| The United States used to be in first place in the percentage of adults with college degrees. When the U.S. Department of Education (2011) reported that the United States was currently in 16th place, President Obama challenged America to increase the number of college graduates to eight million by 2020 (The White House, 2010). Standing in the way of college graduation for many, though, is a lengthy stay in developmental courses. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's response to the president's challenge was the passage of Rider 59, which mandates innovative approaches to developmental education in hopes of accelerating student success. Rider 59 requires that all Texas public colleges and universities offer alternatives to the way developmental education is delivered. The intervention of this study was the design and implementation of a creative, non-traditional course option for developmental mathematics students at a medium-size community college in Texas. The study covers a process that involved collaboration among stakeholders in the design of the program and a thematic analysis of the qualitative data gleaned from the communication that occurred during the various stages of the process. The intervention followed the development of an alternative, non-traditional, self-paced developmental mathematics program designed to assist students in becoming TSI complete more rapidly than the traditional program allows. The author noted the elements and theories utilized by the course designers as they worked to create a course option that would benefit the organization's students, function within the organization's resources, and fulfill all legislative requirements. |
