Redesigning Developmental Education in Colorado:

Evolving Recommendations from the Developmental Education Task Force

Bitsy CohnCCCS Developmental Education Coordinator

Emerging recommendations

ThemesMultiple placement criteria - assessments, secondary diagnostics, HS transcripts

Compression of English and Reading

Contextualized curriculum – learning communities, writing across the curriculum

Curriculum at all levels customizable to student needs – hybrid formats, modular labs

Cognitive and non- cognitive supports

Faculty Professional Development

MATH

◦ Multiple developmental sequences/paths/branches available to students based on their career/major interest.

◦ Non-credit “soft landing” options for colleges to deliver depending on student and staffing needs – could include referral to ABE programs, boot camp, AAA Accuplacer preparation, MFL, Aleks, MOOC’s, tutoring

◦ Each course in each developmental sequence should be redesigned to only cover content necessary for the college level course success.

◦ Co-requisite AAA requirement

◦ Multiple models for delivery

English and reading

• Develop a compression/co-requisite model that allows students to enter 100 level classes no later than the second semester

• Mainstreaming - co-enrollment in 100 level course ex. ENG090 with ENG 121

• Compression - two sections of developmental coursework in one semester

• Integration and compression ex. ENG/REA 060

• Secondary writing assessment – WritePlacer or writing sample scored with a standardized rubric

Faculty support and development

◦Redefined full-time course load

◦Fund a system of faculty and staff support to carry out developmental education redesign.

◦Expand advising to all students who test into developmental math

◦Offer limited full time positions during the implementation phase of this work to stabilize our workforce to allow for program adoption to scale.

Assessment

◦An institutional administrator (IA) for Accuplacer is needed at the system level for all colleges instead of decentralized at each college.

◦The CO Accuplacer scores should be validated every 3-5 years consistent with test recommendations from the College Board.

◦Following a revision of all developmental education curriculum, develop a Colorado Accuplacer.

Assessment

Following a revision of all developmental education curriculum, develop a Colorado Accuplacer.

Have Testing Center Directors/designated experts meet to determine processes and procedures that can be standardized across colleges. To include but not limited to: Retakes, Common non-cognitive questions, and test cost.

Assessment

Accuplacer scores need to be re-standardized to a norm this should be done by a system IA. Knowing that faculty/chairs can still allow students to override into courses.

Calculators should be allowed on the Accuplacer to align our pedagogical framework with the K-12 and four-year system methodology.

Once the curriculum is developed for each area or concurrently we need to work with College Board to change the strands for our Accuplacer. This needs to be flexible and allow for changes over a period of time so we can see where students are successful and make amendments to the test as appropriate.

Timeline

Currently conducting regional meetings

Recommendations due to the State Board of Community Colleges and Occupational Education (SBCCOE) in February

Begin implementation planning

Creative Commons Attribution

This work by Colorado Community College System COETC Grant is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. The material was created with funds from the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) Grant awarded to the Colorado Online Energy Training Consortium (COETC).Based on a work at www.cccs.edu.Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.cccs.edu.