constituent groups on campus to improve the quality of education. (Link to SummerInstituteFinalCompleteReport_pp8-9.pdf)

As a response, in part, to that assessment, and to other recommendations in the report, the university President, Dr. Mary Sias, commissioned two committees in 2006: the Developmental Education Committee (DEC) and the Student Success and Retention Task Force (SSRTF). Comprised of faculty, professional support staff, deans, and administrators, each group was charged with investigating critical functions of the University relating to its educational mission. The SSRTF addressed "all the current retention efforts with an eye to enhancement and making recommendations for the implementation of new efforts." (Link to Final Draft-Student Success Taskforce Report_p3.pdf) The purpose of the DEC was "to address the need for coordination in KSU's developmental education as a priority area on which to focus as part of a general overall enhancement of support for students to succeed." (Link to Report of the Developmental Education Committee 12-11-06_p2.pdf) Both reports greatly facilitated discussions of the joint QEP Committees, particularly the report of the DEC. (Link to Joint_minutes_10-02-2007.pdf) The findings and recommendations in those documents reinforced what had been said in earlier discussions involving faculty, staff, and students, in the white papers, and reports of other campus groups on issues pertaining to student learning.

For the purposes of QEP topic discussion on developmental education, the joint QEP Committees borrowed the language from the DEC Report: “developmental education refers to the courses, programs, and services provided for under-prepared college students to help them achieve their academic, personal and career goals. Under-prepared students are those who need to develop their cognitive and affective abilities in order to succeed in a program of post-secondary education. Developmental education is most effective when implemented in either a centralized or highly coordinated decentralized system of proactive and collaborative strategies designed to ‘help under-prepared students prepare, prepared students advance, and advanced students excel’” (National Association of Developmental Education). (Link to NADE_Purpose of DevEd_2008.pdf) (Link to NADA_DevEd_Goals.pdf)

The DEC report noted that KSU offers remediation in three areas—reading, writing, and mathematics—but it does not have a developmental program coordinated by a single division or administrator. The Division of Mathematics and Sciences oversees its developmental mathematics classes and their in-house optional mathematics placement test, and the Division of Literature, Languages, and Philosophy oversees the writing and reading developmental classes. Faculty are chosen from each division, and adjuncts are hired each semester to staff the remaining sections of developmental classes. In 2006, seven faculty members were hired specifically to teach developmental courses, four in English and three in Mathematics, in addition to faculty who currently teach those courses. (Link to Report of the Developmental Education Committee 12-11-06_p8.pdf) The University hired a new Director of Developmental Education in January 2009 to enhance and coordinate its efforts in Developmental Education. The University is currently in the process of hiring additional full-time faculty to teach in the program. The following classes are considered developmental at KSU for native English speakers: (Link to Catalogue_2007-2008_p23.pdf)

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