The Center for Analysis of
Postsecondary Readiness (CAPR) was established in 2014 through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to document current practices in developmental education and to rigorously assess the effects of innovative programs. CAPR is led by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University, and social policy research organization MDRC.
CAPR's research includes a nationally representative survey of two- and
four-year colleges. The survey is designed to help researchers and others
better understand the approaches used by colleges and states to assess
students' college readiness, deliver developmental instruction, and provide
non-classroom-based student supports for students assessed as needing
developmental education. The survey identifies emerging reform strategies, the
extent to which colleges are scaling different practices, and the factors
driving the adoption of these practices.
The survey was created to learn about the current practices in developmental education at a wide variety of colleges (public, private, 2 year institutions, 4 year institutions, etc.). The survey included questions about: institutions' developmental education practices, methods used to determine students' developmental education status, and the extent of student enrollment in different types of developmental courses.
ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
Response Rates:
In order to maximize response rates, survey fielding efforts focused on three types of institutions in the sample: 2-year public, 4-year public, and 4-year private nonprofit. The original randomly-drawn sample of these types of institutions totaled 1,055 institutions. 82 percent of these institutions completed the math section of the survey, and 82 percent of these institutions completed the reading and writing section of the survey. 78 percent of these institutions completed the full survey (both math and reading/writing sections). Lower rates of response were achieved for other types of colleges.
Datasets:DS1: Developmental Education Data
Degree-granting, undergraduate-serving Title IV US postsecondary institutions. Institutions must be broad access (either open admission or admitting 70% or more of students).
A stratified sample of eligible institutions was randomly selected. Institutions were stratified by program length (2-year vs 4-year) and institutional control (public vs private). A small number of colleges were nonrandomly selected and added to the survey for a secondary analysis; they are indicated in the data by the ADDED_FLAG variable.
2020-05-07 Documentation has been updated. Funding institution(s): United States Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences (R305C140007). Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ().
computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI)
web-based survey
