Mission Statement for Developmental Education

The primary mission of developmental education (DE) at CCP is to prepare students to succeed in our collegiate programs of study in the liberal arts, sciences, public service, business, health careers, and career technologies. The academic competencies (reading, writing, mathematics, computer literacy, library skills, critical thinking) attained through the DE program and our collegiate programs will provide students the foundation for college transfer, employment, and life-long learning. The DE program will connect academic competencies in meaningful ways to the content and activities of the curricula in which students have indicated an interest. The intent is to forge better linkages with content courses in various curricula to provide students the opportunity to develop academic competencies within a context which more closely reflects the challenges which will be presented to them at CCP or elsewhere. The connection to curricula further reflects the thinking that DE should be the responsibility of faculty across the college. The overall goal is to improve the success rate of students along a continuum of academic study through a more tightly coordinated programmatic response, which involves the collaboration of classroom and support faculty and counselors.

Managing students' entry into the DE program is critical to student success. Beginning with the initial assessment, registration/advising experience, and new student orientation and continuing through the academic and support experiences in the DE program, the expectations for success need to be clearly and consistently represented. Students need to have an awareness of why they are in DE, to acknowledge their strength and weaknesses, to understand what it takes to be a successful college learner, and to formulate a plan of action to move them toward success in college-level curricula. A sense of community and identity with that community by students and faculty will help to maintain motivation and focus and foster a seriousness of commitment.

Both cognitive and behavioral changes are important to academic success. The DE program integrates the components of curricular content and basic competencies, counseling/mentoring, and career exploration to allow students to engage in issues of personal/intellectual growth and academic enculturation while pursuing the collegiate goal.

There needs to be a core of classroom, support, and counseling faculty committed to DE who will be willing to collaborate or cooperate within and across disciplines to develop curricular learning experiences. Faculty development plays an integral role in the success of the mission. Faculty need to understand and agree on the mission/vision of DE and its programmatic principles and to have a coherent perspective about its role in the institution. Faculty development has a high priority in the DE efforts and should have the committed resources to consistently offer opportunities for training new faculty, sharing teaching /learning experiences, reviewing relevant literature, planning experimental initiatives, etc. Faculty development may occur within collaborative clusters in which team members meet regularly to plan a specific learning experience; it may occur in large and small group meetings around conceptual issues (the clash of student/faculty cultures) or pragmatic issues (effectiveness of specific classroom practices); it may occur in mutual classroom visits.

A significant piece of the mission and vision for DE involves evaluation of student learning, over the short-term and the long-term. Systematic and consistent evaluation of student learning and of designed program interventions to improve learning will be conducted to assess student progress and the DE program's movement toward accomplishing its mission. Consistent standards must be established for DE and college-level courses so that both students and faculty know what they are working toward and when students are ready to move to the next level. In the spirit of innovation, a research component will be incorporated to encourage ongoing experimentation.

Note: The Task Force designates students in need of developmental education if their placement scores in reading, writing and/or math restrict entrance, either partially or fully, into college-level courses. Students in the College Achievement Partnership (CAP), Act Now, 098 Regular, and Math 016/017 Regular are participants in developmental education. Although students in the Collaborative Learning Community (CLC) as a group are not restricted from taking college-level courses (some may need math 016 or 017), their placement scores in reading are below the college cut-off score. They are thus admitted into college-level curricula with support services, and may be considered at the high end of the developmental spectrum.

From Recommendations of the Developmental Education Task Force (10/15/96, pgs.1-2)