Thoughts on Reading "Developmental Education", Ed. Boylan/Bonham

It continues to astonish me that America's universities have the global stature that they do and achieve so much given the quirks of the enterprise. That's especially true after some introductory reading in Developmental Education (Ed. Boylan/Bonham). America was built on a foundation of free public education, but it seems the educational aspiration of the new nation then, and now, didn't go much beyond the most basic of educations. I think if there were more true value placed on even a high school education, we would have better support for education at all levels.

In Developmental Education, I learned of the messy birth of American institutions of higher learning--never the responsibility of the federal government, created for a variety of purposes over the past three and a half centuries, and always scrambling for funds. It's pretty much the American system in a microcosm. A positive view is that this model of variety and hustling to stay alive is actually productive and demands creativity. But as in other arenas of American life, there are steady populations of educational winners and losers. The broad area of developmental education addresses the yawning needs of the less fortunate.

Developmental Education provides a fascinating history of assistance to perform college-level work. It is eye-opening to learn that "we have had developmental education programs in one form or another since the beginnings of American higher education” (1). Harvard's first class, entering in 1636, required a significant level of assistance to fulfill the requirements in Greek and Latin. The expansion of post-secondary education to meet the technical needs of the Industrial Revolution, spurred on by land-grant acts, increased the numbers of students who needed help doing college work. In fact,  “…as our nation’s postsecondary education system has become more egalitarian, every new group to attain entry has entered without being deemed fully college ready” (2). The successive waves of new students have included women, the children of the laboring classes, returning G-I's from various wars, African-Americans, and today's "new college student"--the poor of all ethnicities, single mothers, displaced workers, immigrants, and adult learners.

The four historical chapters in Part 1 of Developmental Education flesh out the various factors that have made the lack of preparedness for college a persistent feature of American education. They also detail the various programs that have been devised to close the gap and the current assumption "that remedial courses [need] to be accompanied by a variety of student support services" (59). The sweeping research summary in "Remedial Education in Colleges and Universities: What's Really Going On?" provides useful facts and resources. But the fact that this paper from the year 2000 was the freshest compilation of studies available to the editors in 2014 indicates the need for more fact-based studies in the field.

The readings in Developmental Education argue that there has never been a time when students all arrived at college ready to do the work and that there should be no stigma attached to needing or providing the extra help some need. And because it is to be hoped that America will continue to meet its promise of ever-widening access to education and the benefits of a free society, the need to provide extra help to the unprepared should likewise be embraced and sustained. 

Thank You Letter to Reggie Blackwell

160 Covent Ave.

City College of New York

New York, NY 10031

Reggie Blackwell

160 Covent Ave.

City College of New York

New York, NY 10031

Dear Reggie:

Thank you very much for returning to City College and sharing your story with us in Barbara Gleason’s “Basic Writing” class. Your journey is a refreshing reminder of the many intelligences with which people are blessed and of the many ways in which one can be educated. But it’s your formal academic achievement, after such a long gap in schooling, that is truly remarkable.

You credit the master's degree you recently earned with qualifying you for the new counseling position you have accepted. The reward for all that hard work is a job that you clearly enjoy and that gives you great satisfaction in helping others. It’s also clear that in pursuing your formal education, you benefited by having people in your life who helped you, especially your wife, but also teachers like Barbara. It’s wonderful that there were—and are--programs for students like you, who are out of school for a long time before returning and who may come back with a deficit of academic skills. Such developmental programs respect what their adult students have achieved outside the classroom and accommodate the realities and responsibilities of their lives. The best of them provide both academic advising and social supports, too, a combination I’m sure you, both in your life and in your profession as a social worker, have witnessed and endorsed. But even with welcoming and flexible programs like the ones you found at CUNY, it took tenacity and perseverance and, I imagine, some measure of faith that you could succeed, to make it work for you.

Those traits and more are evident in your story, “Snake Hunter.” Aside from just being a good read, it reveals that even as a child you had a keen awareness of the world around you, a sense of order and method, and that you were a champion. I’m so happy you never lost those qualities and that your triumphs have continued.

 It was a pleasure meeting you. Best of luck in your new job and in all your adventures on the road ahead.

 Sincerely,

 Karen Mooney