Developmental education courses are designed to provide students with the basic academic skills necessary for success in college-level courses and to fulfill the Texas Success Initiative (TSI) standards. Many levels of developmental reading, writing, and math classes are offered to enable students to complete the required prerequisites for college-level work and to satisfy TSI standards. Developmental courses are listed in the catalogue as DREA for developmental reading, DWRI for developmental writing, and DMAT for developmental math. These courses carry institutional credit but do not count toward a degree or certificate. Students who wish to improve skills in reading, writing, and math may also enroll in developmental courses even if not required to do so because of low test scores. Instructional formats vary and may include computer-based, self-paced, lecture, and online offerings.

The State of Texas financially subsidizes the education of college students. In other words, the tuition paid by any student represents only a portion of the real costs of any developmental education courses. As the State of Texas will pay for only 27 hours of attempted Developmental Studies courses, students may be required to pay a higher rate of tuition for any developmental hours beyond the 27 hour limit. Developmental courses are any courses numbered 0099 and below. These courses include Developmental Reading, Developmental Math, Developmental Writing, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and others.