1. What’s Happening and What Do We Do Now?
Presented for the
North Carolina Developmental Education Association
October 10, 2016
By: Hunter R. Boylan, Ph.D.
Professor and Director
NCDE

2. According to Uri Treisman
“Developmental educators are being castigated for problems they did not create resulting from models they did not support.”
Kellogg Institute, 2016

3. For instance…
How many of you were on the committee that selected your college’s assessment instrument?
How many of you set your college’s cut scores for placement into remedial courses?
How many of you decided that 60% or more of your students should place into remedial courses?
How many of you decided to hire adjunct faculty to teach the majority of your remedial courses?

4. Facts About Postsecondary Education
The cost of a community college degree increased by 61% since 1996.
The number of associate degrees produced will fall short of labor market needs by 3,000,000 in 2018.
Two-Year Community college completion rates are about 28%.
Student debt reached 1 trillion dollars in 2015.

5. Facts About Remediation
60% of community college students place in one of more remedial courses.
A student placed in the lowest level of remedial math has only a 16% chance of ever taking a college level math course.
Only 22.3% of those enrolled in remedial courses complete a college level course in that subject within 2 years.

6. Legislators and Policy Makers Want to…
Reduce the costs of college,
Generate more associate degrees and certificates,
Accelerate college completion rates, and
Reduce student debt.

7. Unfortunately… Increased costs of college,
Legislators and policy makers have been informed by various vested interest groups that remediation is the primary cause of:
Increased costs of college,
Increased time to graduation, and
Increased student debt.

8. Remedial Courses are the “Low Hanging Fruit”
It’s easy for policy makers to find fault with remediation – some of the criticism is deserved… some of it is unreasonable.
It’s easy for policy makers to implement policies to redesign/eliminate/reform remediation.
It’s easy for them to tell their constituents that they have now solved the problem.

9. What places college students most at risk?
Being an ethnic minority.
Coming from a low-income background.
Being a first generation college student.
Having a history of poor academic performance.

10. And who are we working with?
More than 50% of the minority students in higher education are attending community colleges,
58% of community college students are receiving some form of financial aid,
36% are first generation students,
72% of 2014 high school graduates were NOT “college ready” in all four subject areas.
62% of community college students are enrolled part time.

11. Development Vs. Remediation
Developmental education is the integration of courses and support services guided by the principles of adult learning and development.
Remedial education is the provision of stand-alone courses re-teaching pre-college material without connecting to support services.

12. How are Institutions, Systems, and States Responding
Exempting as many as possible from remediation.
Embedding remediation in gateway courses.
Integrating English and reading.
Adopting modularized mathematics.
Integrating academic support services.

13. What I’ve Heard About the Outcomes of These Responses
They all work to some degree if you…
Allocate sufficient resources,
Make expectations clear,
Use formative evaluation for revision, and
Train faculty and staff well.

14. What I’ve Heard About the Outcomes of These Responses
Exempting students from remediation increases pass rates in gateway courses.
Exempting students from remediation increases failure rates in gateway courses.
Students who fail gateway courses now have failing grades in credit bearing courses.
Students who pass gateway courses may still fail follow up courses.

15. What Do We Do Now?
Recognize who we’re working with and act accordingly.
Study how diverse adults learn.
Collect data to validate or invalidate what we’re doing.
Advocate for developmental education on your campuses and with system officers.

16. What Do We Do Now? Read and apply research to what you do.
Get more credentials.
Keep up with developments in the field.
Do what you do best within the context of your campus system.

17. What Do We Do Now?
Take the Long View.

18. Have a Good Afternoon!

19. During the Last Two Decades How Many Campus Administrators or System Officers…
Allocated state funding to provide more advisors and tutors for our weakest students?
Established success in remedial courses as a campus/system priority?
Decided that only people who were trained to do so should teach remedial courses?

20. Where we are now.
There is plenty of fault to go around but that’s no longer the issue.
What we have now is what we have to work with.
Meanwhile, legislators have established new agendas and expect us to implement them.

21. What do we know about underprepared students?
Only 7% of the children from families at bottom 20% of wage earners attain a B.A. by age 26.
Only 27% of first generation college students attain a B.A. within five years.

22. Facts About Remediation
The top third of those placed in remedial courses do not benefit from them.
The middle third of those placed in remedial courses might or might not benefit from them.
The bottom third of those placed in remedial courses benefit from them.