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ABSTRACT: Many high school students enter college without the necessary reading, writing, and math skills and therefore must enroll in developmental courses (Barnett, 2018). To increase college readiness among entering students, one state encouraged community colleges to partner with local high schools to bring the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), which has been successful at the community college level, to the high school population. In this approach, high school students who are not yet college-ready take a college-level English and/or math class while also receiving support, often in the form of supplemental instruction. Results are promising with a 66% overall success rate.
Developmental education and college readiness are topics being discussed by community college leaders across the nation. Too many students are graduating high school not yet prepared for the academic expectations of college courses (Barnett, 2018; Chen & Simone, 2016). To address this issue, Peter Adams and colleagues at the Community College of Baltimore County developed Accelerated Learning Programs (ALP). ALPs offer not-yet college-ready students the opportunity to take credit-bearing courses in English and/or math while also receiving high levels ofacademic supplemental support (What is ALP?, n.d.). Researchers investigating the effectiveness of this approach have found that ALP works well for students who initially placed into the highest level of developmental courses (Atkins & Beggs, 2017; Cho, Kopko, Jenkins, & Smith-Jaggars, 2012; Míreles, Acee, & Gerber, 2014).
The ALP model has led to significant developmental education reform efforts across the nation (Coleman, 2014). Despite success at the college-level, there is no evidence in the literature that this innovative approach has been implemented with high school students. Assisting students with developing academic skills before graduating from high school is essential. If students enter college without these academic skills, they will need to take courses that do not count toward graduation and this will increase debt and time toward graduation (Bailey, 2009). The rationale for implementing the ALP approach with high school students and promising data from a statewide grant-funded initiative will be shared.
Review of the Literature
The College Readiness Problem
Inadequate preparation for college-level coursework is a major challenge for postsecondary institutions across the U.S. The numbers are staggering as nearly two-thirds of those entering community colleges and 40% of those entering four-year institutions...