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Blaauw-Hara, M., Tebeau, C. S., Borowiak, D., & Blaauw-Hara, J. (2020). Is a writing-about-writing approach appropriate for community college developmental writers in a corequisite class? Composition Studies, 48(2), 54–73. 

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Blaauw-Hara, M., Tebeau, C. S., Borowiak, D., & Blaauw-Hara, J. (2020). Is a writing-about-writing approach appropriate for community college developmental writers in a corequisite class? Composition Studies, 48(2), 54–73. 

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What: Peer-Reviewed Article
Argument, Points, Key Ideas: Based on their study and  findings, the authors recommend using a Writing about writing (WAW) approach in corequisite course model as it showed that students improved reading curriculum, appreciated the corequisite course, and developed self-efficacy.
Design Choices: Like most scholarship, this articles is also formatted in a traditional manner starting off with the title in bold, authors' names, and a brief paragraph that summarizes the article. It then continues with a literature review, methodology, findings, implications, and a conclusion. These subheadings are also typed in bold print; whereas the findings are listed in italics. The article also ends with an appendix and works cited page.
Analysis: This traditional design choice which includes linguistic, visual, and spatial modes works well for this study as it proves its credibility not only from its rich literature review and works cited page, but also makes it easy for the audience - other researchers or instructors, to quickly identify relevant points and findings.

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Corequisite Remediation Is Shown to Improve Gateway Course Outcomes. Now What?

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Corequisite Remediation Is Shown to Improve Gateway Course Outcomes. Now What?

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What: Blog/Essay
Arguments, Points, Key Ideas: Corequisite remediation may lead to improvements in student outcomes; however, more work needs to be done to eliminate equity gaps, improve instruction, and reduce barriers to access and success.
Design Choices: The essay is part of a Blog titled Mixed Methods which can be seen at the top of the article placed as a banner. An image of students working at desks is placed right up front after the title and author's name. The title and subtitles in the article use bold print to stand out from the main text and the questions posed in the essay are also in bold-print. Finally, a chart separates some of the text and the description of the chart/figure is placed right above the figure in bold print as well.  In addition to the hashtag, there is also small picture of the author at the end of the article under the heading "About the Author"
Analysis: The text which uses linguistic, visual, and spatial modes is formatted in a very typical manner with the use of regular black font and links embedded within the text in light blue. the one image used is a very generic picture and does not convey much of a message to the audience besides implying that the blog is related to an educational topic. The chart helps create a bit of contrast from the text heavy essay and is a suitable way of portraying some of the facts and data compiled and discussed. A hashtag, which is typically found in blogs, is placed towards the end of the page (# developmental education) that also tells the audience what the essay is going to be about and provides a glimpse of the particular topic.

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As colleges across the country adopt corequisite remedial models-which enroll students directly in college-level courses with concurrent academic support-higher education policymakers, educators, and advocates are eager to see more research on its effectiveness. In a new CCRC working paper based on data from the 13 community colleges in Tennessee, we provide the first causal evidence of the effects of corequisite reform on student outcomes across an entire college system.

Our study confirmed earlier research showing that corequisite remediation results in much higher gateway pass rates than traditional prerequisite remediation. For students on the margin of the college readiness threshold, those placed into corequisite remediation were 15 percentage points more likely to pass gateway math and 13 percentage points more likely to pass gateway English within one year of enrollment than similar students placed into prerequisite remediation. That is nearly a 50% improvement for math and more than a 20% improvement for English. Combined with strong experimental evidence for corequisite remediation from three community colleges in the CUNY system, our results provide further evidence that corequisite remediation is much more effective than the traditional prerequisite approach in helping students get through their first college-level math and English courses.

What's New in Our Study?

But what accounts for the positive effects of the corequisite model? Given what we know about how traditional prerequisite remediation affects students, it is perhaps not surprising that corequisite remediation is more effective. But it is not clear that the extra support is what makes the difference. In fact, students placed into corequisite remediation had gateway completion rates in math and English that were similar to students who avoided remediation by scoring just a few points above the college-ready threshold on a placement test. This suggests that students on the margin of the college-ready threshold would have done just as well if placed directly into a college-level course. Thus, the main advantage of corequisite remediation, at least for students near the college-ready threshold, is that students can take college-level classes right away and avoid spending one or more semesters in prerequisite courses, which hold students back.

