A “Best Practice” from Community College Journal, “Keeping the Promise of Remedial Education Revisited”, By John E. Roueche and Suanne D. Roueche
*”Require orientation and initiating student-support structures. Most selective American universities bring more structure to the early days of entering students’ college careers than do community colleges. Most continue it after the initial orientation period, usually providing formal courses throughout the freshman year to further socialize new students and requiring mentoring experience.”
*Linda Thompson, NADE President, in her remarks from the Spring 2000 NADE Newsletter, she quoted Bunk Spann who was citing David Breneman of the University of Virginia: “If only one third of the students currently taking at least one remedial course were to earn a bachelor’s degree they would generate more than $74 billion in federal taxes and $13 billion in state and local taxes while costing the taxpayer about one billion to remediate. Furthermore…the graduation rate for remedial students would have to drop below the 1% level before taxpayers would see a net loss on investment.” Linda adds the following: “According to the most recent available statistics, approximately 40% of students who take developmental courses in four-year institutions and 24% of students who enroll in developmental courses in two-year institutions do, indeed, graduate. An IHEP report states that 80 percent of sustainable jobs today require some education beyond high school.”
The Empirical Case for First-Year Seminars: Well-Documented Effects on Student Retention & Academic Achievement Joe Cuseo, Marymount College
*“The two most significant and well-replicated effects of the first-year seminar have been on two important student outcomes: (a) retention (persistence) and (b) academic performance (achievement).”
© 1999 thomas.kesterson@kctcs.net