Measuring the effectiveness of developmental writing courses

Community College Review, Fall, 2004 by Anne Hay Southard, Jennifer K. Clay

The community college is the only academic safety net for underprepared students seeking a college education, and the number of developmental students continues to grow for several reasons. Social pressures, such as reforms limiting entitlements over an individual's lifetime, have led more welfare recipients into the classroom as they prepare for jobs that pay a living wage (Jenkins & Boswell, 2002). Refugees and immigrants want the opportunities a college degree brings, but they may require developmental work (Jenkins & Boswell, 2002). Many native-born U.S. students also require remediation; almost two-thirds of high school students in Florida require developmental courses before they can attempt college-level work (Office of Educational Services and Research, Division of Community Colleges, 1999). Despite these pressures, states are increasingly mandating that four-year schools cannot offer developmental classes (Jenkins & Boswell, 2002); thus, if developmental students fail at the community college, they do not have access to other academic institutions. Therefore, effective remedial courses at community colleges are crucial to developmental students' future academic success. One proof of effectiveness is accurate placement into developmental courses; another is success in subsequent courses (Schmitz & delMas, 1991; Weissman, Bulakowski, & Jumisko, 1997).

As institutions that welcome these underprepared students, community colleges have an obligation to equip their students with the skills needed to succeed in college courses. Like its counterparts, Okaloosa-Walton Community College (OWCC) in northwest Florida offers developmental courses in reading, writing, and math to fulfill its primary mission of teaching all students. A periodic assessment of the effectiveness of these courses is essential to ensure that developmental students are being adequately served. Effectiveness cannot be assumed; in 1998, more than a quarter of developmental students nationwide failed to complete their college preparatory coursework (Jenkins & Boswell, 2002).

Faculty and administrators at OWCC needed to know if the college's developmental writing course, College Prep English II, was preparing students for success in Composition I (a college-level course). As English teachers, the researchers wanted to know whether the state-mandated multiple-choice test used to place students in developmental English provided accurate placement. Therefore, in this study, the researchers assessed the effectiveness of College Prep English II in preparing students for success in Composition I and investigated the relationship between scores on the Florida College Placement Test (FCPT) and success in developmental English and other writing-intensive courses.

Review of the Literature

Studies on the effectiveness of basic writing programs have concluded overall that these programs are effective. Three such studies, by Stein (1982) at Minnesota Community College, by Ragland (1997) at Central Missouri State University, and by Weissman et al. (1997) at the College of Lake County (a community college in Chicago), concluded that students who completed developmental skills courses were more likely to succeed in college-level writing classes than were students who did not complete preparatory work. Glau (1996) reported that developmental courses that focused on grammar at Arizona State University were ineffective but that an extended developmental program that concentrated on writing did prepare students for success in Composition I.

Researchers have also concluded that developmental courses should be required and not optional when students fall below the cut-off score on placement exams (Berger, 1997; Weissman et al., 1997). However, placement tests can be imperfect tools, even when content validity has been achieved (Schmitz & delMas, 1991). Schmitz and delMas (1991) noted that while a test's content validity is essential, decisions based on the test must also prove to be accurate. If a test facilitates accurate decisions about placement, students who score low but do not take developmental classes will not do as well academically as their counterparts who receive remediation, and retention will be higher for students who need and receive preparatory work before college classes (Schmitz & delMas, 1991). McCormick and McCormick's 1986 study of students in developmental writing classes at Eastern Illinois University addressed the correlation between the students' placement scores and their future academic success in all their other classes. Comparing developmental students to non-developmental students, the researchers found no significant difference in the areas of credits earned, graduation rates, and grades earned in college-level writing courses. However, those developmental students with lower placement scores had lower GPAs and were more likely to be placed on academic probation than were students with higher placement scores.

Purpose of the Study

The researchers wanted to evaluate OWCC's effectiveness in preparing developmental writing students to succeed in college-level English courses, and they were interested in whether the mandatory placement test's assignment of students in developmental courses was accurate. Thus, this study began with two research questions. First, is College Prep English II effective in redressing developmental students' deficits when they are faced with the academic demands of Composition I? Second, do students' scores on the FCPT relate positively to their success in writing-intensive courses?