Many new students enter the College academically underprepared and need to begin their studies with basic skills courses in English, ESL, and mathematics, either credit or non-credit.  However, many of these students have difficulty accessing the credit skills courses in which they are placed for English and mathematics, and those who gain access either to credit or non-credit skills instruction struggle to succeed.  The key issue, therefore, relates to the provision of optimal opportunity for basic preparation in English and mathematics during the first semester of study to contribute to improved achievement and persistence to goal attainment for both credit and non-credit students.

The evidence supporting the issue lies between the number of students placed in basic skills instruction and the number of students who successfully complete the requisite coursework (1998).  Each year over 15,000 students are tested for placement in credit courses with again as many tested for placement in non-credit courses.  Among credit students, approximately half of those tested place in the basic skills: about 55 percent place in English, about 40 percent place in ESL courses, and about 50 percent place in mathematics courses, levels which vary somewhat by ethnicity.
 

Those placing in basic skills English do not succeed in those courses at the same level as their peers in college courses.  At the College level, about 20 percent succeed, most passing a transfer-level course, while another 40 percent enroll, but not in English, and over 36 percent either don’t enroll or leave after enrolling in English.  At the preparatory level about 17 percent succeed, while another 44 percent either don’t enroll or leave after enrolling in English, and about 37 percent enroll, but not in English.  For those underprepared students who seek a degree, the results are only slightly better, with 26 percent achieving a positive outcome.

Of those placing in ESL instruction, about a third pass a degree applicable course or higher level ESL course, most during their first term.  However, over 40 percent either fail to enroll at CCSF or disenroll without successfully passing an ESL course, while another 22 percent enroll without taking an ESL course.  Among those placing in basic skills courses, slightly more than a fifth pass a degree applicable or higher-level course, only 5 percent passed an AA level course, and only one percent passed a transfer-level course.  Over half of these students either failed to enroll or disenrolled after ESL, while another 20 percent enrolled, but not in ESL courses.  Again, those underprepared students seeking a degree achieved better results with 42 percent achieving a positive outcome.

In mathematics, less than 20 percent of those testing pass at least a basic skills level math class, most a transfer-level course and most within the first semester.  However, over half of the students testing enroll in courses other than mathematics, with another 28 percent either failing to enroll at the College or disenrolling without successfully passing a math course.  Of those placing in preparatory courses, only 7 percent complete a basic skills course, 5 percent complete a degree applicable course, and 2 percent pass a transfer-level course.

Half of the students placing in developmental math enroll, but not in math, while another 35 percent either fail to enroll or disenroll after math.  As with those students placing in preparatory English and ESL, students seeking a degree achieve better results with almost one-fourth achieving a positive outcome.

In non-credit over 8,000 students take the ESL placement test each year with 89 percent of those testing actually attending non-credit courses.  Additionally, over 1,200 students take the basic skills test each year, with almost 3,000 new and continuing students participating in the Transitional Studies program each year.
 

Like their credit counterparts, non-credit students experience difficulty in accessing appropriate classes.  Nonetheless, about half of the students enrolling in non-credit ESL and Transitional Studies courses indicate an interest in making a transition to credit programs and courses with about a fifth exercising that interest.  Among those who do make the transition into credit courses, those with more hours of attendance in their prior noncredit semester – or those who enroll in multiple noncredit programs - perform slightly better than students with fewer attendance hours (1999).

Overall, noncredit students entering credit courses perform as well as other new students with a few exceptions.  For example, ESL students pass almost 70 percent of their credit courses with GPA’s around 2.69, while Transitional Studies students pass 44 percent of their courses with GPA’s near 1.98.  In short, students who were better prepared in English and math took more units, were more successful, and were more likely to enroll the next semester than those placing in basic skill level credit courses.

As previously noted, “beginnings are important…[because] initial success leads to retention and later success.” (28).  Strategies to address the issue might be related to the design of a comprehensive developmental program for underprepared students customized to meet individual student needs through a variety of delivery systems across the district.  Involved in such an initiative might be a re-examination of the overall architecture of the credit and non-credit preparatory curriculum, the ways and means of increasing the accessibility of both credit and non-credit preparatory courses, and the overall articulation of preparatory coursework with college-level coursework within and beyond the disciplines.

Boylan, et. al.(1994) describe several key elements of successful developmental programs including a centralized organizational structure, assessment and tutorial services, advising and counseling support, and program evaluation.  These elements, supported by essential instructional practices such as remediation integrated with critical thinking, mastery performance with frequent testing and immediate feedback, individualized instruction with lab activities and supplemental instruction, and classrooms in close proximity to support services, produce high levels of student success.  Boylan and his colleagues report that over 70 percent of the students who begin in developmental courses are expected to complete them and pass their first college-level course with retention rates over 80 percent through the first year and 24 percent to graduation.

More recently, however, those interested in the issues of underprepared students have begun to heed the voice of Pat Cross (1971) who emphasizes the need to develop competence in the basic tools of modern living, communications and computations, and eliminate attitudinal blockages to the learning process (168).  She argues that underprepared students need a reorientation to learning with ample practice in learning itself.  Based on her model of good learning, Cross suggests that students need a clear idea of what they are trying to learn, sequentially organized and accompanied by concrete examples, that they need motivation strong enough for an initial attempt and subsequent practice, and they need help focusing on the behaviors they must master with ample opportunity for practice, feedback, and reward.  As a result, leaders in the field have sought to strengthen practice with theory, drawing on the work of Perry, Bruffee, Friere, Gardner, and others to link learning and development through instruction as well as support services (Silverman and Casazza, 2000; Casazza and Silverman, 1996).

Today’s exemplary developmental programs reflect our improved understanding of the nature of the problem and related theories, providing remediation in a developmental context with a complementary learning assistance program.  As reported by McCabe and Day (1998), such programs are both comprehensive and institutionalized, reflecting several critical characteristics:
 

they are context-specific and highly valued by the learning community;

they are centrally structured or well coordinated within the organization;

they employ instructors committed to the students and the field;

they provide multilevel curricula with credit options and exit criteria;

faculty ensure the integration of a variety of instructional methods;

they integrate learning and personal development strategies and services; and

they employ an evaluation system focused on outcomes as well as continuous program improvement.

Through an examination of ten exemplary programs, it is clear that they each deal both with academic and personal development to produce student success levels that regularly reach 80 percent in English, reading, and mathematics, with about 90 percent of the students receiving GPA’s of 2.0 or better.  Moreover, performance levels in college courses are equal to or better than those of traditional students, while retention rates are as high as 82 percent (25).

By examining the needs of our students, both credit and non-credit, and rethinking our developmental curriculum, its delivery, support, and institutional integration, City College can improve student learning and development and enable them to succeed in record numbers in college level coursework.