This blog focuses on my scholarship in my five research projects: learning assistance and equity programs, student peer study group programs, learning technologies, Universal Design for Learning, and history simulations. And occasional observations about life.
History of Learning Assistance Programs in the Mid to Late 1800s
As a historian, I have been interested in the history of learning assistance and developmental education. Listening to the rhetoric of today as some argue for the elimination of developmental-level courses, a listener might think that such courses are a recent creation. A careful review of the historical record reveals they have been embedded as part of American higher education since the start. Below is the first of three parts of an examination of the 1800s. These are excerpts from my 2010 book published by Jossey-Bass, "Access at the crossroads: Learning assistance in higher education."
Recruitment of Academically Underprepared Students
After the U.S. Civil War, students who were considered academically under-prepared were aggressively recruited. Economic and social changes throughout the United States fueled by the Civil War significantly influenced expansion of learning assistance at more colleges. Many male students did not seek admission or left college to join their respective armies. Many colleges in the North and South replaced them and their tuition payments through expanded academic preparatory departments that supported underage students who were too young to enlist. Examples from the North include Valparaiso University in Indiana, which replaced college students through a rapid expansion of the academic preparatory department. Although the liberal arts college and theology school at Bucknell University closed temporarily in 1865, the academic preparatory school at the same college significantly increased its enrollment. Offsetting enrollment decreases saved many institutions from closing. Southern colleges followed the same pattern of Northern institutions through extended academic preparatory departments and acceptance of applicants formerly denied admission. In 1861 the University of Alabama created an academic preparatory department for boys twelve years and older. In 1863 the University of Georgia created University High School and suspended rules prohibiting admission of boys younger than fourteen to the university. The Faculty Senate of South Carolina College in 1862 voted to admit young students to replace revenue lost by former students who had left the institution to join the Confederate Army (Rudy, 1996).
History of Learning Assistance Programs in the Mid 1880s
As a historian, I have been interested in the history of learning assistance and developmental education. Listening to the rhetoric of today as some argue for the elimination of developmental-level courses, a listener might think that such courses are a recent creation. A careful review of the historical record reveals they have been embedded as part of American higher education since the start. Below is the first of three parts of an examination of the 1800s. These are excerpts from my 2010 book published by Jossey-Bass, "Access at the crossroads: Learning assistance in higher education."
Academic Preparatory Academies
In 1830, New York University created an early prototype of an academic preparatory academy. It provided instruction in mathematics, physical science, philosophy, and English literature (Dempsey, 1985). The focus, however, was acquiring basic academic content knowledge, not the cognitive learning strategies that are often prerequisite for mastery of new academic material. These academies were a necessary bridge for many college aspirants as a result of the lack of formal secondary education for many. The U.S. education movement started from the top down. First, colleges and universities were established and then public elementary and secondary schools were developed. Some colleges functioned essentially as both high schools and rigorous colleges. The academic preparatory academies supported the rising academic rigor of postsecondary institutions and provided an access conduit for those seeking a college education. The academies expanded with surprising speed in a short time. By 1894, 40 percent of first-year college students had enrolled in college preparatory courses (Ignash, 1997).
Academic Preparatory Deparments Become Part of the College Curriculum: Late 1800s
Since the beginning, tutorial programs were the most common form of academic enrichment and support at most prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Yale. Many college administrators responded to the high number of students academically underprepared by creating a special academic department that was essential to meet their academic needs. In less selective institutions, the number of underprepared students outnumbered those not requiring additional support. For example, the University of Wisconsin in 1865 could place only forty-one of 331 admitted students in “regular” graduation credit courses. The majority of the new students admitted were restricted to remedial courses (Shedd, 1932). Quality of primary and secondary education was uneven or missing in most of the United States. Most colleges provided instruction in basic skills of spelling, writing, geography, and mathematics, as they were the only venue for such instruction (Brier, 1984). Instruction in basic content areas lengthened the undergraduate bachelor’s academic degree to six years or more (Casazza and Silverman, 1996).
In 1849, the University of Wisconsin established the first modern learning assistance program. Instead of offering remedial courses through an external academic preparatory academy, Wisconsin created an academic department for these courses and hired a separate faculty to teach them. The Department of Preparatory Studies instructed students through remedial courses in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Because of an insufficient number of tutors to meet the academic needs of most admitted students, the institution quickly responded by establishing the new academic department. Of the 331 admitted students, 290 enrolled in one or more remedial courses in the preparatory studies department. These courses were similar to those offered at a public high school (Brubacher and Rudy, 1976). Many institutions across the United States implemented the Wisconsin model of learning assistance (Brier, 1984). The department persisted until 1880. Continuous internal political battles among the department, campus administrators, and the rest of the university faculty served as a catalyst for its demise. Faculty members from outside the department demanded its elimination because of the fear of stigma for the university. College administrators tried to appease critics through strategies such as renaming the department. New campus administrators finally closed the department after its short and contentious history (Curti and Carstensen, 1949).
