NEWS
May 2016
Volume 38 | Issue 1 | nade.net
Reflections
Past President Gwenn Eldridge
It has been my pleasure for the past year to serve as president of the NADE Executive Board. The past year has
been one of building connections. The board has worked to created and expand on partnerships with a number of
organizations, including those with whom we have traditionally partnered as well as new relationships that we
believe will strengthen the organization. The year culminated in our 2016 Conference in Anaheim, which
highlighted that great work that you are all doing. Many thanks to our outstanding conference team led by Donna
Cooper, Stephanie Collier and Susan Jenson.
Our current board members—President Robin Ozz, President-Elect Deborah Daiek, Vice President Annette Cook,
Treasurer Patrick Saxon, and Secretary Meredith Sides—are working to create even more exciting connections and
initiatives. They are working to improve communication with NADE members and friends, strengthen services to
the chapters, enhance our web presence and our social networking, and develop important partnerships.
Part of the effort to improve communication will come in our producing NADE News monthly. Watch for it in your
inbox at the first of each month. The focus will be on news and on celebrating advancements in developmental
education that are taking place across the country. Please send your news to geldridge6@ivytech.edu.
Call for Nominations | NADE Executive Board Treasurer
The NADE Executive Board is issuing a call for nominations for officers who will serve on the board beginning
March 2017. The position to be filled is for treasurer. The individual elected to the position will be installed at the
2017 NADE Conference for this two-year position.
The executive board welcomes and is actively soliciting nominations from NADE chapters and from individual
NADE members. Nominees should be aware of and willing to pursue nomination for a specific position. The
Election Committee will submit all nominees, along with their professional resumes, and recommendations to the
executive board. The board will then review the names and information submitted, the Election Committee
recommendations, and determine the slate for the ballot. The Election Committee will present to the membership
the final list of candidates in electronic ballot form.
See nade.net for detailed information and the treasurer position description.
Send nominations to Elisa Cohen, NADE Elections Committee chair, escohen@hacc.edu.
Please note that the deadline for nominations is Sept. 15, 2016.
Call to summer conference!
1st Annual McCabe Conference
Yes, We (Still) Can! Equity and Access within Reform
Sponsored by NADE and NACTC | July 27, 2016 | Cleveland, Ohio
Uri Treisman, keynote speaker
Uri Treisman, director of the Charles Dana Center at UT Austin, MacArthur Fellow, mathematics genius, mathways
guru, advocate of equity and access, and colleague of Dr. Bob McCabe will be the keynote speaker at the 1st
Annual McCabe Developmental Education Conference.
This conference is a joint effort of NADE and the National Alliance of Community and Technical Colleges, an
organization of which Dr. McCabe was the executive director until his death in December 2014.
Make plans now to attend the 1st Annual McCabe Developmental Education Conference. Join your colleagues in
celebrating the work of Dr. Bob McCabe through sharing your work in enhancing access, equity, and success for all
students in postsecondary education. The conference is named in honor of Dr. Bob McCabe, one of the original
modern advocates of and researchers in developmental education.
This conference is a joint effort of NADE and the National Alliance of Community and Technical Colleges, an
organization of which Dr. McCabe was the executive director until his death in December 2014.
Access conference information at nade.net.
NADE 2017 Conference | Call for proposals
March 1–4, 2017 | Oklahoma City, Okla.
Deadline for submitting proposals: July 15, 2016
Visit nade2017okc.com for information.
NADE Digest
Dear NADE 2016 Conference presenters,
As editors of the NADE Digest, we are writing to invite you to submit an article based on your NADE 2016
conference presentation. Selected articles will be included in the winter 2017 issue of the Digest.
Publishing selected conference papers allows us to give NADE members the opportunity to learn about the many
best practices and projects in which developmental educators and learning assistance professionals are engaged in
across the country. Sharing your conference presentation also allows for people who could not attend your session
or the conference to learn about your work.
For this issue, manuscripts should be from five to ten pages in length and should follow the guidelines for
submission which are attached to this email. As editors, we are committed to mentoring colleagues through the
writing and publication process. Please contact us with any questions about your article and/or the submission
process.
