Go to my other blog page, Peer Assisted Learning Groups (http://palgroups.org). Links on the right hand side of this blog also provide links to other helpful resources regarding PAL programs. The annotated bibliography of PAL programs provides a summary of all the publications related to the major PAL programs. An updated version of the annotated bibliography will be posted by the end of August 2009. Check back then.
]]>As more public, four-year institutions seek to improve their standings through external rating services and they also engage in "mission differentiation" to establish a niche for themselves, more and more of them are eliminating developmental-level courses with the hope that students will begin their career at a community college that offers the needed courses and then perhaps transfer to the senior institution later. There was the time when most postsecondary institutions sought to be comprehensive and nearly all of them offered remedial and developmental-level courses for all their students. That is a part of the history of U.S. higher educaton that is too often overlooked and underreported.
]]>Gerald L. Zahorchak cited the report as evidence of the need for statewide high school graduation requirements. The full press release is available by clicking on the following web link, http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-21-2009/0004958243&EDAT
]]>After being assessed, many students entering community colleges are referred to one or more levels of developmental education. While the need to assist students with weak academic skills is well known, little research has examined student progression through multiple levels of developmental education and into entry-level college courses. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the patterns and determinants of student progression through sequences of developmental education starting from initial referral. We rely primarily on a micro-level longitudinal dataset that includes detailed information about student progression through developmental education. This dataset was collected as part of the national community college initiative Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count. The dataset has many advantages, but it is not nationally representative; therefore, we check our results against a national dataset--the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Our results indicate that only 3 to 4 out of 10 students who are referred to remediation actually complete the entire sequence to which they are referred. Most students exit in the beginning of their developmental sequence--almost half fail to complete the first course in their sequence. The results also show that more students exit their developmental sequences because they did not enroll in the first or a subsequent course than because they failed a course in which they were enrolled. We also show that men, older students, Black students, part-time students, and students in vocational programs are less likely to progress through their full remedial sequences. Finally, we provide weaker evidence that some institutional characteristics are related to a lower probability of completion of developmental education.
]]>April 2008
The document is available at the following web site:
http://www.postsecondaryresearch.org/i/a/document/6964_CalcagnoLong.pdf
Abstract:
Remedial or developmental courses are the most common policy instruments used to assist underprepared postsecondary students who are not ready for college-level coursework. However, despite its important role in higher education and its substantial costs, there is little rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of college remediation on the outcomes of students. This study uses a detailed dataset to identify the causal effect of remediation on the educational outcomes of nearly 100,000 college students in Florida, an important state that reflects broader national trends in remediation policy and student diversity. Moreover, using a Regression Discontinuity design, we discuss concerns about endogenous sorting around the policy cutoff, which poses a threat to the assumptions of the model in multiple research contexts. To address this concern, we implement methods proposed by McCrary (2008) and discuss the strengths of this approach. The results suggest math and reading remedial courses have mixed benefits. Being assigned to remediation appears to increase persistence to the second year and the total number of credits completed for students on the margin of passing out of the requirement, but it does not increase the completion of college-level credits or eventual degree completion. Taken together, the results suggest that remediation might promote early persistence in college, but it does not necessarily help students on the margin of passing the placement cutoff make long-term progress toward earning a degree.
I highly recommend reading this report about remedial and developmental education in California. It raises critical issues, especially the need for more structure and mandatory participation in such programs for identified students and the need to partner more effectively with secondary education. Following are several short excerpts from the report.
"While the state and community colleges are investing a significant amount of time and money in basic skills education, we believe that substantial advancements can only come about if CCC changes its policies to promote a more effective delivery of services. In this report, we identified several areas of potential improvements at the community colleges, as well as statutory changes for legislative consideration. Taken together, we believe that these recommendations would help to increase the preparation levels of recent high school graduates and the ability of the community colleges to identify, place, and counsel basic skills students.Provide an indication to high school students about their readiness for college-level work at California Community Colleges (CCC) by expanding California State University’s Early Assessment Program."
Four Major Recommendations from the Report:
1. Develop a CCC placement test based on K-12’s English and math Cali-fornia Standards Tests (CST).
2. For colleges that choose to retain their current placement exam, require their acceptance of CST results and translation of CST scores into their own test results as a condition of receiving “basic skills initiative��? funds.
