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Results from a classroom research project focused on why author Katie Hern had only a 55% pass rate in three sections of her developmental English course.

By Kristen Amundson, Op/Ed, The Washington Post, May 27 2011. Amundson argues that the state of Virginia is doing itself a disservice by allowing high school students to graduate with a "standard diploma." The diploma requires only three years of math, leaving many students unprepared for college math and thus required to enroll in developmental math.

By Jennifer Gonzalez, Students column, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 10, 2011. Studies conducted by MDRC have found that, "while students [in learning communities] do make academic gains, such as progressing more quickly through developmental courses, the gains don't persist beyond the semester students are involved in the learning community." Authors acknowledge that these are early findings and that later findings may prove different results.

By David Glenn in the Students column of The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 11, 2011. A Q&A with Rosemary Capps, who studied 9 community college students for her dissertation, which won an award at AERA. In this Q&A, Capps discusses the importance of developmental education, and how these teachers often made a real difference to the students that she studied.

Produced by (Channel) Thirteen in association with WNET, 2012. This site provides students with real-world examples of how professionals use math: in music, fashion, video games, restaurants, basketball, and special effects. Primarily created for students in middle and high school.

Might this be of interest to students in developmental math, as well?

From the Delta College Daily Difference. Article is undated, but Valkenburg was a 2010 Fellow and was inducted at the Association for the Tutoring Profession (ATP) national conference on March 29 2011.

TO'C introduced Valkenburg to her students to help connect them to some of the academic support that will be available to them even after completing their developmental ed classes.

By Paul Nolting, published by Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Helps students to assess their math learning style, as well as building math study skills.

This book was mentioned in the "radical_ideas" group (Cohort 1) as well as a choice event.

Coach BM mentioned this book in the context of teaching study skills in conjunction with developmental math.

By Barbara Fine Clouse; published by McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2010 (6th edition).

DS recommends this book to help developmental English students dispel the myth that they are bad writers and will always be bad writers.

By Evan Weissman, Dan Cullinan, Oscar Cerna, Stephanie Safran and Phoebe Richman, with Amanda Grossman. National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) Teachers College Columbia University. February 2012. Link to full report at the bottom of the summary on this page. The colleges in this study are two of six in the NCPR Learning Communities Demonstration, in which random assignment evaluations are being used to determine the impacts of learning communities on student success. NCPR has presented finding from all six colleges. They show that when one-semester learning communities have impacts, they tend to be concentrated in the semester in which students are enrolled in the program. Another report, a final one will be released in 2012. That report synthesizes the findings across all colleges studied and includes an additional semester of student follow-up at each college.

Budget cuts to community colleges highlights the fact that as a society we were never fully committed to remedial students in the first place. Young people and adults who have been criminalized and imprisoned are ineligible for loans, and cannot afford college to turn their life around. These cuts target the working poor, undereducated, and disadvantaged and are a threat to our democracy.

Democracy is dependent on educating those students who require developmental education. Funding dev ed is a moral and social issue, not just an educational one.

The National center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) at Teachers College, Columbia University, hosted this conference, September 23-24 2010. Downloads of all presentations are available from this site,as are some conference videos.

PA attended this conference.

From Carnegie views: insights from educators, published by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Treisman is a well-respected mathematics educator and, in this video, describes the work of Carnegie Foundation and others in working towards math success for all students.

By Eric Bettinger and Bridget Terry Long, forthcoming in Economic Inequality and Higher Education: Access, Persistence and Success, Stacy Dickert-Conlin and Ross Rubenstein, eds., Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2006. Looks at preparation and remediation generally, but also focuses on a database of students maintained by the Ohio Board of Regents.

From C-SPAN, March 30, 2010. Speech was given at the Alexandria, VA., campus of Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC). The President is introduced by Dr. Jill Biden, wife of the Vice-President, and an instructor at NVCC. The President announced that Dr. Biden will host a national summit on community colleges at the White House this fall (see approx 18:10 on the video).

A GSCC connection - NH (GSCC instructor) also teaches at NVCC and was present for the visit. From her comments: "Jill Biden introduced him and some of her developmental English students were sitting behind me. When the President explained the changes in Pell Grants, they stood and shouted "Thank You." I was really moved because I am sure these grants will make a big difference for them in the future."

Spearheaded by John Squires (who has since moved to Chattanooga State Community College), this page outlines the redesign, looking at impact on students, cost savings, lessons learned, and sustainability. All data as of June 2009.

By Gail O. Mellow, Diana D. Woolis, and Diana Laurillard in Change, May-June 2011. Co-PIs Mellow and Woolis, along with Diana Laurillard, write about the GSCC project. Full article is available by subscription only; check with your local library for access.