Academic preparatory departments emerged at more than 80 percent of all postsecondary institutions (Canfield, 1889). These departments bridged the gap between inadequate academic preparation of high school graduates and college-level curricular expectations (Clemont, 1899). Review of college admission documents indicated that the farther west the college was located, the lower the entrance requirements for the institution as a result of insufficient preparation in high school. As the public school movement spread from the Northeast farther south and west, college entrance requirements of the institutions eventually rose. After a half century of use, however, remedial college credit courses were entrenched in most colleges.
History of Learning Assistance in the Early to Mid 1880s
As a historian, I have been interested in the history of learning assistance and developmental education. Listening to the rhetoric of today as some argue for the elimination of developmental-level courses, a listener might think that such courses are a recent creation. A careful review of the historical record reveals they have been embedded as part of American higher education since the start. Below is the first of three parts of an examination of the 1800s. These are excerpts from my 2010 book published by Jossey-Bass, "Access at the crossroads: Learning assistance in higher education."
Academic preparation academies emerged during the mid-1800s. These new postsecondary education units provided education equivalent to public high schools, which were not common in most of the United States at the time. Colleges recognized that tutoring as it was being practiced was insufficient to serve the needs of the expanding college student population. Often academies operated in the local community rather than on the college campus. In addition to tutoring, the academies enrolled students in remedial classes in reading, writing, and mathematics. This phase was a short one, as the expansion of public education across the United States replaced the need for many of the new academies. The composition of the student body changed little during this phase. Most students were white males from privileged families. Because most students were involved with learning assistance and from the upper class, little stigma was attached, as it was perceived as a natural part of the education process, a process that was available to so few at the time.
Impact of Jacksonian Democracy
Some historians identified several elements of Jacksonian democracy as affecting U.S. society in the mid-1800s. Whites benefited from the extension of voting privileges, middle-class workers and small shop owners received financial support, and education was extended to more of the population. One application of Jacksonian democracy was expansion of postsecondary education through common schools, public education, and an expanded curriculum for more people in the middle class rather than only the most privileged.
During this time, expansion of postsecondary education was essential to support development of the economic middle class of merchants, tradesman, engineers, agriculturalists, and scientists needed to meet the needs of the growing nation and to support its economic development. This intersection of interests among political progressives and economic forces indirectly supported learning assistance as a means to ensure higher productivity of colleges to graduate sufficient numbers of skilled workers and leaders.
With poor or nonexistent secondary education and even inadequate primary education in some cases, however, many college aspirants could barely read and write (Craig, 1997). The number of those who tutored and the number who received tutorial assistance were nearly identical to the number of teaching faculty and their enrolled students (Brier, 1984), documenting the extensive involvement of learning assistance in postsecondary education. Since the early years, debate has continued about how to meet the needs of admitted college students. Providing tutoring for students was insufficient to meet their needs during this time. More services would emerge.
One option for meeting students’ academic preparation needs was to provide remedial and developmental courses in the institution’s curriculum. Proponents of elitism in postsecondary education prevailed temporarily against that option, however. The fixed college curriculum prescribed the same slate of classical courses for all students, without regard to individual needs for development of improved learning strategies and mastery of fundamental academic content material in mathematics and writing. Thus, academic preparatory academies continued to house remedial and developmental courses.
Intentional Teaching Conference, 05/22/13, Eau Claire, WI
On Wednesday May 22, 2013 th I provided an online presentation for a 2nd annual gathering of Wisconsin college developmental educators and others involved with college student success. The host institution was Chippewa Valley Technical College. The following items were referenced through the keynote and concurrent presentations and may be helpful as the reader explores this topic. Click on the web link to download.
Additional resources are available through a blog page maintained on this topic. The web site contains audio interviews with some peer study group leaders, links to online resources, and links to training programs from nationally-known organizations. Click on the following web link, PALgroups.
2012 OADE Conference Keynote Talk Resources
Greetings,
I have taught history courses for over three decades. It has been a long journey to provide a better learning environment for my students. Universal Learning Design allows me to embed best practices of learning assistance and developmental education inside my classroom. I am responsible for doing my part to support student success rather than just sending students down the hall and across the campus to locate tutoring or study group programs.
It is a delight to share some resources related to my online keynote talk I shared Friday morning. The following items are available to download.
Click on this link for PowerPoint slide handout of the presentation.
Click on this link to download ULD book edited by Higbee and Goff
Take care,
David
2012 MRADE Conference Keynote Talk
Greetings everyone,
Link to the PowerPoint slide handout from the talk.
Link to a directory and web links to online learning technology resources handout from the talk.
It was certainly fun to share with all of you today. Thanks for being my home team.
Take care,
David
Institutional Mission Differentiation, Academic Stratification, and Reduced Access for Historically Underrepresented Students
Bastedo, M. N., & Gumport, P. J. (2003). Access to what? Mission differentiation and academic stratification in U.S. public higher education. Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, 46(3), 341-359. This article analyzes developmental education policy in Massachusetts and New York to examine recent policy decisions regarding the termination of academic programs, elimination of remedial education, promotion of honors colleges within each state system. A result of these policy decisions has been to increase stratification of programs and students within a public state higher education system as well as with individual institutions within the state system. The authors argue that more intense analysis needs to be conducted before systematic changes are made within education systems to avoid or at least forecast major changes in the stratification of student opportunity to attend postsecondary education.
