Rethinking Remedial Education: New Study Shows College Students Did Better in ‘Corequisite’ Courses Built Around Extra Instruction and Support – The 74
A first-of-its-kind study found mixed evidence that a type of reform meant to improve the odds that college students graduate is truly effective.
The researchers homed in on corequisite courses, an instructional model that allows students to skip remedial math and English courses and instead take college-level, or gateway, classes with additional instructional support.
The analysis, conducted by Florence Xiaotao Ran of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University and Yuxin Lin of the University of Southern California, studied eight years of student records at the 13 community colleges under the Tennessee Board of Regents, which in 2015 was the first state collection of higher-education institutions to have corequisite classes systemwide.
“I think the biggest takeaway from this report is that we found very robust evidence that corequisites can improve your outcome in gateway courses,” Ran said. “But it seems that it’s not sufficient enough to improve the overall completion” of students pursuing degrees or wanting to transfer to four-year institutions, the common goals of community college students.