ERIC Number: ED386983
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1995-May
Pages: 22
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Assessing Developmental Education through Student Tracking. AIR 1995 Annual Forum Paper.
Weissman, Julie; And Others
The effectiveness of developmental education policies at a comprehensive community college was investigated using a new student tracking system. A sample of 1,644 students were tracked from fall 1992 until the end of the fall 1994 semester, 1,226 of whom evidenced basic skills and were eligible for college-level courses, and 418 of whom were classified as skill-deficient. After the fall 1994 semester, 179 skill-deficient students had not remediated and 239 students had remediated. The college-level and skill-deficient students were compared on persistence and performance. Also examined were links between skill-deficient students' academic performance and their enrollment patterns in developmental education courses exclusively, college-level courses and remedial courses, and college-level courses only. Additional concerns were rates of remediation and types of problems (math only, language only, or both, and reading and/or writing deficiency, or both). Results support the following recommendations: skill-deficient students should be required to remediate upon initial enrollment; these students should be allowed to take college-level courses along with remedial studies, but language deficient and triple-deficient students should be encouraged to finish remediation before beginning college-level courses. In conclusion, the results point to guidelines for designing or revising policies governing developmental education programs. (Contains 11 references.) (SW)
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Academic Persistence, Basic Skills, Community Colleges, Developmental Studies Programs, Educational Policy, Enrollment Trends, Grade Point Average, High Risk Students, Higher Education, Institutional Research, Reading Difficulties, Remedial Instruction, Remedial Mathematics, Remedial Reading, Required Courses, Two Year College Students, Writing Difficulties
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A