"What's really special is watching the bonds form."

Here are excerpts from an article in today's USA Today about the value of learning communities for developmental students. The article features a community college, but my university has learning communities too, and this appears to be one of the most effective of the high-impact educational practices.

Shayla Dinh learned two key things about math this spring.

One: She can do it.

Two: She likes doing it.

"I love math. I never thought I'd say that," says Dinh, 34, who recently passed the first math class she has taken in more than a decade. It was a remedial course, taught here on the main campus of Northern Virginia Community College...and it was her first big hurdle toward getting a bachelor's degree in communications.

The course was part of...a learning community; students who enrolled in her math class also were required to take a course called College Success Skills, covering topics such as note-taking, time management and test anxiety. Counselor Ray Jones taught that course. But he and Thimblin coordinated efforts, and much of their emphasis was on helping students help one another and themselves.

Learning communities represent one of several ideas being tried nationwide as educators search for better ways to help more students succeed in college. The strategy also reflects a shift in the conversation about whom should be held responsible when a student struggles.

"It is not just the individual student rising or falling on his or her merits," says John Dever, NOVA's executive vice president for academic and student affairs. "If large numbers of students aren't making it through, it's a question of, is the program structure successful?"

And now, for the rest of the story...