Dive Brief:
- Two studies examine the first full semester of a statewide initiative in Tennessee that scaled up corequisite remediation, ensuring every developmental education student gets additional support while taking a college-level course instead of starting with non-credit-bearing prerequisites.
- Inside Higher Ed reports the corequisite model costs more per student, because of the need for additional faculty, but the cost per successful student is significantly lower because the program is much more efficient at getting students through remediation and into college-level work.
- Though still impressive, the results of full implementation were slightly less striking than the success of an earlier pilot program — and some schools saw greater pass rates than others — so the Tennessee Board of Regents is looking into how the differences in implementation across campuses may have contributed to better results at some schools.
Dive Insight:
Complete College America highlighted the work of Tennessee in its recent report, "Corequisite Remediation: Spanning the Completion Divide,” which details results from five states that have implemented corequisite remediation in all community and technical colleges. Educators across the country have recognized the traditional model of remediation, where students need to take non-credit-bearing skill-building courses, isn't working for students. Too many never make it to a college-level courses, let alone graduation.
Other models that have been implemented at colleges include summer bridge courses, which are enough to get some students ready for fall, college-level work. Some colleges have found a mandatory, online refresher course helps students place into higher-level courses.