Womack, Pamela Carlton (2018-05). Too Much, Too Fast! An Investigation of Practitioners' Perspectives and Experiences of the Planning, Implementation, and Assessment of the 2010-2011 Texas Success Initiative. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
Developmental Education is the gateway to higher education for the thousands of students who desire to attend college but lack the prerequisite academic skills to be successful. In recent years, DE has been cast into unfavorable light by national policy organizations composed of wealthy entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and the result has been a groundswell of public opinion that Developmental Education does more harm than good (Boylan, Levine, & Anthony, 2017). A group of Texas Legislators decided to "take the bull by the horns" and solve the perceived problem. The result was the 2010-2011 Texas Success Initiative, which mandated sweeping changes in Developmental Education in Texas. The purpose of this study was to investigate Texas Developmental Education practitioner's perspectives and experiences of the planning, implementation, and assessment of the changes mandated by the 2010-2011 Texas Success Initiative. This study was a Naturalistic Inquiry case study. The primary forms of data that were gathered included audio recorded semi-structured interviews and public and private documents. The interview recordings were transcribed, analyzed, and sorted into thematic groups. A model for effectively implementing innovative change in an organizational setting was utilized as a conceptual framework for this investigation. The participants in this study gave thoughtful, candid responses to the questions, supplying perspectives from many different roles, different types of institutions, and different disciplinary fields and a wide range of demographics in regard to gender, age, ethnicity, and educational background. The findings are organized according to the sequential stages of change initiatives, which are planning, implementation, and assessment, with focus on the strengths and weaknesses at each stage of the process.
Developmental Education is the gateway to higher education for the thousands of students who desire to attend college but lack the prerequisite academic skills to be successful. In recent years, DE has been cast into unfavorable light by national policy organizations composed of wealthy entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and the result has been a groundswell of public opinion that Developmental Education does more harm than good (Boylan, Levine, & Anthony, 2017). A group of Texas Legislators decided to "take the bull by the horns" and solve the perceived problem. The result was the 2010-2011 Texas Success Initiative, which mandated sweeping changes in Developmental Education in Texas. The purpose of this study was to investigate Texas Developmental Education practitioner's perspectives and experiences of the planning, implementation, and assessment of the changes mandated by the 2010-2011 Texas Success Initiative. This study was a Naturalistic Inquiry case study. The primary forms of data that were gathered included audio recorded semi-structured interviews and public and private documents. The interview recordings were transcribed, analyzed, and sorted into thematic groups. A model for effectively implementing innovative change in an organizational setting was utilized as a conceptual framework for this investigation. The participants in this study gave thoughtful, candid responses to the questions, supplying perspectives from many different roles, different types of institutions, and different disciplinary fields and a wide range of demographics in regard to gender, age, ethnicity, and educational background. The findings are organized according to the sequential stages of change initiatives, which are planning, implementation, and assessment, with focus on the strengths and weaknesses at each stage of the process.
