Background on Developmental Education

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Background on Developmental Education

• Ruth Dalrymple and Marilyn Mays
• Texas Collaborative for Teaching Excellence
• June 12 13, 2003

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The Kellogg Institute

• Held each summer
• 4 week seminar
• Appalachian State University
• Boone, North Carolina

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Why Appalachian State University?

• It is the home of the National Center for
  Developmental Education.
• It publishes several developmental education
  journals.
• Its faculty includes some of the leading
  researchers in the field of developmental
  education, including Dr. Hunter Boylan, Dr.
  Barbara Bonham, Dr. Bunk Spann, and Sandy
  Drewes.

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Question

• What was the first institution of higher
  education in the United States?
• Harvard
• In what year was Harvard founded?
• 1636
• Why does this matter?
• Harvard provided developmental education for its
  first students.

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We are not the new kids on the block

• As soon as the first American college was
  founded, we had our first admissions standards.
• And as soon as we had our first admissions
  standards, we had students who couldnt meet
  them.
• Such students were tutored until they qualified.

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Developmental History

• Our first colleges were established to train
  clergymen. These students needed remediation in
  Greek and Latin.
• In the early 1800s colleges began training for
  merchants and tradesmen,and expanded the pool of
  engineering , agricultural, and scientific talent
  in the developing nation. Anyone who had the
  money to attend college could, without regard to
  prior preparation.

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Developmental History

• In the last half of the 1800s colleges for
  women, for African-Americans, agricultural
  colleges, and technical colleges expanded.
• So did the number of college students who were
  underprepared.

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Developmental History

• In 1907, Ivy League admissions officers agreed
  that more than half of their students had not met
  their own basic admissions standards and needed
  remediation.

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Developmental History

• 1944 Veterans Adjustment Act (the
  GI Bill)
• 1963 the Civil Rights Act
• 1965 the Higher Education Act

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Developmental Education

• To be successful, students had to master a fairly
  advanced level of reading, writing, language
  skills, mathematics, and study skills.
• They also had to develop new attitudes toward
  learning and scholarship.

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Developmental Education

• NCES More than 80 of all American colleges and
  universities offer some type of remedial or
  developmental education.
• Myth developmental education lowers standards.
• Truth developmental education maintains or
  raises standards.

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9 Principles for Developmental Education --
Dr. Ed Morante

• Many students enter our colleges inadequately
  prepared to handle college level courses.
• Basic skills are needed by all who come to
  college without regard to program or major.
• All normal students are capable of learning
  these basic skills.

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9 Principles for Developmental Education --
Dr. Ed Morante

• The open door policy means both access and
  quality.
• Corollary Both access and quality are
  achievable.
• Retention is essential for both access and
  quality.

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9 Principles for Developmental Education --
Dr. Ed Morante

• Developmental education bridges the gap between
  the proficiencies of entering students and
  providing both access and quality.
• Corollary The reverse is also true, without a
  comprehensive, effective, developmental education
  program, college will lower standards (or, less
  likely, be a revolving door institution).

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9 Principles for Developmental Education --
Dr. Ed Morante

• Successful completion of high school (grades)
  does not necessarily indicate proficiency.
• The right to fail is pernicious for entering
  students.
• There will always be a need for developmental
  education.

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A Bakers Dozen of Myths and Concerns

• 1. Access vs. Quality
• 2. Right to Fail
• 3. All or none
• 4. Disadvantaged or Minority Students
• 5. Not fair to students
• 6. Either you have it or you dont
• 7. We dont have these students

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A Bakers Dozen of Myths and Concerns

• 8. Good grades in high school indicate
  proficiency
• 9. Marking on the curve is good education.
• 10. Pay twice
• 11. Students will drop out.
• 12. Faculty will lose jobs
• 13. Standards will be lowered.

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Why we do it . . .

• The strength of American higher education is in
  its commitment to providing a second, third, and
  even fourth chance to acquire needed knowledge
  and skills. . .
• McCabe Day, 1999

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How we do it . . .

• You get more bang for the buck.
• Remedial education is the nations most cost
  effective educational programs.
• McCabe Day

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Interesting Information . . .