In addition, we found that improvements in pass rates in gateway math in Tennessee were mostly driven by math pathways reforms that guided students into math courses aligned with their programs of study. Traditionally, new students entering community colleges in Tennessee were required to take courses on the algebra track, which is standard practice nationwide. Since the math pathways reform, more than half of entering students in Tennessee instead take statistics, the more appropriate math course for social science and other non-STEM majors. Fewer than 20% of new students remain on the algebra track, while the rest take math for liberal arts or other program-specific math. We found that students placed into corequisite statistics had significantly higher gateway completion rates than those placed into prerequisite algebra, and that students placed into corequisite algebra did not benefit significantly from their learning support courses. This shows that expanding options for math that address students' needs in their majors and career tracks has been essential to remedial math reforms. It also shows that future research needs to look into promising curricular designs and instructional practices to improve outcomes in algebra and other math courses for STEM fields.

Informing College Practice and Future Research

This new understanding of the mechanisms behind the improvements in success rates for corequisite students has significant implications for colleges, yet there are still many unanswered questions about how to design effective remedial programs.

1. What approaches are effective for students who arrive at college very poorly prepared to succeed?

Community colleges serve highly diverse student populations; it is unlikely that one solution can address the academic needs of everyone. For corequisite students who missed the college-level cutoff by only a few points, our study shows that they can succeed in gateway courses without any remediation at the same rate as students just above the cutoff. It may be beneficial to make corequisite support optional for these students, as they could have better ways to use the time and money consumed by corequisite courses. Colleges and state systems should also consider using multiple measures, including students' academic records from high school, to identify those truly in need of remedial support. Big changes like these require a shift in mindset around the purpose of college remediation, from diverting students deemed "underprepared" from taking college-level courses until they appear ready, to maximizing the chances that students will complete their first college-level math and English courses without delay.

At the same time, more than one study has shown that students with lower levels of academic preparation can benefit from an intensive focus on building basic academic skills, either in prerequisite remedial sequences or in programs providing a prescribed instructional approach taken before college matriculation. It is important to understand how lower-scoring students, who presumably are more academically vulnerable, are best served.

2. What specific corequisite practices are most effective in different subjects and with different student groups?

One important caveat to research in this area, including my own study, is that when researchers use the umbrella term "corequisite remediation," they are in fact referring to models with many variations. In Tennessee, it means an up-to-three-credit learning support course paired with gateway math or English, delivered either face-to-face or in computer-aided lab sessions; in CUNY, it means a weekly credit-bearing statistics workshop led by advanced undergraduate or graduate students; in Texas, corequisite models include instructor-facilitated lab sessions, extended instructional time, and paired courses, among other alternatives. Even though current evidence suggests that no corequisite model is worse than the traditional prerequisite approach, institutions and states designing their own reforms could benefit from more nuanced examination of how variations in corequisite implementation affect its effectiveness.

3. How can colleges eliminate equity gaps in outcomes that we see even in corequisite models?

Since Black and Hispanic students are disproportionally likely to be referred to remedial courses, traditional remediation unwittingly serves to exacerbate inequality in postsecondary education. Corequisite remediation has been shown to be more effective for all demographic groups, compared with traditional prerequisite models. But does it work to close racial gaps in college outcomes? Our internal analyses using the Tennessee data show that first-year gateway completion rates improved across the board over time, and some differences across subgroups did narrow. However, we also found that substantial gaps remained between White and Black students. Moreover, rather than asking merely whether a remedial reform works for all students, a greater focus on equity may lead to a broader question: What more should be done for Black and Hispanic students and those who have been historically marginalized in higher education?

Figure 1: Proportion of First-Time-in-College Students Completing Gateway Math and English within One Year of Enrollment, by Cohort and Racial/Ethnic Group

Source: Author's calculations based on student transcripts from 13 community colleges affiliated with the Tennessee Board of Regents.

In the past decade, state systems and colleges have been rethinking and reinventing developmental education. Corequisite remediation is one promising example of new models that may lead to improvements in student outcomes. However, the progress should not end here. Colleges, state systems, and researchers should continue their work to identify and address the barriers that are preventing access to and success in college.

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Corequisite Remediation Is Shown to Improve Gateway Course Outcomes. Now What?

