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Introduction
Each year more than a million students begin college in remediation. This prerequisite coursework costs states and students hundreds of millions of dollars but doesn’t count toward a degree. For most of these students—particularly low-income students and students of color— remediation will be their first and last college experience.
The Blueprint
But colleges and universities can change this negative picture. They can build remediation programs that prepare students for the coursework they’ll need to graduate while they earn credit toward their degrees. The blueprint for building such programs includes six 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, they should employ a comprehensive intake process to determine students’ academic goals, career goals, and level of college readiness.
Pillar Two: Treat All Students as College Students
All students should be considered college students from Day One, not as remedial students who must demonstrate readiness for college before entering a program.
Pillar Three: Deliver Academic Support as a Corequisite
Most students who require additional academic support in a college-level course should receive it as a corequisite: a required, supplemental program the student follows while enrolled in that course.
Pillar Four: All Students Should Complete Gateway Courses in One Academic Year
Colleges must abandon the use of the remedial education sequences that prevent students from completing college-level courses in one academic year.
Pillar Five: Develop Multiple Pathways into Programs of Study
College algebra should no longer be considered the default gateway math course. It should be viewed narrowly—as a preparatory course for programs that require precalculus or calculus.
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.