrive here perhaps not needing pre-college classes, but who certainly need support to help them  evolve as they pursue their education.

More remediation. More pressure for completion.  It’s hard row to hoe.

Community-College Officials Swap Notes on Common Worries and Challenges – Finance – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The link below summarizes the research done on  best practices in developmental education:  contextual learning, supplemental supports (tutoring and advising), accelerated learning.  The findings show some promise although long-term benefits are questionable.  More rigorous research is needed as well as trying  into new approaches to teaching and supporting developmental learners. The article refers to some  strategies that we are using at BCC; namely: more intensive advising, early placement testing and curriculum alignment.

(I have done some highlighting of latter parts of the article.)

Best Practices in Dev Ed Inside Higher Ed

Combining Forces

Starting this summer, Our“bridge” program, Campus Connection will be merging with our new advising program, GetREAL (Get Resources for Education, Advising, and Learning).

The program is for students who place into two or more developmental classes and who are in Liberal Arts. Its intention is to provide these students, who are often most at risk for failing or dropping out,a safety net to make it through their critical first year.

We’re calling it: GetREAL: Your Connection to Berkshire Community College.  The program starts with a two day orientation in late August where students will get to know the campus, each other, and meet their GetREAL advisor who will be working with them throughout their first semester.  Before that, each student will take a 12 hour math refresher course intended to help them raise their placement scores  saving them time and money-always a good thing.

During the fall semester, our dedicated and expert advisors will work with students to help them learn what it means to be a successful student and how to develop those qualities.

Right now, we are in the planning stages.  We’ll be inviting qualified students into to the program, finishing up an advisor training, and putting finishing touches on our two day program.

It’s our hope that by giving students a leg-up before school starts and then helping them develop necessary skills throughout their first semester, will not only help them survive but thrive.

Wish us luck!

This blog will provide information about Carnegie’s work to create pathways for student success in developmental education in community colleges and will make connections between their  work and that of others concerned with student struggle.

This blog will automatically feed into my blog, and will update regularly.

Should faculty require attendance? Is it really up to the student to make that decision?  There is no simple answer.In today’s feature article,  The Chronicle of Higher Ed. addresses this question.

http://chronicle.com/section/Community-Colleges/33/

In some courses, attendance can be worth as much as 40% of the final grade.  In others, attendance is not required.  It’s up to the student to show up or not.

Research in this area has found that showing up for class was a stronger predictor of high marks in college than were many other commonly used predictors, including study habits, study skills, high-school grade-point averages, and scores on the SAT and other standardized tests.

It makes sense that the more a student is exposed to class material, the better the chance for learning.  That is, if the student is awake and alert.  This is not always the case.

Also, many lectures are posted on-line and faculty are open to having students access them in this way.

Still, students, especially during their first year, often need the structure of required attendance.  It helps teach them how to manage their time, be responsible, and, above all else, see the value of face-to-face learning.

Then there’s the financial piece.  When students realize how much they are spending per class, not showing up is like throwing money out the window.

In a perfect world, students would make choices that best support their successful learning.  That’s certainly the goal of education.  Attending class may be the best option.

Just Showing Up: Educators Focus on Attendance to Help Students Succeed – Faculty – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

This article  raises some good points:

1. More students never enter their first developmental course than those who actually fail the course once they are enrolled.
2. Of students needing three or  more developmental courses, 40% never enroll.
3. Almost half of students who do enroll in the first course in their developmental sequence, fail to complete it.

These trends are worse for males, African Americans, older students, and/or part-time students.

These findings have some major implications in terms of how colleges address the needs of students enrolled in developmental courses, and the fixes suggested in the article are not simple but are necessary.

The focus in data collection should be on success of sequence of courses vs. success in one course.  This is particularly true in math where students often need multiple courses before reaching college level.  Success in one in a sequence is not enough.

What can colleges to better insure student success in a sequence of developmental courses:

1. Combine levels of developmental courses that can be offered as a self-paced and /or as larger classes that include multiple levels.
2. Eliminate gaps in a sequence of classes.  This includes gaps between fall and spring semesters as well the summer gap.  This may mean offering courses during winter/summer break.

Regardless of how colleges address the sequencing needs, it’s clear that students need to have good advising/counseling before or right after testing to help insure that they actually start taking the first class.  Once they are in the class, we need to do more to help students get through by combining levels, contextualizing course material with occupational interests, and eliminating breaks in a sequence.

News: Lost Before They Start – Inside Higher Ed.