First Year Experience Courses for Students in Developmental Education: No discernible effects

Program Description

First year experience courses for students in developmental education are designed to ease the transition to college for the large numbers of students in need of developmental (or remedial) education. The aim of these courses is to support the academic performance, social development, persistence, and degree completion of postsecondary students with developmental needs. Although first year experience courses vary in terms of content and focus, most are designed to introduce students to campus resources, provide training in time management and study skills, and address student development issues; for students in developmental courses, the courses are often linked with or taken concurrently with developmental courses.

Effectiveness

Based on the one study that meets WWC group design standards, first year experience courses for students in developmental education were found to have no discernible effects on academic achievement, progress through developmental education, and credit accumulation and persistence for postsecondary students.

Research

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) identified one study of first year experience courses for students in developmental education that both falls within the scope of the Interventions for Developmental Students in Postsecondary Education topic area and meets WWC group design standards. This one study meets WWC group design standards without reservations. This study included 911 freshman college students in developmental education enrolled at one technical community college in the United States.

The WWC considers the extent of evidence for first year experience courses for students in developmental education to be small for three student-level outcome domains—academic achievement, progress through developmental education, and credit accumulation and persistence. There were no studies that meet WWC group design standards in the three other domains specified as eligible in the review protocol, so this intervention report does not report on the effectiveness of first year experience courses for students in developmental education for those domains.