Developmental Education Reform as a Civil Rights Agenda: Recent History & Future Directions for California

Efforts to strengthen the pipeline to college degree completion have focused on improving college access and providing academic, social, and financial supports to students post-enrollment. This paper from UCLA’s Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles examines one facet of postsecondary education that has served as a barrier to both college access and success: developmental education. Though intended as a remedy to unequal pre-college academic experiences, developmental education has proven instead to exacerbate racial inequities in academic progress in higher education and has effectively decreased college access for low-income students and students of color. The authors describe the research that prompted developmental education reform approaches nationally and in California, explore the efforts in California that led to the passing of Assembly Bill 705, summarize research on its implementation and outcomes, and discuss the implications of this research for improving postsecondary access and success for Black and Hispanic students and English learners. Building on analysis of the research, the paper concludes with five key practice and policy recommendations for California community college leaders as they move toward realizing a civil rights agenda for college access and success in the next 25 years:

Address faculty and practitioners’ beliefs.
Move from structural to instructional reform.
Improve data accessibility, reporting, and accountability.
Expand equitable college access opportunities for students in high school.
Address barriers facing English learners.