At the colleges and universities of Minnesota State, developmental education programs include an integrated series of precollege-level courses and academic support services and interventions designed to develop students’ skills and prepare them for college-level coursework. Minnesota State recognizes our responsibility to reimagine how students are placed into developmental or college-level courses, as well as how students can successfully complete required developmental-level courses and subsequent college-level gateway courses, enabling them to be on-track in the first year of pursuing their academic program.
The work within and around developmental education is overseen by the Developmental Education Steering Committee, which is comprised of students, faculty, staff, and administrators from across the system. The goal of this committee is to identify equitable best practices for developmental education and address the educational needs of incoming students who require more basic developmental work. In addition, the committee makes recommendations for action and provides oversight, monitors progress, and supports the implementation of the Developmental Education Strategic Roadmap.
Minnesota State colleges and universities strive to improve student success in developmental education by strengthening evaluation and continuous improvement efforts. This includes clearly identifying appropriate measures and metrics that campuses and the system are accountable for relative to developmental education; supporting data-driven decision making and program development; supporting program evaluation and continuous improvement, and; promoting the successes of campuses and programs and keep our focus on what is working.
To aid in these efforts, the Academic and Student Affairs Division prepares a variety of reports that include elements related to developmental education. These reports are available under the “Reports” section of the Academic and Student Affairs home page. Each campus can also access local measures and success data through their college or university research staff.
To advance the system’s collective work around developmental education, a systemwide workgroup of faculty, staff, and administrators convened in the 2016-2017 academic year to develop a strategic roadmap for developmental education redesign The strategic goals and action items of this developmental education strategic roadmap (DESR) were based on national evidence-based principles and practices and based on best practices that have been implemented across Minnesota State campuses that have shown measurable results. Between April 2017 and November 2017, campus stakeholders provided input on two drafts of the DESR. This final Minnesota State DESR provides our “roadmap” for the next four years (2018-2021). The purpose of this DESR is to guide our systemwide work on developmental education redesign with clearly identified strategic goals, key action steps, targeted timelines for implementation, and measurable outcomes.
The strategic goal areas are as follows:
To view the full report completed in January 2018, click here.
In support of the DESR, systems-level and systemwide work has also taken steps to support developmental education programs. Faculty developmental education Shared Learner Outcomes Committees were tasked to develop and submit recommendations of specific competencies and student learner outcomes to be mastered for ‘college and career readiness standards’ for English, reading, mathematics, and ESL; to make specific recommendations regarding how to promote seamless transition and transfer of developmental curriculum across our system; and to make specific recommendations on how to work with K-12 school districts on specific strategies for aligned competencies, student learner outcomes and targeted interventions to promote college readiness benchmarks while students are still in high school. The final reports of these Shared Learner Outcomes Committees:
Update: Note that the shared learner outcomes in mathematics, reading, and English are currently undergoing revision with a target release date of May 2019. The updated SLO reports will be posted here once available
An essential component of the Developmental Education Strategic Roadmap is improving the accuracy of course placement by implementing a multiple measures placement program at all colleges and universities. This includes:
Additional information related to academic readiness and course placement can be found here. [new academic readiness page link here].
One of the goals of the Developmental Education Strategic Roadmap is to improve student success in developmental education by expanding and strengthening professional development for faculty, staff, and administrators. To advance this goal, Minnesota State partners with organizations like the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Developmental Education (NADE) to convene faculty from across the system to facilitate professional development, highlight proven and emerging practices, support implementation of the DESR, and report student outcomes.
Satasha Green-Stephen
Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs
satasha.green@minnstate.edu
Greg Rathert
System Director of P-20 and College Readiness
greg.rathert@minnstate.edu
Jessica Espinosa
Director of College Transitions
jessica.espinosa@minnstate.edu
Nicole Merz
Project Manager, Developmental Education
nicole.merz@minnstate.edu