Contextualizing the historic role of learning assistance, those who work in learning assistance programs neither determine admission criteria nor set academic standards (Boylan, 1995a). Admissions officers, administrators, faculty committees, and state higher education executive offices are responsible for those decisions. Once standards are set, however, it is the job of learning assistance faculty and staff to ensure students meet or exceed them. The need for learning assistance was created as soon as the first college opened its doors to those prepared to pass the admissions examination and those who were not. These criteria de facto divided students into two groups: those admitted normally and those admitted provisionally. Provisional students need additional academic assistance and enrichment. As the upcoming history chapter documents, many students attending U.S. colleges in the 1700s and 1800s participated in learning assistance activities before admission as well as throughout their academic career (Boylan and White, 1987; Brier, 1984).
Nearly all institutions historically offered developmental courses. During the past twenty years, eight states have or are in process of eliminating developmental courses at public four-year colleges. At the same time, thirty states rejected similar legislation (Abraham and Creech, 2000). These mixed results indicate that some states are mandating the shift of the courses from public four-year institutions to community colleges (Hankin, 1996). Shifting the developmental courses often occurs at the level of the campus or state system. For example, in Missouri no state legislation required shifting these courses. Three decades ago, the University of Missouri system eliminated the courses. State four-year and two-year institutions informally assumed them.
During the past quarter century, community colleges assumed primary responsibility for vocational programs, workplace literacy, displaced worker retraining, certificate programs, and others. Their primary role of preparing students for transfer to senior institutions expanded. Traditional boundaries between community and technical colleges blurred as costly technical programs were offered at community colleges. These expanded curricular responsibilities required community colleges to invest in more buildings, equipment, and faculty members for expensive high-demand certificate and associate degree programs in response to local needs of citizens and employers. Increased prestige of community colleges and heightened stigma concerning developmental courses led a growing number of community college leaders to reject increased responsibility for them (McGrath and Spear, 1994; Oudenhoven, 2002). Community colleges are placed in a double bind to maintain their traditional open admission access and increase academic standards necessary for the new curricular offerings. Some leaders question how both can be maintained while dealing with a large influx of students needing developmental courses formerly offered at four-year colleges (Perin, 2006).
Some policymakers direct students with academic preparation requiring developmental courses to begin their college career at junior and community colleges. These students might be accepted for transfer to the senior institution if their junior college academic profile warrants. The transfer process from community colleges to senior institutions has numerous challenges. As a result, the students are placed at higher risk for academic failure than those who begin their careers in four-year schools (Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991).
Considerable effort has been made with articulation agreements among two-year and four-year institutions. The transfer process is not transparent, however, and the rate of completing an undergraduate degree is lower for students who begin at a two-year institution than for those beginning at a four-year institution, even when controlling for other variables (Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991). Barriers to success for transfer students include not accepting or requiring them to repeat courses previously completed and the turbulence experienced by students as they move from one academic environment to another. It is common for students to experience academic difficulty and earn lower grade averages as a result at the senior institution (Eggleston and Laanan, 2001).
With institutional resources, including learning assistance, students from a wide range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds can be accepted and supported for academic success. Learning assistance, especially developmental courses, have been significant resources for students of color (Boylan, Bonham, and Bliss, 1994). These services along with other institutional supports increase the likelihood of higher student achievement and persistence toward graduation.
- Abraham, A. A., and Creech, J. D. (2000). Reducing remedial education: What progress are states making? Educational Benchmark 2000 Series. Atlanta: Southern Regional Education Board. Retrieved August 19, 2004, from http://www.sreb.org.
- Boylan, H. R. (1995a). Making the case for developmental education. Research in Developmental Education, 12(2), 1–4.
- Boylan, H. R., and White, W. G., Jr. (1987). Educating all the nation’s people: The historical roots of developmental education. Part I. Review of Research in Developmental Education, 4(4), 1–4.
- Brier, E. (1984). Bridging the academic preparation gap: An historical view. Journal of Developmental Education, 8(1), 2–5.
- Eggleston, L. E., and Laanan, F. S. (2001). Making the transition to the senior institution. In F. S. Laanan (Ed.), Transfer students: Trends and issues. New Directions for Community Colleges, no. 114, pp. 87–97. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- McGrath, D., and Spear, M. B. (1994). The remediation of the community college. In J. L. Ratcliff, S. Schwarz, and L. H. Ebbers (Eds.). Community colleges (pp. 217–228). Need-ham Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster.
- Oudenhoven, B. (2002). Remediation at the community college: Pressing issues, uncertain solutions. In T. H. Bers and H. D. Calhoun (Eds.), New steps for the community college. New Directions for Community Colleges, no. 117. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Pascarella, E. T., and Terenzini, P. T. (1991). How college affects students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
- Perin, D. (2006). Can community colleges protect both access and standards? The problem of remediation. Teachers College Record, 108(3), 339–373.