Developmental Education Redesign Decision Making

1. B I T S Y C O H N
C C C S D E V E L O P M E N T A L E D U C A T I O N C O O R D I N A T O R
DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION
IN COLORADO

2. WHY ARE WE REDESIGNING DEV ED?
• National Picture
• The current system doesn’t work
• The pipeline
• Assessment, curriculum and the great debate
• College Completion Agenda
• Non remediated 58%
• Math 27%
• Reading 17%
• Organizing the effort: Complete College America
• Supporters
• Carnegie Corporation of New York, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the
Ford Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Lumina Foundation for
Education
• Goal
• By 2020 6 out of 10 young adults will have a college degree or credential of
value
www.completecollege.org

3. WHAT’S THE STORY IN COLORADO
• CCCS 2009-2010
• 68,000 enrollments in remedial courses – 12% of all
enrollments - - 60% in math classes
2006-2010
• Enrollment in remedial courses increased by nearly 65%
• Recent HS grads (<18-20) are more likely to be enrolled in
remedial courses than those from older age categories
2011 = 31.8%
• Course completion rates
• 61% of all remedial courses ended in successful completion
• Math courses in general have the lowest pass rates
REPORT: CCCS Remedial education and course
completion rates, October 2010, www.cccs.edu

4. 10%
17%
24%
18%
29%
34%
30%
44%
41%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
MAT030 ENG030 REA030 MAT060 ENG060 REA060 MAT090 ENG090 REA090
Combined Pass Through Rate

5. PERCENTAGE OF GRADUATES TAKING
DEV ED COURSES
Number of classes
None
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Graduates
72%
11%
7%
5%
2%
1%

6. THE DEVELOPMENTAL
EDUCATION TASK FORCE
• State Board of Community Colleges and
Occupational Education
• Developed as part of the state plan to meet President
Obama’s Completion Agenda
• Colorado Community College System was charged with
assembling a group of stakeholders from community
colleges around the state
• 18 month charge
• Recommendations to the SBCCOE in February 2013

7. THE VISION
The DETF has been charged with reviewing
developmental education practices and with making
recommendations about what steps the system
will take to become the premier purveyor of
developmental education in more streamlined and
efficient ways, resulting in greater student success.

8. The group, comprised of faculty and administrators
from across Colorado, will make recommendations
about:
Assessment, contextualization, online learning,
student support services, modular options,
accelerated/compressed/mainstreaming of
developmental education, and options for
students.
THE GROUP

9. The DETF is working to identify the best
practices in each area and then to make
recommendations about implementation
at the CCCS.
The DETF will holistically examine the role
that developmental education plays in
overall student success.
THE WORK

10. THE CHARGE
• Review and clarify the purpose of developmental
education and analyze implications for policy and
practice resulting from a clarified purpose.
• Review current system policies and practices
related to developmental education and propose
revisions that will promote greater student success in
alignment with sound academic principles and
practice

11. • Investigate and analyze measures of success, data
reports and studies on success of developmental
education students.
• Examine structures for developmental
education, highlighting innovative and successful
strategies, improving the student experience and
identifying barriers to success.
THE CHARGE

12. • On the basis of a comprehensive
review, recommend broad strategies and specific
initiatives related to developmental education that
should be pursued by Colorado's Community
College System Colleges, leading to enhanced
outcomes for student learning and success.
THE CHARGE

13. INNOVATIVE MODELS
• Co-requisite/Mainstreaming
• Accelerated and Compressed Courses
• Modularization
• Contextualization

14. WHERE ARE WE SO FAR?
TAA and CCA grant
CCA Initiative - $1million in 2011 to support reform
Colorado Online Energy Training Consortium - $17.3 million
Research – Presentations
Reading Room
Institutes, national and local innovations
Discussion points
Research is showing that students who test in at remedial levels
and don’t remediate but complete, perform at an equal level to
those who did remediate.
Students entering at the lowest level rarely complete
Assessment practices
Curriculum content

15. EMERGING RECOMMENDATIONS
ASSESSMENT
Following a revision of all developmental education
curriculum, develop a Colorado Accuplacer using strands.
This Colorado Accuplacer should include multiple measures
(i.e. High school GPA) as part of the placement score.
Have testing center directors/designated experts meet to
determine processes and procedures that can be
standardized across colleges
Under discussion: Consider the adoption of standard
Accuplacer test preparation i.e. AccuMFL, Boot Camps

16. EMERGING RECOMMENDATIONS
• MATH
• Reverse design curriculum review to identify pre-requisite
skills pathways to gateway classes based on graduation
goal
• Stats, STEM, Liberal Arts, CTE
• Create new CCNS prefixes
• Consider co-requisite AAA, learning community and
orientation support to develop study and non-cognitive skills

17. EMERGING RECOMMENDATIONS
ENGLISH AND READING
Develop a compression/co-requisite model that allows students
to enter 100 level classes no later than the second semester
State funded system of faculty development support to carry out
re-design - release time/compensation
Expanded advising
Limited full-time positions during development and early
implementation to provide stability

18. EMERGING RECOMMENDATIONS
Digging in
Contextualized curriculum – learning communities, writing across
the curriculum
Curriculum at all levels customizable to student needs – hybrid
formats, modular labs
Cognitive and non- cognitive supports
Faculty Professional Development
Compression of English and Reading
Students at the lowest levels – 17% pass remediation

19. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?

20. REFERENCES/RESOURCES
• Bailey, T. (February 2009). Rethinking Developmental Education. CCRC
Brief. Community College
• Research Center. Teachers College, Columbia University.
• Center for Community College Student Engagement. (2012). A Matter of
Degrees: Promising practices
• for community college student success (A First Look). Austin, TX: The
University of Texas at Austin, Community College Leadership Program.
• Schwartz, B. (2004). The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. New York.
Harper Perennial.
• Websites
• Developmental Education Task Force: ww.cccs.edu/detf
• COETC Grant: www.cccs.edu/taa

21. CREATIVE COMMONS
ATTRIBUTION
This work by Colorado Community College System COETC Grant is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Unported License. The material was created with funds from the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career
Training (TAACCCT) Grant awarded to the Colorado Online Energy Training Consortium (COETC).Based on a work at
www.cccs.edu.Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.cccs.edu.