New developmental rules less rigid
by Rawly Bransom
editor-in-chief

   Developmental students at TCC received a little extra breathing room this semester.
   In 2003 the Texas Legislature changed its policies toward developmental students.
   The old policy, TASP, had strict and rigid guidelines about when remediation should occur, used a set test and established how the student could demonstrate remediation was complete.
   The new policy, Success Initiative, allows schools to be flexible about timelines for remediation, the form it will take and the testing instruments used.
   “ Faculty, administrators, testing coordinators and counselors have reviewed our Success Initiative plan,” Dr. Tahita Fulkerson, TCC dean of instruction and accreditation services, said. “The cabinet has approved it, and the plan has been mailed to the Texas Higher Education Coordination Board as required.”
   TCC chose Accuplacer, which some students may already have taken, as its placement test. Accuplacer is a computerized test that students can walk in and take anytime and receive immediate results. THEA was done on pencil and paper, had to be scheduled and was sent to Austin for grading.
   “ Students who passed TASP prior to the fall 2003 semester are exempt from Texas Success Initiative requirements including testing,” Jo Bagley, dean of instruction on South Campus, said.
   Bagley also said that any student who transferred from an out-of-state or private institution with at least three credits is also exempt from Success Initiative requirements as long as that was the last school the student attended.
   The cost for Accuplacer is $29 for each administration of the test. The first retest can be taken at anytime, but for any needed follow-up testing must wait 30-days between tries.
   Some students exempt from the Success Initiative may also have to take Accuplacer for placement into advanced courses and programs.
   “ In addition to being the testing instrument used for the Texas Success Initiative,    Accuplacer is also used to determine course placement for certain non-developmental courses,” Bagley said.
   THEA will still be around and will continue to be used for individuals trying to receive teaching certificates.
   Testing is not the only area in which changes have occurred. Under TASP, students who failed an area of the test were forced immediately into developmental courses.
   Under the Success Initiative, a student may delay developmental courses for one long-term semester to allow for retesting and to give the student a chance to take other courses of interest.
   The exception to that rule is if a student fails all of the areas of the test. Then he must enroll in reading during his first semester at TCC.
   However, unlike TASP, retesting is not mandatory. At the completion of a developmental course students who pass the course with a C are considered done with remediation and need no further testing.
   Still the lack of requirements for remediation may hurt enrollment in those classes.
   “ On South Campus, the enrollment in Spring 2004 developmental courses dropped 26 percent from Spring 2003,” Bagley said.
   The college has given the college flexibility to allow for changes to curb problems that may arise because of enrollment procedures.
   “ Changes will be made as necessary to allow TCC to meet the goal of preparing for success in collegiate transfer courses,” Fulkerson said.