Despite the evident need and recurring debates, there has not been sufficient or uniform progress in developmental education over the last few decades. Some promising practices have emerged, particularly embedding developmental education in learning communities, but these practices vary widely, few have become widespread, and almost no evidence exists to confirm the superiority of one practice over another. Dropout rates in remedial courses are high, student dissatisfaction is high, and even students who complete developmental coursework do not complete programs at the rates of their peers.
In this chapter, the authors do not present simple solutions to these thorny problems. On the contrary, they initially complicate the issue by examining additional problems that have not been widely considered, particularly student perceptions about what college and learning mean, the pedagogical alignment between instructor and student, and the consistency of the overall developmental curriculum.
By identifying these issues systematically, this article provides a way of understanding why developmental education is often less effective than it could be and suggests ways to improve its quality.
