Breakthrough Results Fulfilling The Promise of College Access for Underprepared Students
Executive Summary
Start in College – With Support
Where once there was a bridge to nowhere but college debt, disappointment and drop out, today there is a new, proven bridge to college success – a bridge that is spanning the divide between hope and attainment. We call it Corequisite Remediation.
Far Too Many Students Start in Remediation
Each year, more than one million students begin college in remediation – prerequisite coursework that costs hundreds of millions of dollars but doesn’t count toward a degree. For most, remediation will be their first and last college experience – a tragedy that is disproportionally true for low-income students and students of color. Even among recent high school graduates
- those who should be most prepared for college
- 1 in 3 are required, often unnecessarily, to enroll in noncredit remedial courses.
Traditional Remediation Fails Most Students
Few remedial students ever enroll in, let alone complete, their introductory (gateway) courses in math and English. Only 17% will graduate.
It comes down to attrition. Most students succeed in their remedial courses but simply fail to enroll in subsequent courses. Off-track and often out of money, more give up than fail. Consequently, many who might have succeeded stop before they ever actually start college-level coursework.
Remediation as a Corequisite- Not a Prerequisite
Corequisite Remediation is doubling and tripling gateway college course success in half the time or better.
In Corequisite Remediation, students enroll directly into college-level courses and receive academic support alongside their regular classes. Rather than facing a long sequence of prerequi site, non-credit courses, students get up to speed while working toward their degree. Additional, mandatory class periods or customized support in a lab provide just-in-time academic support within the college-level course.
The Bridge Builders
States are stepping up and acting boldly to transform developmental education in this country. Corequisite Remediation works, and these states are proving it.
Georgia
Georgia In Georgia, traditional remediation consumed time and money without succeeding in its goal to move students into college-level work. Strate gies to improve this reality started in the Gover nor’s office with the launch of Complete College Georgia and benefited greatly from the commit ment of system leaders who came together and enlisted faculty in the design and implementa tion of a new method of delivering remediation. The state has generated dramatic improve ments, more than tripling previous gateway course success rates
West Virginia
Armed with evidence that Corequisite Remediation could achieve meaningful improvements, Chancellor Jim Skidmore of the West Virginia Community and Technical Colleges (WVCTC) led the state to adopt the reform.
Within just one year, success rates skyrocketed to 68%. The state’s four-year institutions are
picking up the baton and have committed to fully scaling Corequisite Remediation by fall 2017.
Tennessee
Tennessee has long been a national trailblazer on remediation reform. Key leaders recognized that, of the reforms being utilized, Corequisite Remediation models were achieving the greatest results. The state’s Corequisite Remediation pilot found that student success in gateway English courses improved from 31% in two years to 64% in one semester. Likewise, success in college level math improved from 12% to 61%. Further, the state’s data suggests that this approach can work for virtually all students, including adults, students of color, and those that score at the lowest levels on the ACT exam.
Indiana
Ivy Tech Community College – a statewide institution that had very low gateway course success rates – knew that dramatic change was essential to improving graduation rates. After evaluating several methods, the system moved aggressively to scale Corequisite Remediation when data clearly indicated it was a superior model. Their approach resulted in immediate benefits to students and added momentum
to the ongoing refinement of approaches for boosting student success.
Colorado
The Colorado Community College System became one of the first in the nation to develop a new state policy that explicitly calls for the deployment of Corequisite Remediation. The process to achieve this outcome was the result of statewide faculty collaboration: the system’s chief academic officer convened a comprehen sive review of research and results from pilot reform efforts. Today, over 5,000 Colorado students who would have been trapped in tradi tional remediation sequences are now acceler
ating through college-level work with corequisite support.
What Does Remediation Look Like In Your State? See What’s Possible with Corequisite Remediation
Definitions and Limitations:
All remedial data is for first-time entry full-time and part-time students and does not include non-first time students and students who enroll in a remedial course after their first academic year.
% completing gateway in each subject is underestimated because it does not include students enrolling in both math and English who only complete an associated gateway course in 1 subject.
Graduation rates for first-time full-time graduation rates across the state within 3 years for associates cohorts and 6 years for bachelors degree cohorts
DS – Data Suppressed NA – Not Applicable
BTP – Better Than Projected
Clarifications:
PA only includes that PASHE system
SD only includes institutions that are part of the Board of Regents FL only Includes the Board of Governors
MA does not include any UMass campuses
Cohorts:
All FL data reported in 2013 (2009 remedial cohort and 2007 associates cohort for graduation rates)
Remedial data from CO was repored in 2013 (2009 remedial cohort)
All RI data reported in 2015 (2011 remedial cohort and 2009 associates cohort and 2007 bachelors cohort)
All other data is from the 2014 collection and includes the remedial cohort from 2010 and the 2008 associates cohort and the 2006 bachelors cohort
The Blueprint
Build Your Own Corequisite Remediation Program on a Solid Foundation Using These 6 Pillars
Pillar One: Purpose, Not Placement
Colleges must end the practice of using placement exams to sort students into multiple levels of remedial education. Instead, colleges should deploy a comprehensive intake process to discern students’ academic goals, career goals and overall college readiness, helping inform the choices they make regarding meta-majors and programs of study.
Pillar Two: Treat AU Students as College Students
All students should be treated as college students on day one, rather than as remedial students
who must demonstrate their readiness for college before entering a program. As a result, the default placement for the vast majority of students who may not be optimally prepared for college-level coursework should be credit-bearing courses with built-in or concurrent support in the form of Corequisite Remediation.
Pillar Three: Deliver Academic Support as a Corequisite
The vast majority of students who require additional academic support in college-level courses should receive it as a corequisite while enrolled in a college-level course. There are many different approaches to corequisite support that have proven to dramatically increase success rates in college level courses. While there are differences in approach, all are designed to provide students with more time on the content and skills that are essential for success.
Pillar Four: AU Students Should Complete Gateway Courses in One Academic Year
Colleges must abandon the use of long remedial education sequences that prevent students from completing college-level courses in one academic year. In addition, colleges should require all students to enroll in college-level courses and receive the support they need within the first academic year. Students who do not complete gateway courses and enter a program of study are far less
likely to complete a postsecondary credential. If students are not placed into corequisite courses, then alternative supports should be designed to ensure they still have the opportunity to complete gateway courses in their first year.
Pillar Five: Develop Multiple Math Pathways into Programs of Study
College Algebra should no longer be viewed as the default gateway math course. Instead, it should be viewed narrowly as a preparatory course for programs that require precalculus or calculus.
Colleges should develop alternative gateway math courses for programs of study that do not require calculus. For many programs, a rigorous course in quantitative reasoning or statistics would be more appropriate.
Pillar Six: Corequisite Support is the Bridge into Programs of Study
Corequisite support will dramatically increase the number of students who pass a college-level gateway course and enter a program of study within one year. Supports should continue for these students through the implementation of other Game Changer strategies like GPS Direct, 15 to Finish and Structured Schedules. Taken together, these strategies will result in dramatic improvements in college completion.