The Impact of Corequisite Math on Community College Student Outcomes: Evidence from Texas

Developmental education (dev-ed) aims to help students acquire knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in college-level coursework. The traditional prerequisite approach to postsecondary dev-ed—where students take remedial courses that do not count toward a credential—appears to stymie progress toward a degree. At community colleges across the country, most students require remediation in math, creating a barrier to college-level credits under the traditional approach. Corequisite coursework is a structural reform that places students directly into a college-level course in the same term they receive dev-ed support. Using administrative data from Texas community colleges and a regression discontinuity design, we examine whether corequisite math improves student success compared with traditional prerequisite dev-ed. We find that corequisite math quickly improves student completion of math requirements without any obvious drawbacks, but students in corequisite math were not substantially closer to degree completion than their peers in traditional dev-ed after 3 years.

Ready for College? Examining the Effectiveness of Targeted Interventions in High School

Kentucky’s Targeted Interventions (TI) program is a statewide intervention intended to prepare non-college-ready high school students for college-level coursework. Using a difference-in-regression discontinuity design, we find that TI reduces the likelihood that students enroll in remedial courses by 8 to 10 percentage points in math. These effects are similar or stronger among students who are eligible for free/reduced-price lunch, students with remediation needs in multiple subjects, and students in lower performing schools. TI also increases the likelihood that students enroll in and pass college math before the end of the first year in 4-year universities by 4 percentage points and by 9 percentage points among free/reduced-price lunch eligible students. However, we do not find evidence of TI affecting credit accumulation or persistence.

Enhancing student retention. A study in private higher education institutions in the South East of México

In a study I conducted in local private higher education institutions, it was observed that the most important reasons for student retention are outstanding personalized attention by tutors, school authorities, staff and professors, followed by the economic factor and academic achievement. So, quality in attention is the first step for creating a positive learning environment for students to engage in their own learning, making schools become places where talent and opportunities meet. Then, more than thinking in retaining students through financial strategies, marketing efforts or trying to amaze them with impressive buildings and facilities, there must be better academic tutoring and vocational orientation, less students per tutor and more effectiveness for solving their problems, also eliminating useless remedial courses. Close and frequent relation with school authorities is very important for enhancing confidence.

Student Preparedness and Success in Introductory Psychology

Background: Reading comprehension and writing ability are critical to students’ success in introductory psychology. However, these generally are not prerequisites. There is conflicting evidence with regard to the effectiveness of remedial reading and writing classes for students with low placement exam scores. Objectives: To explore whether ACCUPLACER® test scores help predict performance in introductory psychology, and the effectiveness of reading and writing remediation classes in helping students, particularly those with low ACCUPLACER® scores. Method: Logistic regression analyses were used, to explore whether ACCUPLACER® test scores helped predict performance, and whether completing remediation classes helped students pass, controlling for ACCUPLACER® and WritePlacer® scores, at an upstate New York community college, between the years 2010 and 2015. Results: Placement test scores did help to predict successful course completion. There was not a statistically significant difference in successful course completion between students who passed the remedial courses and those who did not take them. Conclusions: Success in introductory psychology requires college-level reading and writing. Remedial courses’ value in students’ success in this class appears relatively small or non-significant. Teaching Implications: We propose solutions that may be more effective, involving embedding the remediation in the course, or in closely linked ancillary sections.

Racial and Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education Programs

The disproportionate representation of students of color in special education has been an established issue in school systems around the world. The over-representation of students from racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse (RCLD) programs has been documented since the late 1960s. Scholars have included several reasons for the existence of disproportionate representation including (a) systemic racism present in school systems, (b) schools as colonial spaces, and (c) the intersections of race with poverty and health. Previous research on disproportionality in the U.S. context has posited two overlapping types of rationales: those who believed disproportionate representation is linked to poverty and health outcomes versus those who believed in the systemwide racist practices that contributed to over-representation of RCLD students. The former rationale has led to more recent tensions in special education, namely, with research suggesting that RCLD groups were actually under-represented in special education and that issues of health and poverty made it more crucial to identify individuals for needed educational services. Since the early 2000s, however, has highlighted the need for in-depth qualitative research that might illustrate how students from RCLD backgrounds are being deprived of meaningful curriculum and placed in low-tracked (often known as remedial) courses. Lastly, RCLD groups such as Asian Americans have within-group differences that problematize traditional ways of identifying overrepresentation. Ultimately, there is a need to address current tensions and recognize future directions of research in the area of disproportionate presentation.

Effects of Delaying College-Level Mathematics Course Enrollment for Remedial Students

Mathematics has been a barrier for degree attainment. Research has focused on mathematics generally and not the transition from remedial to college-level coursework. This study examined the effects of delaying enrollment in college-level mathematics on student success. Propensity score matching minimized bias between immediate and delayed enrollment in a college-level course. Our findings indicated that delaying enrollment in a college-level course changed the likelihood a university retained first-time remedial mathematics students after Years 1 and 2. No evidence was found to suggest remedial students’ decision to delay enrollment in a college-level course affected undergraduate grade point average or earning a passing grade in college-level mathematics. Results of course performance were biased toward those who attempted a college-level mathematics course; 25.7% of the matched sample who completed their remedial courses never enrolled in a college-level mathematics course, and most of those departed early. Our results support the importance of early completion of mathematics.

Mis/Alignment Between High School and Community College Standards

This study explores the extent to which “college-ready” students, by high school standards, are assigned to remedial courses in college. We used a unique longitudinal data set that links high school and community college transcript data. Focusing on math, we developed a naming device— inter-sector math misalignment (ISMM)—to measure mis/alignment between high school and college-level math standards. The results confirm that ISMM was prevalent and substantial with respect to high school grades, moderate to substantial based on different measures of math course-taking, and minor to moderate based on standardized test results. We see each of these cases as problematic—for equity, for efficiency, and for educational opportunity.