Many Community College Students Are Not Prepared for College-Level Work, Report Shows
        
        
        
			- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 02/24/16
The idea that a single placement test should determine a  student's readiness for college courses is getting a makeover with the release  of a new report from the Center for Community  College Student Engagement at the University  of Texas at Austin. So is the value placed on standard developmental or  remedial coursework in student success.
Researchers examined the responses to three surveys  conducted by the center from some 70,000 community college students at more  than 150 U.S. institutions and about 4,500 community college faculty respondents  from 56 institutions.
As the report, "Expectations  Meet Reality: The Underprepared Student and Community Colleges," stated,  while almost nine in 10 students (86 percent) believe that they're academically  prepared for the college they're attending, nearly seven in 10 (68 percent)  actually end up taking at least one developmental course. That includes a  sizable portion of students (40 percent) who graduated from high school with an  A-level grade point average.
Across the spectrum of self-reported high school GPAs, most students  were obligated to take placement tests before they could register for classes.  More than 9 in 10 students with a GPA of C or lower faced this requirement, as  did 87 percent of B students and 81 percent of A students.
Yet, the researchers noted, "emerging evidence"  has indicated that some of those students placed into developmental education  classes could actually bypass that coursework and go straight to credit-bearing  college-level work if they had the right kinds of supports. For example, while less  than half (44 percent) of student respondents said an advisor had helped them  set their academic goals, the report stated that when advisors help students  develop academic plans, they're "more likely to succeed."
The report offers eight "innovative" approaches  beyond or combined with standard developmental classes that should be  considered by community colleges as a way to shorten the "bridge"  between developmental education and graduation.
  - Running  "corequisite" programs. In this scenario the student taking a  developmental course also enrolls in a higher-level class on the same subject  and frequently taught by the same instructor. As the report explained,  "The paired courses create a cohort of developmental students who work  with stronger students in the higher-level class and receive focused attention  in the developmental class. The approach accelerates progression through  developmental education, and data from Indiana, Tennessee, and West Virginia  show dramatic gains from using it."
- Redesigning  math. Rather than placing everybody into the same math courses, this  approach puts STEM students into college-level algebra and students studying  non-STEM fields into other kinds of classes, such as statistics or quantitative  reasoning.
- Trying  accelerated developmental courses. Schools redesign the developmental  sequence to speed up the time it takes for a student to complete the  developmental classes. Frequently, that redesign goes along with a change in  instructional practices too.
- Using  computer-assisted math. Alongside the development course, the student does  self-paced study on the computer, receiving support from instructors, tutors  and other faculty.
- Pairing  developmental education with workplace training. This model helps the  student to build up his or her academic skills while advancing toward a  credential and developing job skills.
- Partnering  with high schools. Under this arrangement colleges offer summer  "bridge" or other transition programs to help students prepare for  their upcoming college experiences.
- Providing  placement test preparation. The researchers found that students with better  high school grades are more likely to prepare for placement tests. Experiments  at Passaic County Community College in New  Jersey and Washington State Community College in Ohio, profiled in the report,  suggested positive results for students headed into developmental courses.
- Assessing  readiness through more than just one placement exam. A group of colleges in  several states is experimenting with using a "hierarchy of measures"  to put students into the right courses.
Interestingly, the research found that while more than half  of faculty members use some form of early assessment to determine their  students' preparedness, when they find somebody under-prepared, only 6  percent of faculty recommend a change — whether it be a different course or  dropping out altogether. Forty-nine percent of faculty said they recommend that  the student use tutoring or other support services; 34 percent said they adjust  their course pedagogy or approach.
The report's authors encouraged colleges to use their own  data to update their processes and to continue evaluating success over time in  order to redesign the educational pathways they provide for students. "There  is no silver bullet," they acknowledged. "Therefore, there is much  work to be done as the field creates and refines new models of assessment,  placement, and delivery of developmental education."
The report and supporting materials are available for  download on the website of the Center for  Community College Student Engagement here.
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
            
        
        
                
                    About the Author
                    
                
                    
                    Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.