2014 Reports

Designing Meaningful Developmental Reform Overview

Jaggars, Shanna; Stacey, Georgia West; Hodara, Michelle

In the United States, 60 percent of recent high school graduates enter community college already behind. These students are required to take remedial or developmental education courses before enrolling in college-level courses; in some cases, students are referred to two, three, or even four semesters of developmental education. However, recent evidence suggests that this system is not as effective as colleges might hope. While the annual cost of providing remediation to community college students nationwide has been estimated at more than $2 billion, many developmental education students never successfully progress to and through college-level courses.