A Webster dictionary definition of remedial is to correct poor study or reading habits. But this generic definition does not provide sufficient guidance to understand college remediation, a complicated multi-disciplinary process that differs between institutions across the country.

At most broad-access open-enrollment colleges, two- and four-year students take a placement test at the start of their first year. Because admissions is not a hurdle, postsecondary institutions need placement tests as a method to place students in regular credit bearing courses or in special remedial courses. Most colleges define remediation as course work that is below college level work.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of tests are used, so it is difficult to understand the knowledge and skills required of entering students. California community colleges, for example, use more than 100 different tests. Texas has a required statewide placement exam, but many colleges and universities in Texas use there own exam for placement. The most widely used placement tests are constructed by ETS and ACT, but many others are designed by higher education departments or faculty at individual campuses. On one hand, this makes sense, given differing institutional missions, but a case can be made that the current situation is confusing for everyone involved. Students cannot be well informed about what they need to know in order to avoid remediation. There is a wide range of acceptable student-performance levels, and tracking the proportion of students that need remedial education is virtually impossible. Indeed, estimates of the number and percent of remedial students are all over the place. None of the experts are comfortable with any of the current definitions.

DEFINITIONS OR ESTIMATES

The official federal Department of Education remedial rates are among the lowest, 42% in two-year, and 20% in four years for at least one course. Other indicators are much higher. The academic Senate of the California Community Colleges found far more than half of their entering students were placed at a level below college readiness. ACT found in 2005 that only 51% of ACT tested high school graduates met its College Readiness Benchmarks for reading (most community college students do not take ACT, so this is probably an estimate of four-year remediation). Another ACT study concluded that only 22% of 1.2 million high school seniors tested in 2004 met their college benchmarks in college biology, algebra, and English composition.

It appears that many more students than those who are labeled remedial are not ready for college. The Southern Regional Education Board declared that the college-readiness problem is perhaps twice as large as the current remedial program statistics suggest. Most states have not set a student academic readiness standard for the various segments of public higher education. Moreover, my examination of college course catalogs in six states indicates that many non-remedial regular credit courses, such as intermediate algebra, should be mastered in high school.

After synthesizing data from many sources, my estimates for the need, nationally, are 55% in two-year colleges and 30% in four year institutions, but I am not confident that this is correct. In sum, we do not accurately know at the national and state levels how many students need remedial education, what it costs, how many take it, how many complete it successfully, and what happens to those students after they complete those courses. And students can not prepare for college-level work ahead of time, because remedial and college-level standards are not connected to high school expectations, nor are they advertised to K-12 educators, students, or parents.

The technical calculations of remediation all have problems. All three U.S. Department of Education methods underestimate it. At the national level, the Postsecondary Education Quick Information System (USDOE)is a survey of two- and four-year schools. The unit of analysis is institution, not the student. It is very doubtful that college officials include all remedial students in their survey answers, because it is not in their interest to tell the public about high remediation rates. Remediation rates are also derived from the Department Beginning Postsecondary Education student surveys, but remediation is self-reported by students and all ages are mixed together. So it is safe to assume that remediation is under-reported in general, and there is no way to parse out the number of students who attend college immediately after high school and need remediation.

Older students might need remediation because they have not been in a classroom for a long time. When younger students need remediation, it can be an indication of broken K-16 systems that are not serving students well. Another approach is to analyze transcripts from databases like the National Education Longitudinal Studies (NELS). The U.S. Department of Education’s staff must make judgments about which course titles on transcripts are classified as remedial. Although Departmental staff has multiple checks in place to ensure accuracy, this is a judgment game. Moreover, NELS is a decade old and a number of indications suggest remediation has increased since 1995.

Remediation rates are very murky at the institutional level as well. While researching these issues, I found that remediation rates at Southern Illinois University (SIU) at Carbondale was 5.6% and at San Jose State 51%. The entering students at these two institutions did not seem all that different. I discovered that SIU transports students to a nearby community college, so the remedial student shows up in the community college reports. All analysts agree that there has been remedial outsourcing by four-year to two-year institutions in the last decade.

Students do not seem aware of their remedial risks that results in non-credit courses and cause more time to degree/certificate, more money, and increased probability of dropping out. In a 2001 survey of freshmen conducted by UCLA of four-year colleges, only 9% reported they would need special tutoring or remedial work in English, but many more students need remedial education once they start at a four-year college. The University of Wyoming is publicizing a new scholarship program for secondary students with a 2.5 grade point average and ACT score of 17. For many other institutions, an ACT score of 17 indicates that a student needs remedial education.

What can be done about having more consistent, reliable, and valid remediation rate data? Secondary and postsecondary education need to create a process to define and measure remediation based on curriculum content and assessment standards for specific subjects. Remediation standards need to be communicated clearly to secondary students, and linked to K-12 assessments that indicate whether high school students are ready for college. These K-16 standards need to be embedded in college placement tests that are aligned with K-12 tests. Students need to know that admission to college is not a permission slip to take college-credit courses immediately upon starting college.

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Labels: College Success

Using the 2001 Carnegie classifications, 80% of students go to Community Colleges, Baccalaureate colleges – General, Baccalaureate/Associates Colleges, Masters Colleges and Universities I and II. These are generally referred to broad-access schools, some of which may be included in Doctoral/Research Universities, Intensive and Baccalaureate Colleges, and Liberal Arts Colleges.

Broad-access colleges and universities have few admission requirements, but still require students to have solid academic skills to qualify for college-level classes—a fact that catches many first-year college students unaware. At broad-access colleges, students confront placement exams when they enter and those exams are the pathway to credit-level courses.

High school students know they will be admitted to broad-access colleges if they meet minimum GPA and course requirements or are over 18 years of age. Students aspiring to attend broad-access colleges receive weak and confusing signals about necessary academic preparation to pass placement exams. Consequently, they are not prepared for placement exams, and end up in remedial courses. More than half of first-semester community college students take remedial courses—mostly math and reading.

Research on the content, reliability, and necessary preparation for placement exams is scant. The content, cognitive demands, and psychometric quality of placement exams are a dark continent in terms of the research literature.

Moreover, placement standards are not well-publicized to prospective students or secondary school teachers. Students are admitted under one low standard, but then, based on placement exam scores, are often placed in remediation on another higher standard.

Secondary school students wrongly believe that their high school graduation requirements are sufficient to warrant placement in postsecondary credit-level work. These same students rarely know about the possibility of placement failure that leads to starting college in remedial, non-credit courses.

And then, unfortunately, students who begin in remedial reading and math courses have a lower probability of college success or finishing their desired academic program (including vocational education certificates). In sum, remediation is a poor pathway from high school to college, while being able to enter credit-level courses leads to higher rates of college completion.

Revision of college placement exams have not been part of the K-12 standards movement that has swept across the U.S. Indeed, placement exams are not part of the discussion because standards policies are made in separate K-12 and higher education orbits that rarely intersect.

For more data to support these views see http:/bridgeproject.stanford.edu. Also, please visit us at MyCollegePuzzle.

Labels: College Preparation