Developmental Education and the Common Core

1. Developmental Education and the Common Core Christopher Jacobson Frederick Community College Cindy Nicodemus Howard Community College

2. What is Developmental Education? • Courses in math and English for those students that did not place into college level courses as determined by the ACCUPLACER exam • Courses that review basic concepts in math and English to prepare students for college level courses • Courses that traditionally meet for a longer period of class time than college level courses • Courses that do not count towards a degree, but support and improve student’s academic success and completion.

3. Why do students place into Developmental Education? • Did not take math their senior year (became a requirement in the 2012/2013 school year) • Was at or below grade level in reading and math in high school • Had to take summer school in high school to pass reading or math • Student has an undocumented/documented learning disability • Dropped out of high school prior to the 11th grade • Student received completed their high school diploma requirements with either a GED or NEDP • Students who come to college course after many years out of school. • Many other reasons

4. Developmental Mission • If students are not prepared to take certain courses, then they are much less likely to be successful. • Our Challenge: • 1- How do you know for sure that a student needs developmental? • Example: Faculty expertise, Accuplacer(quantitative) Study Skills (qualitative), active intervention strategies. • 2- What are you going to do to help students be more successful? • 3- How do you get students help quickly, effectively, and efficiently? • 4- How do you know that a developmental course really helped students?

5. Changes in Developmental Education? • College and Career Readiness (HS Testing, Transitional Courses) • College Completion Agenda • Financial Aid • Only pays for up to 30 credits of developmental • Stricter policies for non completion • Returning Students and Adults: Unique challenges. • Certifications, non-degree programs • SB740 • Dual Enrollment • College Readiness Exams (PARCC, Smarter Balance, Accuplacer) • Communication- How will YOU help build educational partnerships in Maryland to support students who need help?

6. Retention efforts in Developmental Education • Early Alert Program at HCC (Starfish) targeted for developmental programs that traditionally have lower pass rates • Instructors give reports 3 times during the semester on students’ progress • Follow up with those that are demonstrating they are not doing well • Developmental Repeater tutoring requirements

7. New Targets: New Opportunities! • Measuring College Readiness is HARD…. but Testing Centers have an opportunity to help establish new partnerships and reexamine how colleges: • Use standardized instruments • Ensure our instruments are Reliable • Ensure that students scores are Valid • Improve and Create new testing guidelines help all MD students succeed. • USE and SHARE data (Whilst protecting privacy and ensuring that we support FERPA) to improve the academic success for students who will still need help. • Partner with developmental faculty: Empowering college faculty experts and looking to their leadership as we design systems for ensuring accuracy and success. • LONGITUDINAL DATA TRACKING: Think about how we can start linking college readiness and placement to: • Learning Outcomes Assessment • Academic Success • Programmatic goal completion (non-credit or credit) • Support systems and degree success at all MD 4 year institutions

8. Example: Linking Accurate Placement to Success

9. CHANGING SYSTEMS: Using data/research to help improve student success • Example: FCC TC Linked/Correlated Placement to student success. • Students who score 85-89 on the Sentence Skills instrument had an EN101 Academic Success Rate of 81%. These students currently would still have to complete a writing sample, and 93% of them are eventually placed college level using the FCC writing sample. • By comparison, students who placed directly into EN101 courses (exemptions or other) had a success rate of 77%. • By additional comparison, students who placed first into developmental, complete FCC remediation, and then take EN101 had a success rate of 77%. • While the FCC Writing Sample is the most successful instrument for predicting academic success and developmental need…. we found a new population who (based on quantitative test data and academic success in future courses) we could more quickly integrate into credit English courses with infused writing and study skills assistance. • EN101S : Effective developmental remediation which occurs simultaneously with to English 101 research, reading, and rigorous general education instruction.

10. Supporting Future Students • Over the next year how will Testing Professionals: • Create new partnerships with MHEC, MSDE, local high schools/county educators • Ensure that our placement instruments are working now? • Ensure that we can support and improve new goals for PARCC, Common Core and SB740 transition (Senior Year) • Streamline our systems to maximize resources, minimize time to test, and reduce “testing fatigue.” • Share data with each other to establish best practices for supporting students who need help. • Support and enhance the “Open door?” • Think about it… how will YOU help develop a new Maryland College Readiness SYSTEM. • It’s time to enhance your “links” with local high schools, community colleges, and 4 year institutions to improve readiness and create systems to help students throughout their educational career.

12. Questions?