Dive Brief:
- The Southern Education Foundation studied five innovations in developmental education, searching for ways to improve a model that disproportionately impacts low-income students and students of color.
- In its latest report, "Not Just Faster: Equity & Learning Centered Developmental Education Strategies," the foundation found a summer bridge program in math at California State University-San Bernardino and a corequisite model for developmental math at the University of the Incarnate World to be adequate substitutes for the traditional model.
- An extended course model, in which students get extra support in a credit-bearing course taught five days per week, had some success, as did an interdisciplinary program that combines reading, English, and history, and one that offers accelerated developmental math in eight weeks, followed by intermediate algebra in eight weeks.
Dive Insight:
Students who enter college needing developmental education have a longer path to their degree, and college ends up being more expensive for them. More than 40% of all college students enroll needing some type of remediation, and the portions are higher among Pell Grant eligible students, African Americans, and Latinos. Students who need to start their college careers with developmental education are significantly less likely to earn their degrees.
Researchers have made improving developmental education a priority, given the equity concerns tied to it. As in the Southern Education Foundation’s study, Complete College America found striking success with the corequisite remediation model, which allows students to get the developmental support they need in a credit-bearing course. West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana, and Colorado have all taken corequisite remediation to scale at community colleges in the state, improving outcomes across the board.