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Feel free to express any opinion or share any information which you consider pertinent to our project.

• I do think our students work harder in our course than they do in the developmental math course that carries no credit on our campus. It’s anecdotal, but students say why try too hard in the math course since it doesn’t count? I think because it does have credit and is counted in the GPA, they work at it more. Our course used to be pass/not pass, and when we changed to for grade with the option of pass/not pass, I found few of my students wanted the pass/not pass option (only 1 of the several hundred students since the change ever opted for it despite our explaining in detail how to exercise the option), and far fewer students fail the course.
• Even within our same institution (CUNY), the credit status of “remedial” and ESL reading and writing courses varies from college to college.
• Because students don’t get credit for Basic Writing at UTEP, we’ve mainstreamed many BW students into “college-level” writing with a writing workshop that supplements the class. We’ve had a great deal of success with this.
• I wasn’t aware that some institutions charge extra fees for basic writing. My initial reaction is that it doesn’t sound like a good situation; I think it must aggravate the risk that placement in basic writing will seem punitive. Good luck with your project!
• I’m an advocate for keeping Basic/Developmental Writing available on four-year campuses. These aren’t the kind of writers who will benefit from online instruction, nor should their only choice be summer school. I strongly believe that the student who takes Developmental Comp plus the two standard semesters of Comp comes out far ahead of her peers who only took the two standard courses. It’s high time universities treated this course as a benefit for their students rather than a punishment for the “under-prepared.” I’ve conducted research on first-generation students and I believe there’s a new social stratification occurring, where minority and first generation students feel they aren’t welcome on the four-year campus and are therefore choosing community college. Not that there’s anything wrong with community college, it certainly serves an essential role in the community, but if four-years truly value student diversity, it’s about time we act like it.
• We have a pre-100 level reading course. I would like to see equal emphasis on reading and a combined course-more time to work on both. Most of the basic writers are non-readers or reluctant readers who struggle with college texts and essays. Most of the basic readers need more support for their writing. The separation of these areas doesn’t make sense to me.
• This is a difficult issue. Some students just aren’t ready for core curriculum composition (English 101 here) and won’t be ready in just one semester. I don’t like that students take classes in college that don’t count as college classes, and from what I see, it can certainly affect their motivation. I’ll be waiting to see if, through your project, you uncover the solution to this problem!
• I think credit toward graduation would be inappropriate for developmental courses. Even if colleagues recognized the content as sufficiently advanced to earn graduation credit, we all guard our curricular requirements zealously. I can’t picture, for example, science faculty agreeing to drop a lab or math elective from their curricular requirements to make room for developmental credits. Many of our students complete developmental courses not only in writing but in reading and math; some accumulate a semester’s worth of credits just in these courses.
• In a community college with open admissions, the skill level of most students is too low to enroll them in a single “bridge” type class. Beyond that, sporadic enrollment of cc students makes enrolling them in a two-quarter “long” Freshman Comp course impossible. We tried teaching a course that crammed two quarters into one (that is, 10 hours / 10 credits, with one at college level) but that did not work. Too much for them to learn and do in too short a time span. So we seem to be stuck with non-credit courses. The leap-frog component seems to help make the system seem reasonable to students.
• You probably have to see what you get for answers before you can zero in on question 15. You’ll have to get back to the smaller pile of schools that say yes to the fees/credit questions. A thought, however. This class you’re in is apparently preparing grad students to teach BW. Many of the grad students won’t get full-time comp teacher positions, but will be, as I am, adjuncts. The extra fee/credit? Questions are administrative, and administrative/or accreditation questions, rather than things an adjunct can possibly influence or discuss while teaching BW. Other than getting a list of who does what, how will the responses to this survey help the newly-minted adjunct BW instructor who won’t have clout to change things? My guess is that the credit/no credit will go state by state with the Boards of Higher Ed, or the accrediting agencies, including the distance learning people. jan janetwbone@yahoo.com adjunct faculty - not teaching BW at the moment, but ready and willing if assigned. [Include her name and email in wiki?] I’ve got one Eng. 101 for spring 2007, two Eng. 102s for spring 2007, and my beloved writing-for-psychologists grad class.
• Good project—timely and important. I’ll be interested to see your results. Thanks for doing this.