Examining the Impacts of Florida’s Developmental Education Reform for NonExempt Students: The Case of First-Year English and Math Course Enrollment and Success

Oct 15, 2026

Objective: In 2014, Florida implemented Senate Bill 1720 (SB 1720), reshaping developmental education across 28 public state colleges. Under the reform, about two-thirds of students became exempt, but many non-exempt students still took placement tests; if not college-ready, they entered developmental courses with new accelerated strategies. Methods: Using student-level data from cohorts before and after SB 1720, multinomial logit models predict non-exempt first-year math and English outcomes. Results: Non-exempt students show higher enrollment and completion in college-level and advanced courses after the reform, with largest completion gains at the lowest English readiness and among college-ready non-exempt students in math.

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Examining the Impacts of Florida’s Developmental Education Reform for NonExempt Students: The Case of First-Year English and Math Course Enrollment and Success Kai Zhao 1, Toby J. Park-Gaghan 1, Christine G. Mokhe 1, and Shouping Hu 1 Community College Review 2022, Vol. 50(2) 171–192 © The Author(s) 2022 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/00915521211061417](DOI: 10.1177/00915521211061417)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/00915521211061417)[journals.sagepub.com/home/crw](journals.sagepub.com/home/crw) Abstract Objective: In 2014, Florida implemented Senate Bill 1720 (SB 1720), which drastically reshaped developmental education practices across the 28 public state colleges. Under the reform, around two-thirds of students became exempt from developmental education. Yet, many students were still required to take the placement test. If they scored below college-ready, they were assigned to developmental education courses using new accelerated strategies. This study focuses on the policy effects on these non-exempt students that received little attention in existing research but also were affected by the reform. Methods: Drawing on student-level data from two firsttime-in-college cohorts who were enrolled in state colleges prior to SB 1720 and two cohorts who were enrolled after, this study uses multinomial logit models to predict non-exempt students’ first-year math and English outcomes. Results: We find that non-exempt students benefit from the policy, with significantly higher percentages of students enrolling in and completing college-level and advanced English and math courses after the reform. In addition, non-exempt English students with the lowest level of college readiness experienced the greatest gains post-reform in the completion rates in college-level and advanced English courses. While in math, non-exempt students who scored college-ready experienced the greatest increases post-reform in completion rates in college-level and advanced math courses. 1 Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA Corresponding Author: Kai Zhao, Lingnan University, Room 112, 1/F B. Y., Lam Building, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong. Email: [kaizhao2@LN.edu.hk](kaizhao2@LN.edu.hk) Conclusion: Although non-exempt students are not directly affected by the placement policy changes under SB 1720, they still benefit from the reform because of the new instructional strategies and enhanced academic advising and support services. Keywords developmental education, non-exempt, community colleges, state policy Introduction Many community college students arrive on campus academically under-prepared for success at the postsecondary level. Traditionally, community colleges have addressed this issue with developmental education (DE) programs designed to strengthen students’ skills in reading, writing, and/or math. In 2011/12, approximately 41% of students at public 2-year colleges reported enrolling in at least one developmental course (Chen, 2016) . Based on placement test scores, many students were required to take a series of developmental courses that could take a year or more to complete before they were able to enroll in credit-bearing courses. Over the past decade, the traditional developmental education model has been under close scrutiny with increasing evidence from empirical studies showing a potential negative effect of developmental courses on college success. A meta-analysis of studies on the impacts of assignment to DE showed that relative to their peers who were on the margin of college readiness but who were placed into college-level courses, students scoring just below college-ready who were assigned to developmental courses earned fewer college credits within 3 years, and were about 1.5% points less likely to complete a degree (Valentine et al., 2017). One possible reason the authors speculated was that students who were assigned

FAQs

What reform did Florida implement in 2014, and what did it change?

Florida implemented Senate Bill 1720 (SB 1720), reshaping who was required to take developmental education and how those courses were taught, alongside enhanced advising and support services.

How does the study model outcomes for non-exempt students?

The study uses student-level data from cohorts before and after SB 1720 and applies multinomial logit models to predict non-exempt first-year math and English outcomes.

What were the main findings regarding non-exempt students’ course enrollment and success?

Non-exempt students benefited from the policy, showing significantly higher percentages enrolling in and completing college-level and advanced English and math courses after the reform, with the largest gains depending on readiness level.

Oct 15, 2026

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