The Florida Solution to Developmenal Education: Punt!

I just read two stories in the online edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education from the same day that have oppositve conclusions.  On one hand SAT announced that about half of students are not ready for college according to their exams.  On the other hand, Florida legislators seem to know better and are allowing their students to opt out of developmental-level math courses, even though their own research says that 40% of them need to enroll in DE-level math courses.

September 26, 2013  Most Students Are Unprepared for College, SAT Results Show  By Justin Doubleday  "Less than half of the students who took the SAT in 2013 are ready to succeed in postsecondary education, according to a report released on Thursday by the College Board, which owns the SAT.  Only 43 percent of the test takers this year met or exceeded the benchmark score of 1550 out of a possible 2400, the same proportion as last year.  Those who reach that number, according to the College Board, have a greater chance of attaining a B-minus average or higher during their first year of college and persisting to graduation. The mean score for 2013 was 1498.  In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, College Board officials said the number of students reaching the benchmark score had remained virtually unchanged over the last five years. "We are just not moving the needle as aggressively as it needs to be moved," said Cyndie Schmeiser, chief of assessments."

September 23, 2013, Florida Colleges Make Plans for Students to Opt Out of Remedial Courses, By Katherine Mangan  "Jerry Shawver helps a student in Florida State College at Jacksonville's math lab. He wants to show lawmakers "our success rates and dare them to shut us down."  New students who show up here at Florida State College at Jacksonville have to take placement tests in mathematics, English, and reading. About 70 percent end up in one or more remedial courses. For now, at least.  State lawmakers voted in May to make such courses, which some see as obstacles to progress, optional for most students. Starting next year, recent high-school graduates and active-duty military members in Florida will have the choice of whether to take the courses or even the tests meant to gauge students' readiness for college-level work.  That prospect has sent a wave of anxiety across the state's 28 community and state colleges, which all have open admissions. Their fear: that an influx of unprepared students could destabilize introductory courses and set those who will struggle up for failure."

What am I missing here?  On one hand, experts at SAT tell us that half of students are not ready.  On the other hand, Florida state legislators tell me that all the students should do as they want.  After all, who wants to take a developmental-level course if it might be negative for them graduating?  I don't seem to remember the research study cited by the Florida legislators that support their gamble on the lives of the students.  Yes, change iw needed.  But dumping unprepared students into the college courses does not help.  Of course, if the Florida legislators never experienced community college life and instead attended private institutions, had plenty of social capital from previous family members that completed college, economic resources, better high schools, and the rest, their plan probably makes sense.  It is like watching a train wreck in process.  This time it is not a slow-moving one, but a fast-impending one. And we are all on the train since we all suffer the consequences. 

GAO Study on Developmental Education and Preview of New Research Center on Best Practices and Assessment

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported the following:  Remedial education is being fast-tracked, served up in bite-sized pieces, and made more relevant to students' career goals as states and community colleges experiment with ways to keep them from getting discouraged and dropping out, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.  The report stops short of recommending any specific strategies, leaving that up to a national remediation-research center that will open next year with up to $10-million in funds over five years from the U.S. Department of Education. Proposals for the center, which was announced in May, were due last week.  Click here to download a copy of the report.

It highlights a number of new strategies, meanwhile, that seem to hold promise.  In Texas, Virginia, and Washington, three states that have been revamping remedial, or developmental, education, some colleges are compressing two semesters of instruction into one, an approach that can help some students progress faster. But at the same time, the authors say, it can leave the least-prepared students floundering.  Other strategies cited in the report include providing remediation in small modules, so that students study only what they need to get up to the college level. And offering students a tutorial before their placement test could help some avoid being placed in the noncredit classes altogether, the report notes.  The report is based on a yearlong study that included input from 10 community colleges in Texas, Virginia, and Washington, as well as one in California. The authors also consulted with national education experts and nonprofit and research groups.

Patti Levine-Brown, president of the National Association for Developmental Education, said she hoped the new center would end up at an institution with researchers who have spent time in the trenches. "There are a lot of people doing work in the field who don't understand what practitioners go through every day in the classroom," said Ms. Levine-Brown, who is also a professor of communications at Florida State College at Jacksonville. "One size does not fit all, and the more strategies we can come up with to help students succeed, the better."

California Basic Skills Completion Practices to Increase Student Success

The following is from the document and states its purpose.  I highly recommend it for reading on practical resource guide.  Click on the following link to open the document and download it if you like.  [Open Document] I think it is important to consider as we rethink the future of learning assistance and developmental education programs.

"This document is intended to be a practical resource guide for faculty, administrators, and staff to use as they develop, modify, and adapt data-supported and scalable programs and projects on their campuses. These programs include orientation, helping students learn to help themselves, classroom interventions, and course redesigns. Each year, the 112 California Community Colleges receive supplemental Basic Skills Initiative funding. Our hope is that this resource will help our colleges research, plan and implement programs and practices that will assist their students. This resource is neither a research paper nor a thought piece. It is also not a step-by-step “how to.” Instead, the resource is a guide to assist colleges in developing and implementing action plans for using their Basic Skills Initiative funds and any other available funding to increase student success. We encourage colleges to use these funds to institutionalize successful programs and practices and we discourage colleges’ use to implement new pilot programs that cannot be scaled up or sustained long term."

