Assessing developmental assessment in community colleges

Most community college students begin their college careers at an assessment center, taking exams to test their proficiency in math, reading, and sometimes writing—and for most, the consequence of assessment is placement into developmental education. More than half of community college students enroll in at least one remedial course, and many additional students are assigned to remediation but never enroll (Bailey, 2009; Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2010). Despite its ubiquity, the benefits of remediation (or “developmental education”; we use these terms interchangeably) are unclear. A number of recent studies with sophisticated designs have found little evidence that remediation has positive effects on student outcomes. This could mean that remedial instruction is ineffective—or it could mean that assessments fail to identify which student