We are Prepared for You: Advancing the Success of Students of Color in Developmental Education through Equity-Minded Institutional Agents at Community Colleges

Abstract

A disproportionate number of students enrolled in developmental education courses are at community colleges and are students of color. Applying critical race theory (CRT) as its theoretical framework, this study explores the racialized institutional structures that affect the experiences of students of color. As institutional structures are formed and maintained by institutional agents, this study focus specifically on how institutional agents’ understandings of developmental education and the experiences of students of color influence the developmental education programs implemented at their college. Using a comparative case study approach, this study completed interviews and focus groups with 43 faculty members, staff members, and administrators across three community colleges. Applying a conceptual framework that connects Bensimon’s minority student success paradigm and Barhoum’s developmental education promising practices techniques, the findings from this study suggest the beliefs of institutional agents about developmental education and about students of color experiences can affect how they and their colleges allocate resources and implement reforms in the areas of structural changes, curricular designs, and professional development for course placement and developmental education programming. Institutional agents also face challenges that can prohibit how they and their colleges advance their developmental education reforms. The study offers a model for equity-minded college developmental education reforms and provides theoretical, practical, and policy implications for postsecondary and community college leaders, educators, researchers, and policymakers.