We look forward to hearing from you! Please submit manuscripts to naomiludman@gmail.com by Aug. 1, 2016.
—Naomi Ludman and Jennifer Rodgers
NADE Digest in ERIC!
We are pleased to announce that the NADE Digest will be included in the Education Resources Information Center
(ERIC) database. You will soon be able to search for Digest articles as you do research.
Register now!
Kellogg Institute | July 16–26, 2016
The Kellogg Institute for Adult and Developmental Educators and Learning Skills Specialists at the National
Center for Developmental Education (Appalachian State) is the nation's longest running professional
development program for practitioners who serve underprepared and underserved college students. Attendees
will learn practices to increase retention & completion, and will have networking opportunities with their
colleagues from institutions around the country. Participants will develop an action plan to address issues affecting
their own institutions' developmental education/learning assistance programs.
The 2016 Kellogg Institute will feature a 2-week summer residency and an updated curriculum with a focus on:
 Implementing innovative models for retention and completion discusses promising new approaches designed
to accelerate students' progress through developmental coursework.
 Connecting courses and support services focuses on academic courses and support services to promote
student success and retention.
 Applying Technology for student success presents appropriate, sustainable technology applications in the
classroom and beyond.
 Understanding characteristics of diverse learners addresses theories of adult development and learning, and
explores strategies to help diverse students meet their educational goals.
The registration deadline is June 1 or until the institute fills. Register now at ncde.appstate.edu.
Women in Educational Leadership Symposium
Sept. 30–Oct. 2, 2016
Appalachian State University is organizing the first Women in Educational Leadership Symposium (WIELS).
Appalachian's goal is to bring women from every level of the educational pipeline to discuss issues of leadership in
education. It will be wonderful to have you and other women leaders from your institution participate in this
symposium (conference). Don’t miss this exciting event!
Visit https://wiels.appstate.edu/ to learn more. The call for proposals can be accessed at
https://wiels.appstate.edu/about-us/call-proposals.
Chapter news
Send us your news! Use NADE News to promote your chapter conference or other initiatives. Not involved in a
chapter? With more than 30 chapters, there are many opportunities to get involved at the local or regional levels.
Visit nade.net/chapters.html to learn about a chapter in your area.
DEAM Conference (Developmental Education Association of Maryland)
May 6, 2016
Location: Montgomery College: Germantown Campus
Theme: Keeping Students First
Speaker: Thomas Anthony Penny
http://www.deammd.org/home.html
Congratulations to the new TADE Board members:
Tammy Francis Donaldson, president-elect
Sonya Prince, treasurer
Melisa Jones, membership chair
NEW! NADE Accreditation
NADE is proud to announce its new initiative—NADE Accreditation.
NADE, through the NADE Accreditation Commission, accredits academic support, learning assistance,
developmental and remedial education, and redesigned programs at general and advanced levels. Given the large
number of college students who require academic skill enrichment and academic support services to earn
meaningful certificates and degrees, it is imperative that programs providing these courses and services be held to
the highest academic standards in the field.
The National Association for Developmental Education Accreditation Commission offers program accreditation
that requires systematic program review and self-study. NADE Accreditation is an evaluative process that enables
practitioners and administrators to work strategically to assess and improve programs, ultimately resulting in the
ability to create positive change—change that enables programs and institutions to sustain systematic growth and
student achievement.
Visit nadeaccreditation.net for information.
Accreditation survey results
Best practices: What really works
This past summer, NADE sent out a Needs Assessment Survey. We received 651 responses, and we thank
everyone who participated. The survey asked “To what degree do you need support to….” President Robin Ozz
collated the results and themes. In this and subsequent newsletters, the NADE Executive Board and two Emeritus
Cabinet members address the six most-common responses.
Eighty-three percent of respondents reported needing assistance in “increasing success without compromising
quality,” followed closely by 80 percent reporting needing assistance in “using research-based best practices.”
Those two areas are addressed below.
Remaining hot spot areas of concern were “using assessment” (79 percent), “creating equivalent comparison
groups” (63 percent), and “positioning the program in a theory base” (58 percent).
