Okay, okay, I’m technically not at work ’cause it’s 7:48 in my office. The map of corona virus with circles… they shrank the circles today. I guess they were overlapping. Yesterday I successfully shopped for a few things at food coop — I have soap and water on the bicycle. Think I’m going to try to make this a No Going Out At All day, especially since it’s a bit stormy. Yes, thinking of buying a case or two of soups….
and now it’s 8:44 and I have actually Done Work (discussion of shifting our reading assessment) … but I’m reading another article about “Reimagining Developmental Education” .
Cuyamaca College in El Cajon, California lets anybody take stats or “quantitative reasoning” with corequisite support. They decided that getting rid of developmental courses was the only way to keep students from signing up for them, but kept an intermediate algebra “for STEM students who didn’t comlete algebra II in high school” but “some students who didn’t need the course were enrolling in it.”
… I wonder a: what makes them believe that and b: how well people are doing in those classes. Okay, I wonder about this statement on video — that students woudln’t do optional… but that if they had the courses students would sign up for them. I am confused. Couldn’t they make the courses optional — in which case, students wouldn’t take them? Her premise is that the developmental label is what’s behind students then believing they really aren’t ready for college and That’s The Problem and If We Believe In Them Things Will Work.
While I firmly and fervently believe that yes, expectations are a HUGE part of why students don’t make it in college, erm….. many of these students have had low expectations K-12 and therefore … they don’t know as much or how to do as much as others. And … nope, the article just ends right there. No information about … how well studetns are doing. (Yea, it’s ‘popular press,’ not research.)
The next example is looking the same: “Motivation, confidence, and stereotype threat are concerns…” okay, but this person is working with math majors who land in developmental classes. These folks seem to recognize that things like “financial struggles, homelessness, or family issues” are obstacles.
So… is it working?
Resource Room Dot Net Blog 
Posted on March 19, 2020
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