Developmental Education

The following developmental courses will not count toward fulfilling degree requirements, transfer to other institutions, nor do they count toward completion of the credit hour requirements to graduate. They will be included in the cumulative GPA for the student on their official transcript.

DEV0115 English Skills Development
DEV0121 Vocabulary I
DEV0131 Vocabulary II
DEV0143 Composition Prep
DEV0344 Elementary Algebra
DEV0334 Intermediate Algebra

ICC enforces a mandatory placement policy for English and mathematics. To ensure the success of students at Independence Community College, all students are required to take developmental courses if placement testing, ACT, SAT, and/or Accuplacer has indicated they are not fully prepared for college work. All students, full and part-time, are required to take the placement testing prior to enrolling. Test results must be available at the time of enrollment. To meet academic needs, Independence Community College offers developmental courses in reading skills, writing, English, and mathematics. These courses are designed to give students the needed skills to succeed in their college-level classes and do not count toward graduation or transfer. Please refer to the ICC website for the ACT and Accuplacer placement score requirements. All required developmental courses must be passed with a “C” or higher grade prior to enrolling in a higher-level course in the curricular continuum. Students must enroll in required developmental courses during the first session of attendance at ICC and continue to enroll in required developmental courses until all required developmental classes are passed. Developmental courses will count in the calculated grade point average for the student.

Students who are exempt from placement testing include:

Students who have earned an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree.
Students who have successfully completed (“C” or higher) a college credit level or above in mathematics are exempt from the requirement for assessment in mathematics.
Students who have taken the ACT/SAT/Accuplacer test within two years prior to enrollment and have scores within the acceptable range are exempt from placement testing in that subject area only.

Any exceptions to placement requirement must be approved by the Vice President of Academic Affairs. Students may take the Accuplacer one time at no charge.

Students may retake the Accuplacer at a cost of $15.00, paid to the Business Office prior to the time of testing, per section for the following reasons:

Students feel placement results do not accurately reflect their abilities.
Students feel they have improved their skills through refresher work or previous developmental coursework.

ICC Placement Chart

Developmental English Program Outcomes

Upon completion of the Development English curriculum, students will be able to:

1. Compose essays that demonstrate competent use of introductory paragraphs, body paragraphs, concluding paragraphs and transitions that adequately support a thesis statement.

2. Develop strategies for prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing using the Writing Process for project management.

3. Develop conventions of voice and tone at various levels of formality to demonstrate awareness of audience.

4. Implement a proofreading practice to improve syntax, grammar, and mechanics.

Developmental Math Program Outcomes

1. Solve linear equations and inequalities including compound inequalities; solve equations and
inequalities involving absolute values.

2. Identify functions, use function notation, find the domain and range of a function, combine
functions, find the slope of linear functions, use slope-intercept and point-slope from of a line to
graph and find equations, and solve linear inequalities in two variables.

3. Simplify polynomial expressions, factoring quadratic expressions directly, using special forms,
and by grouping; solve quadratic equations.

4. Simplify rational expressions, including complex fractions; divide polynomials by long division and synthetic division; solve rational equations; develop and solve mathematical models involving mixture, motion, work, variation, etc

5. Simplify expressions involving radicals and rational exponents; solve radical and rational exponent equations; and simplify expressions involving complex numbers.

6. Solve quadratic equations using the Quadratic Formula; solve equations that are quadratic in form
and calculate the distance between two points.
7. Simplify exponential and logarithmic expressions; solve exponential and logarithmic equations;
and find inverse functions.