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As colleges across the country adopt corequisite remedial models-which enroll students directly in college-level courses with concurrent academic support-higher education policymakers, educators, and advocates are eager to see more research on its effectiveness.

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Rodrigo, R., & Sturman, S. (2020). Imagining online corequisite courses. Composition Studies, 48(2). 

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Rodrigo, R., & Sturman, S. (2020). Imagining online corequisite courses. Composition Studies, 48(2). 

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What: Peer-Reviewed Article
Arguments, Points, Key Ideas: The authors of this article discuss best practices in online corequisite English courses and claim that the most successful online coreq courses are intentionally designed and should function and feel like one class. It should also provide students with options on activities they need to do throughout the course in order to provide students with ownership of the course. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of student to student interactions, student-content interactions, and student -instructor interactions.
Design Choices: Although this is a peer reviewed article, it does not follow the traditional design choices of an academic article as it is published using Adobe XD and presents a visual throughout the text using the theme of Alice in Wonderland. It includes linguistic, visual, and spatial modes, and asks its audience to interact with the text by "choosing their own adventure."
Analysis: The audience of this text are English professors teaching corequisite courses in an online environment. In order to establish credibility with their audience, the authors, provide an extensive list of works cited, coreq course examples from leading universities, and a peer reviewed text. The text is organized in an interactive manner and the reader is given the freedom and ownership to jump from one section to another.

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Advantages of Corequisite Over Traditional Remediation

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Advantages of Corequisite Over Traditional Remediation

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What: Infographic
Arguments, Points, Key Ideas: This visual attempts to portray the benefits and advantages of corequisit remediation when compared to traditional remediation methods.
Design Choices: The infographic lays out details relevant to traditional remediation on one side of the chart and corequisite remediation on the other. In the middle column an image and a one-two word phrase is used to identify the main benefit. Citations are provided at the end.
Analysis: The infographic uses visual, spatial, and linguistic modes. It uses the contrasting colors of dark and light blue together and the icons used highlight the factors main that make corequisite courses beneficial.
Analysis: The design choices used work well to convey the message that corequisite courses are motivating, cost less, help students succeed in math, and help lead them to graduation. All of this can be easily understood by the target audience of educators and students just with a quick glance and skim of the text. Overall, the infographic is an excellent mode for portraying the advantages of corequisite courses in a short and simple manner.

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Adams, P. (2020). Giving hope to the american dream: implementing a corequisite model of developmental writing. Composition Studies, 48(2), 19–34. 

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Adams, P. (2020). Giving hope to the american dream: implementing a corequisite model of developmental writing. Composition Studies, 48(2), 19–34. 

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What: Peer-Reviewed Article
Arguments, Points, Key Ideas: The purpose of this article is to detail the accelerated learning program (ALP) model and highlight its key features that have made it successful among the many corequisite model designs present in English courses. These features include sufficient hours per week to address cognitive and non-cognitive issues, small class sizes, same instructor for both courses, frequent active learning, and integrated reading and writing.
Design Choices:  This peer-reviewed article begins with a title in bold, author's name, and a brief synopsis of the article. It is formatted like any other traditional, scholarly article that can be found in a journal. The article is organized in a linear fashion and each section is identified with a bold-print subtitle. title; there are a couple of charts that identify reasons students drop out of college and a checklist that can be used to evaluate the strength of  a corequisite model. In addition to these charts, images of students are presented throughout the article when discussing the four different corequisite models.
Analysis:  The main audience of this text are English professors teaching corequisite courses or college administrators. The author establishes credibility with his audience, through an extensive list of works cited, national data, and a peer reviewed text published in an academic journal. The text is organized in a typical manner found in scholarly text starting out with the background and history of the corequisite and ALP model and finishing off with a works cited page.

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Daugherty, Lindsay, Celia J. Gomez, Diana Gehlhaus, Alexandra Mendoza-Graf, and Trey Miller, Designing and Implementing Corequisite Models of Developmental Education: Findings from Texas Community Colleges. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2018. 

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Daugherty, Lindsay, Celia J. Gomez, Diana Gehlhaus, Alexandra Mendoza-Graf, and Trey Miller, Designing and Implementing Corequisite Models of Developmental Education: Findings from Texas Community Colleges. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2018. 

