The General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GAJSC), a government and aviation industry representative, conducted a detailed analysis of fatal general aviation accidents for the period 2001–2010 and found that 50 % indicated loss of control as a contributing factor. A loss of control occurs when an aircraft stalls and the control surface movements made by the pilot no longer control the airplane until the stall recovery is initiated. As an aircraft flies, the smooth airflow overtop the wing creates a low pressure area, and the airflow underneath a high pressure area. This pressure differential generates lift. When this airflow is disrupted, the aircraft loses lift very suddenly and a stall is said to occur. Looking deeper into stalls involves a look at what is called the Angle of Attack. This is the angle between the chord line of the wing (a line connecting the leading most point on the wing with the trailing most point) and the flight path of the aircraft. The Angle of Attack changes throughout different phases of flight, but a stall will always occur when the Critical Angle of Attack is exceeded. Though the aerodynamics behind and recovery procedures for stalls are taught extensively in private pilot training, there is

In the paper, I review evidence on the number of students who enter community colleges with weak academic skills and on the incidence of developmental education. I then report on what happens to developmental students and review the research on the effectiveness of programs at community colleges designed to strengthen weak academic skills. I briefly discuss the costs of these programs. I conclude by arguing that, on average, developmental education as it is now practiced is not very effective in overcoming academic weaknesses, partly because the majority of students referred to developmental education do not finish the sequences to which they are referred. Yet there is reason for optimism. In recent years, a dramatic expansion in experimentation with new approaches to strengthen student skills has taken place. There is now a growing commitment to better evaluation and quantitative analysis of student progression in community colleges that promises a more systematic and informed process of program and policy development. I suggest a broad developmental education reform agenda based on a comprehensive approach to assessment, more rigorous research that explicitly tracks students with weak academic skills through their early experiences at community colleges, a blurring of the distinction between developmental and “college-level ” students that could improve pedagogy