FIPSE/DEP I

Developmental Education Programs:
Making the Core a Reality for Disadvantaged Students

Goals

1. To revise the Departments' basic skills curriculum to meet the demands of the College's mission and University's goals by using the best research and practices available. Thus, a curriculum was developed using a coherent approach integrating core curriculum materials, multicultural approaches, and critical inquiry to address the persistent problems of underpreparation, general education and multiculturalism.
2. To develop a model of the curriculum process that faculty at other colleges and universities can use to provide for seamless transitions for their students from developmental education to the core curriculum or other general education requirements.

Objectives

1. To establish units of theme-centered multicultural readings appropriate for preparation in the core curriculum of Brooklyn College.
2. To train and develop a cadre of faculty leaders for the critical inquiry approach.
3. To develop a bank of illustrative materials and video tapes using the materials and approaches developed to pilot the curriculum on ten classes of developmental students.
4. To develop a model of a curriculum process that links developmental and core curricula that can be shared with other colleges and universities.
5. To share the model and the curriculum and train faculty at the sixteen other branches of the City University of New York in this curricular approach.
6. To examine the success of students who use these approaches in their transitional and core curriculum classes.