Comments included themes of “We don’t make the decisions anymore,” “We are tired of changes that do not
make sense,” and “NADE needs a larger voice and needs to advocate with legislators.” In addition, several
expressed worries about the recent elimination of the COMPASS test.
In this NADE News, we address the top two themes: using research-based best practices and increasing success
without compromising quality.
So then, what does really work?
—Robin Ozz, NADE president
We all like to chat with our colleagues about a lesson or strategy that worked really well in our classroom,
department, or lab, but rarely do we take the time to really research it so others can replicate it. Even more rarely
do we take the time to publish our great methods in the Journal of Developmental Education (JDE) or the other
journals in our field to share with our colleagues, yet we know that best practices are a major way to contribute to
successful developmental education. To paraphrase Boylan (2002), a research-based best practice is an
organizational, instructional, or support strategy that has been highly successful with students as validated by
experts and research related to developmental education. So, just where do you go to inform yourself about those
best practices? Here are five suggestions.
1. Find your copy or buy a new one of What Works: Research Based Best Practices in Developmental Education by
Hunter Boylan. Published in 2002, you can get it (and other resources) from the National Center for
Developmental Education (NCDE) website, ncde.appstate.edu/publications. It is still the foundation of all that is
good practice in our field. Another outstanding guide to what works is Student Success in Community Colleges:
A Practical Guide to Developmental Education by Boroch, Hope, Smith, Bagriner, Mery, Johnstone, and Asera
(2010, Jossey-Bass), wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470455551,subjectCd-ED27.html. This book
also includes an inventory much like What Works. For a more extensive list of best practices, invest in the NADE
Self-Evaluation Guides: Best Practice in Academic Support Programs at
hhpublishing.com/_books/_professional/_nade/index.html. I would buy them ALL if I were you; they are worth
the investment. In fact, ask your library or department to order extra copies for the rest of your colleagues and
dean.
2. Become a member of NADE, and get your copy of the Journal of Developmental Education. And if you are
already a member, actually READ it. Each edition has a plethora of peer-reviewed scholarly articles about best
practices.
3. Read journals from our sister organizations. The journal of the National College Learning Center Association
(NCLCA), The Learning Assistance Review, has tremendous articles pertinent to our field and book reviews
including a recent review of teaching graphic novels in the classroom. The Journal of College Reading and
Learning, published by the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA), also includes articles on best
practices (e.g., “Investigating the Syllabus as a Defining Document,” by Joy Bowers-Campbell). The National
Center for Developmental Education publishes Research in Developmental Education (RiDE). Several state
organizations offer journals, such as the New York chapter’s Research in Teaching and Developmental
Education (RTDE). Join LRNASST, the listserv for academic support professionals. There is a wealth of free ideas
and advice from over 4,000 active members, and you can search the archives. Finally, see if your state has a
listserv.
4. Start using research-based best practices in your area. You can read about them, but you will never feel
comfortable with them until you actually try them. You can start small. One of the best research-based best
practices are CATS (classroom assessment techniques) made popular by Tom Angelo and K. Patricia Cross in
Classroom Assessment Techniques (1993, Wiley). CATs are generally simple, non-graded activities that help
students process information and help teachers get insights into what students are learning while they are
learning it. Buy the book, but in the meantime, find a few you can use tomorrow, at this link:
celt.iastate.edu/teaching-resources/classroom-practice/teaching-techniques-strategies/check-studentlearning/
5. Start doing your own research. Research-based best practices exist, but we need to keep adding to the
repository. Consider attending a research session at the upcoming NADE conference. Ask for a NADE group to
come to your college to present on conducting your own research. We need the best educators to contribute
their own best practices to the field!
See the June newsletter for ways to increase success without compromising standards and the quality of your
program. Stay tuned for discussions on ensuring that everyone supports your innovation—from the board of
trustees, to the president, the support staff and institutional research, to the faculty and staff who will actually
implement the program; on implementing innovations and avoiding common pitfalls; implementing innovations in
your own classroom or center; conducting assessment; and designing a theory base to support your students.
We also invite you to become part of the conversation about these topics. Send your comments to NADE at
lthompson@harding.edu or post to the NADE blog at nadedeved.wordpress.com.
Connect with NADE social media!