Structure and Organization of Developmental Education

The purpose of Developmental Education courses is to provide instruction to help students succeed in college.  In meeting this purpose Austin Community College will administer a high quality and accountable Developmental Education program through its established instructional organizational structure.

The Associate Vice President for Academic Programs will provide overall leadership for the programs of Developmental Education at the College.  The Associate Vice President for Academic Programs shall be responsible for implementation of the Developmental Education Plan approved by the Board of Trustees and submitted to the THECB and for monitoring compliance with administrative rules applicable to developmental education activities.

• At least twice during the Fall and Spring semesters and once during the summer semester, the Department Chairs of Developmental Communications, Communications, Mathematics, and Foreign Languages, and their respective Deans, the Associate Vice President for Student Services and Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness will meet with the Associate Vice President of Academic Programs to review progress on meeting the college’s Developmental Education Plan.
• Each department will meet separately and shall review goals, objectives, outcome measures and outcome results associated with the developmental courses for which the department responsible.
• Both the Communications and Developmental Communications Departments will have crossover membership. Faculty plan jointly and provide a link between remedial courses and college level courses to ensure students are prepared with skills and knowledge to succeed in subsequent college level coursework. These joint curriculum-planning sessions will produce common entry and exit level course criteria, departmental examinations, and formalized curricular reviews and modification to the curriculum.
• The departments establish prerequisites and performance standards for courses based on research, which identifies the relationship between test scores and performance in ACC classes, and best practices at community colleges at the state and national levels. The department must submit any changes in performance standards to the Assessment and Advising Committee then to the Academic Affairs Council by February of each year.  Council members review the proposed changes and supporting documentation in March and make a recommendation to the Executive Vice President for Instructional Affairs.  If the Executive Vice President accepts the recommendation, the College implements the performance standards at the beginning of the next academic year.
• All faculty whose work is substantially impacted by developmental courses must be included in a continuing review of their goals, objectives, outcome measures and outcome results. It is intended that input be received from faculty for whose courses developmental students are being prepared.
• The faculty who teach developmental education courses will review the results of the evaluation results and outcome measures regularly in their departmental governance committees and use results to drive appropriate changes.

The results will drive immediate (section counts, syllabi changes, instructor training, programmatic improvements) and long-term analyses (updating the strategic plan, developing the budget for the next year, requesting additional personnel, eliminating or modifying a teaching approach or strategy).