Diving Into the Deep End (Policy Brief)

In 2013 the state of Florida passed Senate Bill 1720 (SB 1720) which dramatically reshaped developmental education (DE) for the 28 Florida College System (FCS) institutions. The legislation categorized students who entered a traditional Florida public high school in 2003-2004 and graduated with a standard diploma in 2007 or later and active-duty military personnel as exempt, which allows these students to bypass DE placement tests and DE coursework, if they so choose. The legislation also required colleges to offer admission counseling to all incoming students and DE courses in different instructional modalities: modularized, compressed, contextualized, and co-requisite. During the spring semester of 2015, The Center for Postsecondary Success (CPS) research team conducted a survey of high-level administrators across the FCS. The present study serves as the first quantitative point of contact with college leaders since the implementation of the SB 1720. The goal of the study is to examine how administrators assessed their implementation and initial effects of the legislation. The following research questions guide our analyses for this brief: 1. How do administrators describe the initial implementation of revised DE courses, academic advising, and student support services as they align to their institutional plan? 2. How do administrators assess the initial impacts of SB 1720 at their institution? 3. How do institutions group together based on their DE curriculum structure, academic advising practices, and student support services? Our analyses revealed several overarching findings that reflect the significance of the legislation and the impacts it has had on colleges throughout the FCS. Our results highlight the difficult challenges involved with implementing the reform and how institutions have addressed and overcome these challenges. Our key findings include: 1. Overall, compressed and modularized courses were the most commonly used of the four instructional modalities. 2. Although DE has increasingly relied on technology, some respondents expressed concern regarding access, effectiveness, and student use. 3. Because colleges can no longer exclusively use Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) scores as their DE placement tool, institutions have relied on other advising tools, techniques, and predictive models to assist the advising process. 4. Institutions show somewhat different patterns in developmental education curriculum structure, academic advising, and student support services, which lead to distinct groups in institutional responses and practices in developmental education implementation. 5. Despite challenges and tempered agreement that implementing their institutional plan resulted in positive outcomes, institutions reported many positive changes occurring across their institutions.