Linkity Link

• In the September/October 2011 edition of The Washington Monthly Susan Headden just comes right out and says that “the remedial placement process is ground zero for college non-completion in America.” (Jay Matthews of the Washington Post offers his take on the article on his Class Struggle blog here.) Headden criticizes colleges that don’t communicate the high-stakes nature of the tests and those that don’t encourage and make test preparation available. She argues for assessment systems that measure both cognitive and affective readiness and points to acceleration programs that allow students to complete credit-bearing courses with additional tutoring or support. (We’ve covered these sorts of programs on the blog before, in South Africa and Baltimore.) Many DEI colleges  and states are making strides in developing new placement testing instruments and in accelerating student progress through the developmental sequence, but there’s certainly more work to be done.
  
  How does your college set students up for placement test success? Do you conduct affective assessments? Tell us about it in the comments section. Or, if you’ve got a longer story, send an email to dei@mdcinc.org and let’s talk about an Accelerating Achievement guest post.

• There’s more great developmental education commentary in the September 2011 Achieving Success, the Jobs for the Future ATD/DEI State Policy Newsletter. Read up on college completion continuous improvement networks in Arkansas and Michigan, new JFF publications on developmental education policy in Florida’s community colleges, performance funding in Hawai’i and much much more!