Complete College America Releases Corequisite Plan of Action to Dismantle Higher Education System Inequalities

National learnings include dramatic impact on racially minoritized, first-generation, adult learners, and low-income students

INDIANAPOLIS– Today Complete College America announced its official plan of action to dismantle inequalities from the United States’ higher education system through corequisite support as part of its systems change agenda. In No Room for Doubt: Moving Corequisite Support from Idea to Imperative, CCA shares learnings over the last 10 years focused on equity and student success. The new report offers comprehensive strategy, research, data, and a specific plan of action for institutions, states, and state-systems to support students throughout the country- especially racially-minoritized, first-generation, adult-learners, and low-income students. 

Corequisite support is an alternative to traditional prerequisite remediation. Fewer than 1 in 10 students who start in remediation go on to graduate and yet over 1.7 million students are being enrolled in remedial courses each year. Many of these students drop-out after taking prerequisite courses, before enrolling in official “college-level” classes. Using corequisite support, students enroll in gateway courses with aligned, just-in-time assistance during the exact same semester with higher success outcomes.

More than half of entering community college students are told by their institution they are not ready for gateway math and English courses, and those numbers are significantly higher for Black and Latinx students. Those same students are overrepresented in developmental courses at higher rates in institutions across the country.

“Giving all learners the opportunity to enroll in corequisite support is the best way for colleges and universities to address persistent institutional performance gaps that disproportionately affect these students,” said Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, president of Complete College America. “If you’re not actively scaling and refining corequisite support strategies in your state, and more specifically at your institution, then you can’t truly say ‘equity’ is a top priority.”

CCA launched the first national report on corequisite support in 2012. Entitled Remediation: Higher Education’s Bridge to Nowhere, the report made a clear and forceful case for the strategy and sparked a nationwide movement to re-examine the approach to developmental education. In 2017, a follow-up report, Corequisite Remediation: Spanning the Completion Divide, chronicled both the successes and learnings from early adopters.

In its latest report of the series, Complete College America shares: 

• Corequisite support is an equity-first focused strategy. Colleges and universities who are implementing corequisite support at scale are closing institutional performance gaps, especially for Black and Latinx students, especially those who are enrolled in remediation at higher rates than their peers. By placing these students in corequisite support, it reduces the number who get trapped in costly remediation sequences rarely leading to persistence.
• Corequisite support is a financial win-win. West Virginia, among other states,  saw a net gain in tuition revenue that offset the cost of transitioning to a new model. 
•  And Corequisite support should be the norm. The University System of Georgia saw triple the percentage for gateway course completion rates across all races – regardless of their readiness – as measured by entrance exams – in fewer than 5 years.

“As a practitioner in the field who has worked to develop the co-requisite model since 1993 and who has consulted with more than 200 colleges to assist them in adopting such a model, I am well aware of how helpful encouragement, support, and even pressure from institutions, systems, and states can be in accelerating the enactment of such models,” said Peter Adams, professor emeritus at Community College of Baltimore County.

The new report outlines unique perspectives and a specific plan of action for institutions, states, and state higher education systems to design a strategy that will work for their students and make comprehensive changes that lead to sustainable results. It also includes best practices to create conditions for change, implement proven strategies, and refine approaches over time. To download a free copy of the report, click here.

No Room for Doubt was funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Strong Start to Finish, and ECMC Foundation. 

About Complete College America

Complete College America is a bold national advocate for dramatically increasing college completion rates and closing institutional performance gaps. CCA works with states, systems, institutions, and partners to scale highly effective structural reforms and promote policies that ultimately improve student success. For more information, visit http://www.completecollege.org/.

CCA is working in more than a dozen states to implement corequisite support and scale those initiatives. To get started with corequisite support or go deeper with current implementations, contact info@completecollege.org. 

Media Contact:
Media@completecollege.org, 317-829-0483