Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Shannon I. Decker

Abstract

Midwest Community College (a pseudonym) students who do not score high enough in reading and writing on an assessment must take an integrated reading and writing (IRW) developmental English (DEng) course. The college transitioned most of its IRW courses from stand-alone courses, grounded in Vygotsky’s scaffolding concept where students first take IRW and then the first-semester English course (ENGL 100), to a corequisite model, grounded in a modification of Tinto’s theory of persistence, in which students take the IRW course concurrently with ENGL 100. Even with the corequisite model, too many students are not passing ENGL 100. The purpose of this study was to examine the difference in ENGL 100 completion (passing/failing) and persistence (enrolling/not enrolling) between first-time DEng students who took the IRW course in either the stand-alone or the corequisite model. In this quantitative ex post facto comparative study, 2 chi-square tests on archival completion and persistence rates of 1,247 students were calculated. Stand-alone students had significantly higher completion rates at 69% (x2 = 4.403 with p = .036). The corequisite completion rate was 57%. There was no association between the two models and persistence with 87% of the students in the corequisite persisting and 86% of the stand-alone students persisting (x2 = .026 with p = .871). A policy paper presented the results and conclusion that the college should not place IRW students in the corequisite model without further investigation of the support needed. Implications for social change include increasing the number of students who pass ENGL 100, which could lead to higher graduation rates because reading and writing skills are fundamental for college success. College graduates earn more income and provide their communities with a skilled workforce.

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