Student Achievement
Developmental Education
Establishing preparatory skill development in mathematics, reading, and English is a crucial part of the mission of NWACC. Developmental education is crucial, in part, because so many students come to NWACC without the academic skills needed to succeed in college level courses (see the numbers). Developmental education is also crucial because it provides under-prepared students an opportunity to pursue a college education. NWACC requires each beginning college student to take (or provide) test scores assessing their academic skill level. If their scores indicate that they are not ready to for college level courses, they can enroll in the appropriate level academic skills course to develop needed academic skills. Without this program, students would either be turned away from higher education or put in a position to fail college courses.
The intended outcome for the academic skills program is straightforward.
Students who complete academic skills courses will succeed comparably with students who place into college level courses directly.
The assessment plan calls for tracking the performance of developmental students in college level courses and compare it to the performance of students whose test scores place them in the college level course directly. Student success is defined as earning a A, B or C in the college level course (withdrawals are not considered in this assessment to eliminate the external factors that influence student retention). Since there are three disciplines in academic skills, three types of comparisons are performed. Click on the discipline to see five year trends of student achievement:
The table below shows how many students' test scores placed them into developmental courses:
| Fall of |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
| Number of Beginning Students |
1018 |
941 |
996 |
1063 |
1029 |
| Needing Math developmental work |
70% |
80% |
76% |
75% |
73% |
| Needing Writing developmental work |
63% |
54% |
49% |
46% |
45% |
| Needing Reading developmental work |
28% |
42% |
36% |
37% |
37% |
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Reading
The success of students in reading Intensive courses: Western Civilization; Psychology, Sociology, Biology, History, Accounting
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Writing
Success of students enrolled in English Composition I
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Math
Success of students enrolled in college algebra
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This page was last updated on: December 21, 2009 @ 8:51 am
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