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What: Research Report - Web only
Arguments, Points, Key Ideas:  This report focuses on the implementation of corequiste courses in Texas community colleges. The authors provide background information on recent reforms in developmental education, the different models of corequisite courses, the 4 major challenges faced by institutions, and provide suggestions and recommendations on best practices that many institutions have found helpful which includes strategies like small class sizes, mixed ability peer groups, and faculty development.
Design Choices: The report is organized in a traditional manner with research questions listed in a box on the right hand side. The subheadings are listed as key findings and recommendations and the text is organized in a linear manner and uses linguistic, visual, and spatial modes.

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This report describes the implementation of integrated reading and writing corequisites - a reform to developmental education that accelerates students into college-level courses, while providing academic support in the same semester. It describes the different types of corequisites being implemented across Texas community colleges, identifies challenges with implementation, and reports on strategies that were helpful in overcoming these challenges.

Research Questions

1. How do corequisite policies in Texas fit into the developmental education reform movement, and how will RAND's study with American Institutes for Research and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board help to inform these reform efforts?

2. What are the different types of corequisite models being implemented across Texas community colleges?

3. What are the range of decisions colleges must make in designing and implementing corequisites, and how have Texas community colleges approached these decisions?

4. What are the challenges to implementing corequisites?

5. What strategies do administrators and faculty at community colleges perceive to have helped to overcome challenges?

Many students who enter community colleges are underprepared in reading, writing, and/or mathematics. Colleges typically require students who are not college-ready to enroll in developmental education, which has traditionally consisted of a series of subject-based courses for students to complete prior to entering college-level courses. However, evidence indicates that traditional approaches to developmental education were not working for many students. In response to this troubling evidence, states and higher education institutions across the United States are rethinking the way they address college readiness.

This report focuses on the corequisite implementation experiences of Texas community colleges in fall 2016. Authors provide background on recent developmental education reforms in Texas and across the nation and describe their rigorous experimental study of integrated reading and writing corequisites in Texas. Then, they describe early implementation findings drawn from interviews and survey data collected from faculty and administrators at 36 community colleges in Texas. The findings indicate that Texas community colleges are implementing a range of different types of corequisite models, and an appendix details wide-ranging decisions on design and implementation. The report also documents four types of challenges colleges have faced in implementing corequisites: lack of stakeholder buy-in, issues with scheduling and advising, limited instructional preparation and support, and uncertainty around state policy. After describing these challenges, the authors discuss strategies reported by institutions as helpful in avoiding or overcoming these challenges. Finally, the report concludes by reflecting on these early findings and their implications for the developmental education reform movement.

Key Findings

Five common types of corequisite models were identified as being implemented in the participating Texas community colleges: paired-course models, extended instructional time models, Accelerated Learning Program models, academic support service models, and technology-mediated support models.

Challenges to implementation included lack of stakeholder buy-in, issues with scheduling and advising, limited instructional preparation and support, and uncertainty around state policy.

Efforts to build buy-in and address challenges were essential to successful implementation.

Some strategies, such as dedicated time for design, professional development, and small class sizes, could be more costly.

Unique features, such as use of a single instructor for the corequisites and mixed-ability peer groups, could be important to the effectiveness of their models but often faced more challenges with scheduling, advising, and buy-in across the institution.

Recommendations

Institutions and states should consider a range of different corequisite models as having the potential to support success among underprepared students, and should give careful thought to the range of decisions required around the design and implementation of corequisites.

Institutions and states should prioritize collaboration and communication efforts as they move to scale corequisites by bringing a broader range of individuals into the planning process and ensuring that all stakeholders within the institution are informed about goals for corequisites within the institution, details on implementation, and evidence on effectiveness.

Institutions and states will need to consider how the corequisite models can be designed and implemented in a feasible way that allows for scaling, while also retaining the mechanisms that are believed to be most impactful in driving student outcomes. Decisions on how to balance trade-offs in implementation may vary depending on the student populations served, the timeline for implementation, and institutional context.

Policies should facilitate experimentation, research, and continuous improvement as corequisites are scaled.

Institutions should use the rigorous research evidence provided in future study reports on Texas corequisites to understand the effectiveness of corequisites, identify the characteristics of students most likely to succeed in corequisites, and adopt promising practices for implementation.

