Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Administrative and Instructional Leadership

First Advisor

Richard Bernato

Second Advisor

Ceceilia Parnther

Third Advisor

Stephen Kotok

Abstract

A significant number of students enter community colleges with developmental education (DE) needs in reading, writing, and mathematics. Many of these students are typically referred to more than one level of DE courses before they can enroll in a college-level course. This has led to lower than desired success rate of DE students over the years. As administrators look for ways to improve DE student outcomes, many institutions have now adopted the corequisite model on account of results of several quantitative studies, which reveal high success rates of DE students enrolled in corequisite courses. With the corequisite model being widely accepted across different states, it is important to understand how the model promotes the academic success of students, specifically from the students’ perspectives. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the experiences of (DE) students enrolled in a corequisite course at an urban community college in New York State. The study also examined the factors that facilitated or impeded their academic success in the corequisite course. For this study, academic success is defined by a student who successfully completes the DE course with a grade of P and successfully pass the gateway course with a grade of A, B, C, or D, and enroll in the subsequent semester. Participants included a purposeful sample of eight students who completed a math or English corequisite course in fall 2021 and re-enrolled in spring 2022, as well as two faculty members who have taught DE courses for more than ten years. The researcher conducted virtual semi-structured individual interviews and focus group interview, and reviewed relevant documents. The data analysis employed inductive coding which provided themes and sub-themes interpreted through the theoretical lens of Student Integration, (Tinto,1993) and Student Involvement (Astin, 1999). The findings from this study contribute to the expansion of the literature reviewed and have significant implications for DE policy and practice.

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