3. Enact legislation that allows colleges to require underprepared students to take basic skills coursework beginning in their first term.
4. Allow CCC to provide more support services to students by amending the “fifty percent law,��? which currently limits colleges’ fiscal flexibility to hire academic counselors.
Why do I do this? I am testing out a new communication and community tool called "Twitter" available at http://twitter.com Twitter is a way to communicate with others on what you are doing. Some people do the same thing with postings to their Facebook page or sending text messages or using Instant Messager. Most people use Twitter to keep connected to their friends. Rather than going into the details of what Twitter does and how it does it, check out an online video at http://Twitter.com
What's my purpose? Inbetween the bigger blog postings to this blog page (I promise to be more regular now. See previous blog posting for why I have a little more time now.), the Twitter postings let you know what I am up to, both personally as well as job wise. My goal is to make several postings a day through Twitter and a posting to the blog several times a week.
Just another experiment with technology. :-)
Take care,
David
After a long, long process I was recently awarded tenure at the University of Minnesota. I was promoted to Associate Professor. It has been such an amazing process. I have worked in postsecondary education for nearly 30 years. After beginning my career as a history instructor at Pratt Community College (KS) I moved on to Highland Community College (KS). These were small institutions, about 500 full-time students. Then I accepted a position at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Then in 2002 I received a wonderful opportunity to join colleagues at General College at the University of Minnesota.
People ask me what it has been like. For me, my journey has been exciting, hard, joyful, and most of the rest of emotions. But the best thing has been having colleagues, friends, and mentors from across the U.S. who have supported me. No one gets to this position by themselves. I have been fortunate to have had the support of so many.
Now it is my opportunity and responsibility to encourage and support others in their quests for attaining tenure at their institutions. I look forward to the opportunity.
Take care,
David
My students and I use pocasting and wiki web pages to co-create the World History course that I teach here at the University of Minnesota. We create a weekly Internet podcast (radio-like) show that features contributions by me and the students on an overview of the textbook chapters, suggestions for study strategies, prerparing for the exams, and some music they like [from an authorized service that provides music for such purposes]. The podcast Web site is http://thenandnow.org The wiki web pages features student summaries of the chapters and outlines of potential essay questions that may appear on the major exams. The wiki web page is located at https://wiki.umn.edu/view/Main/PsTL1251
The EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research published a major national study on the use of Instructional Technology (IT). It explored many issues of interest to educators. What technologies do students use? How available is technology for them? What are their preferences for use of IT? One of their findings is that students prefer moderate use of IT. Most report that they want a blend of IT and "face-to-face" interaction with instructors and fellow students. The report is available at http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers0706/rs/ERS0706w.pdf
Please share your comments about use of IT with your college courses.
]]>Such UID actions can be relatively simple such as providing extended time for all students in the class to complete exams. Taking the time pressure out of the assessment process increases the comfort level of students that lead to higher achievement on exams as well as a less stressful experience for students. Other UID actions can be substantial such as providing alternative ways to access course material through computer tutorials and the like.
Our University received a UDSOE federal grant to explore how to practically implement UID within both the classroom as well as student services in postsecondary education. For copies of my conference handouts, PowerPoint slides, and web links to our grant web site, please click on the following, http://nl2007.arendale.org Please post comments about UID to this blog page and let's continue the conversation;.
Take care,
David
If you are interested in learning more about this experiment with podcasting, please go to the following web site, http://podcasting.arendale.org I have prepared two online narrated PowerPoint presentations. one is a basic overview of podcasting. The other presentation describes using the technology in education. I share some of the ways that I am experimenting with this technology. In addition to these presentations, I also provided nearly a dozen handouts on podcasting in general and information about my history podcast in particular. Many of the handouts have active web links embedded inside of them, so all you need to do is to click on the links and you will be taken to the web sites.
I plan to return to more regular postings to this blog page. I have plenty of new articles and reports that I have read in the past couple of months. I look forward to sharing some short abstracts of them. Many of these publications are available through the Internet so I will include their web addresses.
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