California's community colleges are in the midst of numerous reforms to improve developmental (also known as remedial or basic skills) education. Developmental education is supposed to help prepare students for college work, but it has long been an obstacle to student success: most students in developmental courses never go on to complete a…

Last year, the author and his ninth-grade students explored ways to use mobile media devices such as iPods and cell phones to help guide literacy practices in their English classroom. Their school, South Central High School (SCHS; a pseudonym), is a public high school located in urban Los Angeles. As part of their seven-week exploration, the…

Developmental courses in English, math, and reading have an important purpose in higher education, especially in the open-access world of community colleges. These classes--also referred to as "remedial"--are intended to give less-prepared students a chance to catch up and meet the challenges of college-level coursework. However,…

California's Academic Performance Index (API) is the state's main accountability metric. Authorized by the Legislature in 1999, around the time California was implementing rigorous new standards in math, science, social studies, and English language arts, the API relies heavily on the results of standardized tests designed to align with those…

This paper analyzes the influence of three different learning paradigms for learning literacy--formalist, cognitive-processing, and literacy practices--on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. It argues that the Common Core State Standards are based largely on a formalist paradigm as evident in the emphasis on teaching text…

Student goal setting and academic planning has been a major focus for PUSD, with the aim of increasing the level of student engagement and student ownership over their learning. Goal setting has been implemented in conjunction with the Northwest Evaluation Association's Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) tests, which provide educators with a tool…

Annually, ACT provides a snapshot of the college and career readiness of ACT-tested high school graduates. This report is offered as a service to inform policymakers and practitioners about selected indicators of effectiveness and how that translates into readiness. It is designed to stimulate discussion, inquiry, and action. This report is…

In this study of the scope of reading and study skills programs in California colleges, 97 college catalogs, written for 1974-75, were studied, and on-site visits were made to 25 colleges. Information reported concerns the type of college departments offering reading programs, program formats and scheduling, diagnosis of reading needs, the degree…

California Early Literacy Learning (CELL) and Extended Literacy Learning (ExLL) are professional development programs designed to help elementary teachers strengthen their teaching of reading and writing. Research-based teaching methodologies are organized into a framework for classroom instruction. CELL training (pre-K-Grade 3) emphasizes that…