Media Contact:
Dhanfu Elston
media@completecollege.org

Statewide system learnings include dramatic impact on Black and Latinx Students

INDIANAPOLIS– Today Complete College America is releasing a new report highlighting research from the University System of Georgia (USG) which indicates the components of corequisite support models that yield maximum benefit and effectively eliminate institutional performance gaps, specifically for Black and Latinx students. Nationally, more than half of entering community college students are told by their institutions they are not ready for college-level math and English courses, and those numbers are significantly higher for Black and Latinx students. Because students placed into long sequences of traditional remedial coursework rarely make it to and through their college-level courses, colleges and universities, unwittingly or not, are engaging in practices that historically exclude Black and Latinx students from access to and success in higher education.

Complete College America has partnered with USG and more than a dozen other states to implement corequisite support, which has led to dramatic results across the country. Since USG has taken a statewide approach to adopt corequisite support in 2018 and 2019, it has more than tripled the percentage of students who have successfully completed gateway math courses and significantly increased the percentage who have completed gateway English courses. Most notable is the increase in success for Black and Latinx students who pass their college-level math and English courses near or above the pass rate for all students, effectively closing gaps that existed prior to adoption of corequisite support. 

This work at USG has been scaled to benefit more than 26,000 students across all types of institutions including small, medium, and large colleges or institutions; open access and highly selective schools; rural, suburban, and urban schools; community colleges; research universities; Historically Black Colleges and Universities; and Hispanic-Serving Institutions demonstrating that corequisite support is a solution for all.

Using corequisite support, students enroll in gateway courses with aligned, just-in-time assistance during the same semester with higher success outcomes. As corequisite support has been scaled across the country, questions have emerged about which models are the most effective. In the new report, CCA shares groundbreaking results from USG to address this critical point. USG found that while students in all models of corequisite support benefit and have higher success rates than traditional remediation, students – especially Black and Latinx students – received the most benefit from having the same instructor for both the corequisite support and college-level courses and at least two contact hours per week for the corequisite course. 

“Overall, the results from USG are undeniable and the documented progress is remarkable. Students at USG are most definitely benefiting from corequisite support,” said Complete College America President Yolanda Watson Spiva. “All groups of students, including Black and Latinx students, students experiencing poverty, and first-generation college students, are passing gateway courses at the same rates. We are ecstatic about the results of this research and look forward to implementing additional strategies to benefit these groups of students, with USG and others.”

The new report from CCA and USG with support from Strong Start to Finish, centers on the specific plan of action that USG took to design a strategy that worked for all of their students. USG made comprehensive changes that led to sustainable results. The report also includes best practices to create conditions for change, implement proven strategies, and refine approaches over time. 

“Early success in mathematics and English is crucial to student success,” said Tristan Denley, executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at the University System of Georgia. “Many thanks to the faculty and staff across all of our 26 campuses who have worked to fully implement the corequisite model and created these marvelous results.”

To download a free copy of the CCA free report, Corequisite Works: Student Success Models at the University System of Georgia click here. To learn more about corequisite and how CCA has led states to move this reform to scale, please check out the CCA free report, No Room for Doubt: Moving Corequisite Support from Idea to Imperative, here.