• 71 of colleges offer institutional credit for
  developmental courses
• 13 of colleges offer no credit for developmental
  courses
• 11 of colleges offer elective credit for
  developmental courses
• 5 of colleges offer subject degree credit for
  developmental courses

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Expectancy for Success

• Research supports that successful students
  expend enormous amounts of effort related to
  their expectation that this effort will result in
  desired outcomes.
  -Bloom, Gardner, Bloom
• This is called self-efficacy.

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Self Esteem

• This is the extent to which an individual
  believes himself to be capable, significant,
  successful, and worthy.
  -Coopersmith
• Many (probably most) developmental education
  students have low self esteem and high anxiety.
• Fears are often mistaken for low ability.

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Research Findings

• States are increasingly requiring accountability
  for developmental education. - Russell, 1997
• Only 14 of community colleges and 25 of
  universities evaluate developmental education
  systematically. -
  Boylan, Bliss, and Bonham, 1977

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Do you know?

• In most colleges, what percent of academic
  courses (such as English, History, etc.) do
  evaluations?
• 0
• (maybe 5)
• In general, only developmental classes are under
  the scrutiny of constant evaluations

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Do you know?

• Doing evaluations gets
• institutional support for the program.
• Evaluation data should be shared with
• faculty, staff, students, businesses, etc.
• Course evaluations should never be used for
• punitive actions.

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Do you know?

• Much of what we teach may not catch up to a
  student for
• 6 months
• 1 year
• or longer

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Think about it

• Amateurs are not accountable.
• Professionals are.

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Consider this . . . . . . . . . .

• Access to higher education should be available to
  all students regardless of incoming skill level.
  These students should be encouraged to reach
  their full potential.

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Consider this . . . . . . . . . .

• Developmental education must be seen as an
  integral part of the colleges strategic plan,
  and supported by administration, faculty, staff,
  students, and community.

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SHEEO

• State Higher Education Executive Officers
• Sends information to all state Coordinating
  Boards
• Provides newsletters
• Go to www.sheeo.org to get on mail list
• Keep up with the same information the
  Coordinating Board receives
• In Texas, THECB director is Ron Brown

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Interesting statistics

• There is a 1 to 1 correlation between income and
  SAT scores
• About 40 of developmental students work 30
  hours each week.
• About 70 of developmental faculty are women
• About 60 of all college faculty are men

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Pass rates

• If a student was not in class, the instructor
  should not be held accountable for his/her not
  passing.
• If we are measuring how effective the teaching
  is, then we must measure only those students
  actually taught.
• If we measure how many students we drop or who
  withdraw, then we must measure differently.

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Benchmarks for Measuring Dev Education Outcomes

• Pass Rates in Developmental Courses
• Pass rates in Post-Developmental Education
  Curriculum Courses
• Graduation Rates for Developmental Students
• (handout)

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Experts agree

• Retention rates are a not a good measure of how
  well we are teaching (doing our job).
• Retention from year to year, not a good measure
  for community colleges
• Retention from year to year, good for a
  residential university

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Statistic

• Most meaningful / significant statistic is the
  post developmental education pass rates.
• Example 100 students in math 90
• 40 take college algebra
• 30 pass college algebra
• pass rate is 75 (30 out of 40)
• not 30 (30 out of 100)

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Outstanding d.e. programs

• CQIN (Continuous Quality Improvement Network)
  listed the top 5 college developmental education
  programs in the country.

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Outstanding d.e. programs

• Received 80 nominations
• 60 provided data
• Surveys cut the list to 30
• These were rated
• List was cut to 18
• More detailed surveys cut the list to 9
• Top 5 chosen
• All 5 colleges were visited

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These colleges are

• Durham Technical C C, Durham, NC
• General College University of Minnesota,
  Minneapolis, MN
• Hudson Valley C C, Troy, NY
• Oakton C C, Des Plaines, IL
• Richland College, Dallas, TX

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Outstanding d.e. programs

• An innovation or best practice cannot be
  replicated on your campus, it can only be adapted
  to fit your campus.

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Graduation Statistics

• On average, only 10 of African-American students
  who place into d.e. courses earn AA degrees
  within 4 years.
• For Hispanics, this is only 11.
• For Anglos, this is 20.