Press Releases

A long-term study of an alternative approach to determining if community college students need developmental (also called remedial) courses has found that this approach allows many more students to succeed in their college-level math and English courses, part of the puzzle to bolstering the overall success of community college students.

A new CAPR study found that combining standardized placement test results with high school GPA and other measures—called multiple measures assessment—allowed more students to go straight into college-level courses, and researchers found that those students did better than similar students left behind.

A new CAPR report examines how four Texas community colleges implemented Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) and the impact of DCMP on student outcomes over as many as four semesters. Costs of the initiative and student perspectives are also discussed.

A new CAPR report describes findings from a national survey of two- and four-year colleges. Researchers found developmental education reform has accelerated, with a notable 30-percentage-point increase in the use of alternative assessment measures (like grade point averages), rather than only on standardized tests.

A new CAPR report describes early findings from the center's study of multiple measures placement systems at seven State University of New York community colleges.

Interim findings from a CAPR study of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) model at four community colleges in Texas show that the reform is helping more students complete their remedial and college-level math requirements more quickly while learning math that will be useful throughout their lives and careers.

In a one-hour webinar, Elisabeth A. Barnett from CCRC and Rashida Welbeck from MDRC described what they have learned about multiple measures assessment through an exploration of college practices in four Midwestern states.

The Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) held its second annual meeting on March 8, 2016. CAPR researchers met with advisory board members, key personnel from CAPR research sites, and other national experts on remediation to discuss evolving changes in developmental education, the current state of research knowledge about innovative practices to improve outcomes for underprepared students, and the progress of current CAPR projects.

On August 12, CCRC’s Thomas Bailey and MDRC's Lashawn Richburg-Hayes joined U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, along with White House Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Munoz and other administration officials, to speak at a White House meeting focused on best practices in college remediation.

The Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University, in collaboration with social policy research organization MDRC and scholars at Stanford, U.C. Davis, and Vanderbilt, has been awarded a five-year grant of $9,951,362 from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to create a center focused on rigorously assessing the effects of new approaches to remedial assessment, placement, and instruction.