July 2, 2007

Pellissippi State ’s Developmental Studies Program achieves distinguished status

Students in developmental courses at Pellissippi State Technical Community College can now take pride in the fact that they are in a program that has earned Distinguished Certification in all four subject areas—math, reading, writing and study skills.

In order to attain that status, the Developmental Studies Program had to provide documentation that students enrolled in developmental courses at Pellissippi State go on to achieve similar goals as their peers who were not required to take DSP classes.

The Developmental Studies Program provides a variety of courses designed to strengthen entering students’ academic skills.

The program was recognized by the National Association for Development Education, which seeks to improve developmental education at all education levels by providing services such as professional development.

NADE presented the award plaques to representatives from Pellissippi State during a conference this spring.

DSP attained Distinguished Certification based on a self-evaluation, which is required every seven years. Pellissippi State’s program then went above and beyond the requirement and performed a more in-depth evaluation.

“Since the evaluation had to be done anyway, we decided to go the extra mile,” said Jo Anne Thomasson, director of DSP.

The additional evaluation took nearly a year. During that time Thomasson and members of the Self-Evaluation Committee produced more than 1,000 pages of documentation for each of the four subject areas.

“We compared lots of data,” said Thomasson. “This was a really intense effort, and it all paid off.”

That the college earned Distinguished Certification is of particular significance in light of the fact that very few schools are awarded the honor.

In fact, says Thomasson, so few institutions achieve that status that NADE will no longer be judging schools at that level after this year.

The award plaques are on display in the Goins Building Rotunda on the Pellissippi Campus on Hardin Valley Road.

For more information about Pellissippi State’s Developmental Studies Program, contact Jo Anne Thomasson at (865) 694-6694 or jthomasson@pstcc.edu.

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