The visibility of developmental education--or basic skills education as it is called most often in California--has increased in recent years. One major catalyst was a comprehensive community college strategic planning process completed in 2004 that listed basic skills as a critical area of focus. Another was an increase in the system's minimum course-taking requirements for the associate degree. These helped pave the way for the state's Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) and greater public reporting of basic skills outcomes through the new "Basic Skills Accountability Report" (CCCCO, 2009). These policy actions underscore the place of developmental education as a cornerstone of the work and purpose of the California Community Colleges. EdSource undertook this study, under contract with the Chancellor's Office, to further understanding of several issues related to this part of the system's mission. This study has two parts. The quantitative section describes remedial course-taking patterns in the community colleges and examines the correspondence between those patterns and various student outcomes. The qualitative sections examine research and opinion on related policies and practices both historically and looking forward. Appended are: (1) Stakeholders Consulted; (2) Definitions of English Course Categories; (3) The Difficulty of Tracking Student Progress through Remedial Reading Sequences; (4) A Sampling of Actual Student Course-taking; (5) Descriptive Statistics on the Fall 2002 cohort; (6) Variation among Students Who Enrolled in Remedial Writing and Mathematics Sequences, Depending on Starting Level; (7) Regression Tables; and (8) Charts Summarizing the Quantitative Findings. (Contains 22 figures, 14 tables and 8 footnotes.)