Internal Conflict: Community College Presidents and Developmental Education

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of community college presidents re- garding developmental education. A mixed method sampling technique combining convenience and purpose- ful sampling was used to identify five presidents in North Carolina and three presidents in Virginia to participate in the study. Results of the study could prove significant for community college leaders in terms of supporting academically underprepared students from the president’s perspective and understanding methods to improve developmental education. The primary source of data was from semi-structured interviews lasting approxi- mately one hour conducted with each president.