Nearly 60 percent of students take at least one developmental education course during their community college career.

This finding is based on two different analyses of community college students — one using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) and the other based on data on more than 250,000 first-time students at colleges participating in the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative.

While high, this figure — 60 percent — may nonetheless underestimate the number of students arriving at community colleges with weak academic skills. In some states, developmental courses are not mandatory for students with demonstrated skill deficiencies, while in others students find ways around developmental course requirements.

A chapter in the spring 2009 issue of New Directions for Community Colleges by CCRC director Thomas Bailey reviews evidence on students who enter community colleges with weak academic skills, and it summarizes study findings on the effectiveness of developmental education: http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=700

See also CCRC Brief No. 40: http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=672

Information on Achieving the Dream can be found at: www.achievingthedream.org