Only about 60 percent of students needing developmental education actually enroll in the remedial course to which they were referred, according to a new study posted by the Community College Research Center. The results indicate that more students depart their developmental sequence because they did not enroll in the first or subsequent course than because they failed or withdrew from one. Here's the link.
The study is called "Referral, Enrollment, and Completion in Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges," by Thomas Bailey, Dong Wook Jeong & Sung-Woo Cho, published in the March issue of the Economics of Education Review (subscription).
In a typical scenario, after being assessed, students entering community colleges are referred to one or more levels of developmental education. While the need to assist students with weak academic skills is well known, little research has examined student progression through multiple levels of developmental education and into entry-level college courses, according to the abstract.
This would seem to indicate that the difficulty of the curriculum and college readiness may be less important than the initial process of referral and counseling. It's not that they fail, it's that they don't start properly.
Comments