Florida Developmental Education Reform

The FCS institutions plan to redesign instructional strategies, ramp up advising, and provide support services. The institutions generally favor modularized and compressed instruction, with all 28 colleges applying these course structures. Co-requisite instruction is brought into the classroom by 17 of the 28 colleges, but with great variation across the colleges. Contextualized instructional methods are the least favored, with only 7 colleges implementing them in a limited manner. While there is significant variation in the amount of information provided by the individual institutions in their implementation plans, we find that most of the plans reflect established good practices and are consistent with the general guidelines for reform set forth in SB 1720. Moving forward, it will be important to follow up with the colleges to see how they implement their plans and to periodically assess the effect of the changes on students, faculty, staff, and administration.