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education and conducted by RAND Education.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Research report series. RAND reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.

Citation

Format:

Daugherty, Lindsay, Celia J. Gomez, Diana Gehlhaus, Alexandra Mendoza-Graf, and Trey Miller, Designing and Implementing Corequisite Models of Developmental Education: Findings from Texas Community Colleges. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2018. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2337.html.

Daugherty, Lindsay, Celia J. Gomez, Diana Gehlhaus, Alexandra Mendoza-Graf, and Trey Miller, Designing and Implementing Corequisite Models of Developmental Education: Findings from Texas Community Colleges, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RR-2337-IES, 2018. As of March 07, 2022: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2337.html

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Designing and Implementing Corequisite Models of Developmental Education

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Alum Lindsey Daugherty (cohort '05) and students Diana Gehlhaus Carew ('15) and Alexandra Mendoza-Graf ('16) examined the implementation of integrated reading and writing corequisites-a reform to developmental education that accelerates students into college-level courses, while providing academic support-in Texas community colleges.

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Transforming Developmental Education to Support Students Through College

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Transforming Developmental Education to Support Students Through College

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What: Podcast
Arguments, Points, and Key Ideas: In this podcast, the speakers discuss how colleges could offer academic and nonacademic supports more effectively that would help all students succeed not just in their gateway courses but in all courses. They argue that when intentionally designing corequiste courses, institutions must consider creating immersive and well-designed support structures that focus not only on literacy and numeracy skills but also on non-academic  skills like time-management and creating a sense of belonging. The emphasis should be on developing the whole learner.
Design Choices: The podcast is in the form of an interview and utilizes both linguistic and aural modes. The podcast starts out with music to signal the start of the episode and an introduction to the speakers provided by the interviewer. It ends with the same music to signify the ending and a closing from the interviewer informing listeners on how to access the speakers' article on this topic. Compared to the other genres, the podcast seemed the least effective to me as without the visual mode, it can be difficult to follow at times when discussing data and key points.

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Transforming Developmental Education to Support Students Throughout College by Community College Research Center

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Developmental education is designed with the idea that colleges can bring students' skills up to college level with a course or two, declare them college-ready, and send them off to take the rest of their courses.

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Corequisites vs. Traditional English Composition Courses - 

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Corequisites vs. Traditional English Composition Courses - 

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What: Video Webinar
Arguments, Points, and Key Ideas: The presenter discusses the benefits of taking a 4-credit hour co-requisite course which include financial incentives, increased learning, accelerated learning, and the flexibility of additional time on task.
Design Choices: This was a webinar held and sponsored by a textbook publishing company - Hawkes Learning- but was presented to the audience- most likely-English instructors- by a faculty member. The video is composed of a PowerPoint as the main focus feature of the video and the speaker on the top right corner. It is organized in a linear fashion and uses visual, spatial, aural, and gestural modes. It starts out with a brief introduction of the speaker and continues with the presentation which discusses benefits of a coreq course and strategies for teaching the coreq course. It ends with a question and answer section.

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Webinar: Corequisite vs  Traditional English Composition Courses

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What: An interactive Website
Arguments, Points, or Key Ideas:  The website attempts to portray the problem with traditional models and methods of remediation for under prepared college students and promotes the adoption of corequisite courses in place of prerequisites and defines the guiding principle of successful corequisite programs which included delivering academic support, developing pathways, treating all students as college students, and changing the intake process.
Design Choices: The site was set up as an interactive multi-page website using linguistic, spatial, and visual modes throughout. The videos embedded on the site also utilize gestural and aural modes. A blue background was used and each subtopic was divided into a separate page that included key data that could be adjusted with user interaction, videos and testimonials, and an option to share via Facebook or Twitter. It was organized in a linear fashion starting out with the problem and ending with a solution and key contacts.
Analysis: The "how" does an excellent job conveying its "what through this interactive website." The color choices of yellow on blue contrast well and make important data/points stand out. Since its audience includes educators nationwide across colleges and universities, the interactive nature of the website is particularly helpful as it allows readers to choose what is relevant to them (ex. particular states, types of colleges, disciplines) and either "read more" or stick to the summary of information presented. The site also provides a clear "blueprint" of how to build a solid foundation for corequisite courses and ends with a list of well-known and credible contacts across disciplines and institutions nationwide.