title: Accelerated Developmental Reading and Writing Coursework and Student Preparedness for College-level Reading-intensive and Writing-intensive Courses in Texas Community Colleges
Creators: name: Paulson, Eric J.
name: Van Overschelde, James P.
name: Wiggins, Afi Y.
Publisher: name: The University of Texas at Austin
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: policy brief
subject: college

description: This project examined the effects of a state-wide curricular shift in developmental education course offerings on student success in college-level courses at public community colleges in Texas. Specifically, it evaluated the efficacy of accelerated developmental integrated reading and writing (INRW) courses compared to non-accelerated, separate developmental reading and developmental writing courses in terms of the key metric of students passing their first reading- or writing-intensive college-level course. While results varied according to sampling strategy, the trend in the overall outcomes did not favor the accelerated reading and writing structure. Specifically, the more precise the analysis – particularly in terms of comparisons of matched students – the more likely to be a positive outcome for students who took non-accelerated developmental reading and writing courses than for those who took an accelerated INRW course. In 2013, a statewide curricular change was enacted in Texas where, in public institutions of higher education, the exit (highest) levels of developmental reading and writing courses were merged and accelerated into one course termed Integrated Reading and Writing (INRW) (Texas Administrative Code, 2013, §4.62). This change was made in an attempt to ameliorate low success rates of students placed into developmental education coursework and shorten the amount of time students spend in developmental education before enrolling in college-level coursework (see Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2014; 2016). The Texas version of this curricular change from separate developmental reading and writing courses to a single INRW course is an accelerated model of curriculum (Gerber, Miller, Ngo, Shaw, &amp; Daughtery, 2017). Prior to the INRW change, developmental reading courses in Texas had five student learning outcomes (SLOs) and developmental writing courses had six SLOs; the INRW structure mandates 10 SLOs that are in essence a compilation of those for the separate reading and writing courses. However, the time allotted to complete these SLOs was shortened. Previously, each separate developmental reading and writing course was three semester credit hours (SCH) per course, with a maximum of 96 contact hours for each course; a total of six SCH and 192 contact hours across the two courses could be taken by a student if both reading and writing courses were needed. In the INRW curriculum, the course can be up to four SCH for the combination of reading and writing and a student is allowed a maximum of 96 contact hours for the course (see Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2015, for these details). Thus, INRW is an accelerated model, with a 33% reduction in course time and a 50% reduction in contact hours available to achieve the state’s approved SLOs versus taking both reading and writing separately in the previous non- accelerated model.