Community college leaders know that the success of an innovative partnership depends on several factors: common goals, benefits to all parties, open communication, passionate champions on both sides — and, yes, even a little faith in one another. At least that’s been the lesson from the pilot year of Harrisburg Area Community College’s (HACC) Early […]
College Readiness Articles
A New Way of Looking at Remedial Education
Community colleges are in a fruitful and exciting period of developmental education reform. While it is heartening to see so much activity in this area, I am concerned that policymakers, as well as college leaders, administrators and faculty, continue to view remediation as a separate and isolated activity, rather than as a process that can […]
College Readiness is an All-Hands Project
Addressing college readiness presents a challenging yet exciting opportunity for the nation’s community colleges. The task of getting students ready for college had been placed largely at the feet of our secondary school systems — and, to a lesser extent, adult-education centers. But that’s no longer the case. We must consider college readiness our business, […]
A Better Math Placement Test in Virginia?
Looking to improve completion rates and reduce the need for remedial education, the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) is testing a new approach to math placement. Called the Virginia Placement Test-Math (VPT), the assessment essentially aims to place students in developmental or college-level math courses after evaluating specific performance metrics tied to a chosen field […]
Programs Encourage Students to Complete Remedial Coursework More Quickly
To improve college success rates, sometimes the best place for administrators to start is at the bottom. The thinking is simple: Your highest-performing, most motivated students are going to complete, no matter what. But the struggling ones, those who set foot on campus with little or no direction and poor placement scores to boot, run […]
Why Do Students Perform Poorly on Placement Exams?
As pressure mounts to improve completion rates nationwide, community colleges know they have to reduce the number of students who test into developmental education. For most instructors, that means intervention. It means getting to students early and often and working to improve test scores so that students arrive on college campuses ready for the rigors […]
Is Lack of Preparation to Blame for Poor Math-Placement Scores?
Thinker and prolific writer Malcolm Gladwell has long defended his “10,000-hour rule.” Essentially, the rule — made famous in Outliers, Gladwell’s 2008 best-selling book — posits that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice for someone to master a craft to the best of his or her abilities. This could be any skill, from stone […]