Methodology Meets Context: An Evaluation of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) at a Midwest Community College

In the past decade, increasingly public scrutiny of higher education has led to intensified discussions of effectiveness and accountability. During this time, an internal interrogation has taken place in composition about the nature and pedagogy of the basic writing field. The result of both discussions is pressure to reform basic writing to ensure more students success. Developed at Baltimore Community College, the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) meets challenges from both external and internal discourses to improve student success in developing writers.
This dissertation will engage the multiple overlapping audiences who have a vested stake in changes in developmental education through an evaluation of the ALP program at a Midwest Community College (MWCC). Multilayered audiences have shaped a mixed method approach to this evaluation. Raw data from all students involved in the program was compared to raw data of students who participated in the more traditional two-class sequence of developmental English. A statistical analysis was applied to determine of the differences in frequency revealed by the raw data were statistically significant. Finally, the qualitative portion of the evaluation employed student interviews to explore how students developed as writers and thinkers beyond the information provided by the quantitative analysis.
Findings indicate that ALP students generally pass their courses, including three social science courses, at a higher frequency than their peers who moved through the more traditional developmental English pathway. However, only the difference in frequency in
passing the developmental section was statistically significant. This result may be due to the small numbers included in the study because the ALP program during this period was a pilot. The qualitative section revealed that ALP students felt confident about their writing following the program and demonstrated persistence as they moved into later English courses and other classes at the college level. Overall, despite the statistical analysis, the study supports the expansion of ALP at MWCC because it provides benefits to students beyond what the previous model offered.