By Anderson Colemon/tr news editor

Changes will be made to developmental courses on all campuses starting this spring.

Math will change Pre-Algebra 0302 and Beginning Algebra 0304 to Developmental Math I 0361 and Intermediate Algebra 0362. Also, Reading Techniques (RDNG 0361) and Writing Techniques (ENGL 0324) will lead into Integrated Reading and Writing (INRW 0399), which will incorporate both subjects.

NE mathematics co-chair Cathryn Miller said new developmental math classes are mostly blends of the old ones.

“What isn’t in [Math] 0304 is going to continuing education,” Miller said. “What students are taking in the spring depends on where they finish in the fall.”

However, no matter if Math 0302 students pass or fail, they will be placed in 0361 in the spring semester.

NE student Charles Vogel is currently in Math 0302 and said he believes the change to be unfair to his education.

“I’m not happy about this at all,” he said. “It sounds like they’re wasting our time with the course we are taking now.”

An instructor told Vogel that if students fail, they would have to retake the course. He wasn’t told that if students pass then they would have to take Math 0361.

Director of college readiness Robin Birt said, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, students can retest, but instructors cannot tell students to retest.

The students who did not pass the Texas Success Initiative assessment in reading and writing would have to complete RDNG Techniques I, or Reading 0361, based on the reading scores taken on the TSI. 

Birt said the courses were integrated so students “could see the connections between reading and writing.”

“When students read a writing prompt, article or novel, students have to understand what they read in order to write,” she said.

After completing Reading 0361 and English 0324, students would advance to Integrated Reading and Writing — a three-hour lecture and a one-hour lab designed to develop students’ critical reading and academic writing skills.

However, students who want to brush up on their skills cannot take these courses.

“If a student has passed a portion of the TSI and they say, ‘I want to take developmental courses,’ they cannot,” Birt said. “According to the chancellor and research, students that passed the TSI and were placed in the freshmen courses tend to do just fine and pass their course.”

According to Inside Higher Education, students who are referred to take developmental classes are 50 percent less likely than their peers to earn a credential or transfer to a four-year college.

Students who’ve already taken developmental courses in the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 semesters are still credited for their hours.