Content area
The purpose of this study was to investigate effective developmental programs in community colleges. More research is needed to provide educational practitioners with relevant data to make decisions, which impact developmental programs. This study supplies community colleges decision-makers with data that relate to positive student outcomes. This data should help community colleges implement effective developmental programs, or to refine or reorganize existing ones. The lack of research in developmental education is a major concern for community colleges in America because there is a need to identify and validate its effectiveness.
The overall objective of this study was to examine centralized and decentralized developmental programs in Mississippi and Alabama to determine those factors that contribute to academic and career success. To make the comparison, the researcher used archival data from two decentralized developmental programs and two centralized developmental programs.
As previously stated, the primary focus of the study was to examine both type of developmental programs for effectiveness as related to student outcomes, which were identified as grade point average (GPA), retention, transfer, graduation, completion of certificate or diploma, and employment. The results of the study revealed that there is no statistical significant difference in centralized and decentralized developmental programs in Mississippi and Alabama community colleges. However, there were some aspects of each program that affected students differently. These aspects are noteworthy for structuring effective developmental programs, whether centralized or decentralized.