David Arendale's Personal Web Site

USDOE just released the 2008 Digest of Education Statistics at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009020.pdf It is quite a referencee guide spanning more than 700 pages. I was curious about offerings of developmental-level courses at different types of U.S. postsecondary institutions. That table is found on page 469. USDOE still uses old language when describing these courses. They use the term "remedial" rather than "developmental". While such courses are nearly universal at all public community colleges. However, the percent of public four year colleges has declined by more than 10 percentage points over the past decade.

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.

Posted by David Arendale at 12:46 AM | Permalink

One third of freshmen enter Pennsylvania’s two-year and four-year public colleges not prepared for college-level math or English and require remedial work to catch up, at a cost to the state of $26 million a year, according to a report released Wednesday by Pennsylvania’s education secretary. This is consistent with USDOE studies that document that about one-third of entering college students enroll in one or more developmental-level courses.

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

Posted by David Arendale at 7:53 AM | Permalink

Referral, Enrollment, and Completion in Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges (Working Paper No. 15) By: Thomas Bailey, Dong Wook Jeong & Sung-Woo Cho — December 2008. New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. To download the entire report, click on the following link, http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=652

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.

Posted by David Arendale at 8:17 AM | Permalink

The Impact of Postsecondary Remediation Using a Regression Discontinuity Approach: Addressing Endogenous Sorting and Noncompliance by Juan Carlos Calcagno, Mathematica Policy Research and Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, jcalcagno@mathematica-mpr.com; Bridget Terry Long, Harvard Graduate School of Education, National Bureau of Economic Research, and National Center for Postsecondary Research longbr@gse.harvard.edu

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.

Posted by David Arendale at 5:13 PM | Permalink

Back to Basics: Improving College Readiness of Community College (2008). Elizabeth G. Hill • Legislative Analyst http://www.lao.ca.gov/2008/edu/ccc_readiness/ccc_readiness_0608.pdf

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.

Posted by David Arendale at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I will be presenting on the use of podcasting in my history course during a concurrent session at the National College for Learning Assistance Center conference in Atlanta on September 27, 2007. I am interested in having students in the classes become cocreators of the course along with me. We are using podcasts and wiki web pages as part of the venues for that learning objective. There are several web resources that you may want to check out to learn more. Lots of resources about the use of podcasting is available at a Web site that I maintain, http://podcasting.arendale.org Notes and referernces from my talk at the conference will be available at this site along with several narrated Power Point presentations that provide an overview to the use of podcasting.

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.

Posted by David Arendale at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)