Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Guest Post: Asking the Right Questions: Aligning Basic Literacy and Developmental Education Classes in Ohio

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: finding and implementing scalable solutions to the dev ed challenge requires integrated college and state policy strategies. Today’s post from Karen Scheid, Regional ABLE Consultant and Director of the Developmental Education Initiative for the Ohio Board of Regents, looks at the Buckeye State’s approach to widespread alignment of ABLE and developmental education instruction.


A key focus of the Ohio’s state-level Developmental Education Initiative plan has been the establishment of a pilot project to promote the alignment of remedial services between Ohio community colleges and local adult basic and literacy (ABLE) programs. Why did we select this as an approach for improving student success? Research has demonstrated that developmental education students in need of the most remediation seldom achieve a postsecondary certificate or degree. Those students who do succeed in advancing through traditionally delivered developmental education courses find that they have depleted much of their financial aid in doing so.

Could ABLE programs that are offered at no cost to students be more successful at helping those students starting at the lowest level of developmental education to acquire the skills needed to enroll in credit bearing classes or at least begin their college studies at a higher level of developmental education? Why might ABLE programs succeed in doing so? ABLE programs target instruction to specific learner needs as determined by required assessments administered to students at the program’s orientation. In addition, ABLE programs use information gleaned from learning style inventories and learning disability screenings to offer students insights into how they learn best. In recent years, more ABLE programs also are infusing both career awareness and postsecondary-related information into their day-to-day instruction and directly teaching students learning strategies to help them improve their abilities to obtain, retain, and recall information, as well as manage their learning experience.

Ohio ABLE programs have demonstrated their effectiveness at increasing students’ basic skills performance two or more grade levels per program year. But, can the way ABLE programs provide remediation be modified to accelerate the rate of progress for the students referred by the colleges? If so, what modifications lead to student success?

Since the launch of the pilot at the end of July 2010, 22 of Ohio’s 23 community colleges and their ABLE partners have submitted agreements for colleges to make ABLE referrals for students who score below an agreed level on a placement test. The agreements, most of which are in early implementation, reflect diverse approaches—some ABLE programs have established single-subject ABLE classes, while others are addressing multiple subjects within the same class; some have established  managed enrollment classes with definite beginning and end dates, while others are maintaining an open enrollment environment; most are offering the ABLE classes on the college campus; and most colleges are providing some college privileges to students referred to ABLE even if the student is not officially enrolled in college classes.

Through observing the partnerships and tracking students’ academic progress over time, we will:
  • Determine  the instructional approaches and support services that are most successful in helping students transition from ABLE back to community colleges,
  • Identify best practices for developing and sustaining ABLE-community college agreements for serving students who are not college ready,
  • Recommend a  uniform developmental education placement policy,
  • Determine state policies and decisions that could support ABLE-community college agreements.
There is no question that this project is a work in progress and that we and the college-ABLE partnerships are learning as we progress.  All of us, though, are keeping our eyes on the main reason for trying this approach—the chance that the ABLE-developmental education alignment will result in more students who are least prepared for college work ultimately succeeding at the postsecondary level.

2 comments:

  1. Where can I find the placement test scores that are currently being used to refer students to ABLE programs?

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  2. Anonymous,
    This Ohio ABLE partnership didn't set a common cut score; individual partnerships were allowed to select their own. (For example, cut offs for COMPASS reading ranged from 40-65.) There is an Ohio Board of Regents report on the pilot forthcoming; check back here for an update soon.

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