Social Media Revolution 2013

Many of these videos about the impact of social media are available.  I like the following because of the scholarship by the developers of the video (see end of video for thei organizations).  I try to implement some social media in my history course like podcasting and Twitter.  One suggestion I have for fellow educators is to ask your students what is meaningful to them and their suggestions for thoughtful use in the classroom.  Even students report social media fatigue, so be measured in its use.  Click on arrow in middle of video screen to start.

Learning Modules, Not More Academic Term DE Courses

There are more successful reports being published about shifting from requiring students to enroll in academic term length developmental-level courses to having them only work on the learning modules they are weak.  Inside HigherED reported on how Tennessee has embraced this concept with large-scale deployment within their high schools.  Click on this link to read the article.  I will share about what I have learened about a Gates Foundation-funded approarch called "EdReady" and the pilot tests with preparing high school students for college-level algebra.  In another year another EdReady course will begin pilot testing with a combined approach for reading and writing. 

New Studies on Use of iPads to Increase Student Outcomes

Therer was a nice article that linked to eight others on the effectiveness of iPads for improving academic outcomes for students.  Most of the stuides were from elementary and secondary school.  http://www.securedgenetworks.com/secure-edge-networks-blog/bid/86775/8-Studies-Show-iPads-in-the-Classroom-Improve-Education

Financial Challenges for Learning Assistance

A cluster of challenges face learning assistance centers with financial pressures. Ignorance and misunderstanding of learning assistance place it in a precarious position as campus administrators make difficult budget decisions. As a result of the perceptions of stigma and limited research on effective practices, the field has faced intense scrutiny throughout recent history. As a result, some learning assistance activities such as developmental courses are eliminated and their functions hoped to be assumed by four-year institutions with less selective admissions policies and two-year colleges. Some raise the issue of why tax dollars should be spent on academic preparation activities that should have been addressed in high school.

Public Tax Dollars and Learning Assistance

Advocates for eliminating learning assistance claim that students should have developed their skills and knowledge in high school and that therefore no need exists for developmental courses or other services at colleges, especially at four-year institutions. Why should taxpayers pay for something twice? Actually, taxpayers have not paid for such services even once. Depending on the national data used, between one-third and one-half of secondary students com­plete a college-bound program of study while in high school (Manzo, 2007; Perkins, Kleiner, Roey, and Brown, 2004). About three-quarters of high school graduates enroll in college (Adelman, 2004). The gap between those who attend college and the smaller percent that complete preparation for college demonstrates the need for comprehensive learning assistance.

The paid-for-it-twice argument has other problems. Secondary students who complete a college preparatory curriculum vary widely in their mastery of the knowledge and skills. Therefore, students passing enough classes to grad­uate from high school may still require developmental courses and other forms of noncredit learning assistance in college. Another problem considers the skill level of returning adult college students. Even if they successfully completed college preparatory courses in high school, atrophy of the skills and memory loss over intervening years require their access to learning assistance services (Richardson and King, 1998).

An important event in the history of U.S. higher education occurred in 1890 with creation of the College Board. Its purpose was to establish bench­marks for graduation from high school. The board believed that secondary schools would increase academic rigor through the benchmarks reflected in the Scholastic Aptitude Test. These benchmarks would ensure new college applicants could avoid enrollment in academic preparatory academies. Although the College Board is a powerful influence in education, its quest for eliminating postsecondary learning assistance is unfilled (Boylan, 1988). After a century of intense effort by many stakeholders, nearly 30 percent of all enter­ing college students enroll in one or more developmental courses in English, mathematics, or reading (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). Many others participate in noncredit learning assistance activities.

Rather than considering budgets for learning assistance programs as expenses, others consider those funds as investments for achieving institutional objectives. A large body of research and evaluation studies clearly demonstrates the impact of learning assistance on increasing student persistence rates toward graduation. Enrollment management organizations such as Noel-Levitz and others recommend implementation of comprehensive learning assistance pro­grams as a part of plans to curtail student dropouts and significantly increase instructional revenues, far in excess of modest investments to maintain or even expand learning assistance programs (McCabe and Day, 1998; Swail, 2004). In addition to building institutional revenues through tuition payments by students persisting to graduation, the number of college dropouts and stu­dents with poor job skills have other consequences. Michigan estimated the annual loss to the state economy of $600 million annually because students dropped out of college and failed to develop needed skills for employment in high-demand occupations (Greene, 2000). Similarly, a national study by Phipps (1998) documented the positive impact of learning assistance on the national economy.

Excerpted from my recent book, Access at the Crossing:  Learning assistance in higher education (Jossey-Bass).