1st Edition

Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges Inside and Outside of Classrooms

By W Norton Grubb Copyright 2013
    256 Pages
    by Routledge

    252 Pages
    by Routledge

    Nearly two-thirds of students require some form of remediation before taking college-level classes, and community colleges have become increasingly important in providing this education. Unfortunately, relatively few students complete the developmental courses required to make a transition to college-level work. Based on a three-year study of over twenty community colleges, Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges analyzes developmental education practices, exploring what goes wrong and what goes right, and provides a series of recommendations for improved practice.

    Including both classroom observations and interviews with administrators, faculty, and students, this valuable book balances critique with examples of innovation. Part One explores the instructional settings of basic skills—the use of drill and practice and remedial pedagogy in math, reading, writing, and ESL, as well as innovations in colleges that show developmental education need not follow remedial pedagogy. Part Two examines institutional factors shaping basic skills and provides recommendations for improving the quality of basic skills instruction. The research-grounded observations and recommendations in Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges make this an invaluable resource for scholars, administrators, and faculty aiming to help students progress through developmental education to college-level work and beyond.

     

    Chapter 1 Understanding the Quandary of Basic Skills: Framing the Issues in Community Colleges

    Chapter 2 Developmental Students: Their Heterogeneity, Readiness, and Perspectives

    SECTION ONE: INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

    Chapter 3 Instruction in Basic Skills: The Dominance of Remedial Pedagogy

    Chapter 4 Innovation in Basic Skills Instruction: The Landscape and the Locus of Change

    Chapter 5 Student Support Services: Their Possibilities and Limits

    Chapter 6 Integrating Student Services with Instruction: Chaffey College’s Long Journey to Success

    SECTION TWO: INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTS ON CLASSROOMS

    Chapter 7 Assessment and Alignment: The Dynamic Aspects of Developmental Education

    Chapter 8 Funding, Resources, and the Money Myth: Effects on Instruction and Innovation

    Chapter 9 Other Institutional Effects on Instruction and Innovation

    Chapter 10 Solving the Basic Skills Dilemma: Conclusions and Recommendations

    Biography

    W. Norton Grubb is the Emeritus Professor and David Pierpont Gardner Chair in Higher Education at The Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley, USA.

    Robert Gabriner is Professor of Educational Leadership and Director of the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program for Schools and Community Colleges at San Francisco State University, USA.

     

    "Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges is one of the rare studies of higher education that takes us inside the classroom, in this case, community college basic skills classrooms. [Grubb and Gabriner] provide in just over 200 pages a comprehensive overview of the problems with instruction in remedial writing, reading, English as a second language, and mathematics and a set of recommendations for improving remediation." —Mike Rose, UCLA