Overview of the National Landscape for Developmental Education Improvement: Testimony Before the Texas Senate Higher Education Committee

"There is broad consensus among states, national funders, and the social policy community that better outcomes for students who test into developmental education can dramatically improve community college completion rates," according to Michael Collins's prepared statement to the Texas State Senate in June 2010.

"This is evident in states’ financial support for developmental education innovation such as Texas’s multi-million-dollar appropriation in the last legislative session and the Gates Foundation’s investment of over $100 million to improve outcomes in developmental education so that more young people graduate with a postsecondary credential that has labor market value. Improved outcomes in developmental education are also directly relevant to the Obama Administration’s goal of graduating 5 million more Americans by 2020."

Collins outlines both the factors influencing the need for developmental education and promising strategies for improving these programs and, in some cases, preventing the need for them.

Michael Collins co-leads the national policy efforts of Achieving the Dream and the Developmental Education Initiative—two national initiatives designed to increase the success of students in our nation’s community colleges.