Dive Brief:
- New data from the Hechinger Report indicates that more than 95% of schools enrolled students who required remedial courses during the 2014-15 academic year, good for more than 560,000 of the 17.3 million students enrolled in college that year.
- Research suggests that the remedial courses cost taxpayers more than $7 billion in grants and loans awarded by the student financial aid program.
- More than 30% of students at two- and four-year schools enrolled in remedial courses failed to complete a degree.
Dive Insight:
As legislative and accrediting bodies demand that colleges do more to grant access to low-income and minority students, the casualties of secondary education deficits become more glaring in retention and graduation outcomes. This puts colleges in a difficult position of admitting high-caliber students from high performing secondary districts over students from low-performing districts with similar credentials.
It is up to college leaders to establish relationships with high schools and community colleges in order to better screen for capacity among incoming students. Additionally, developing and refining competency-based models can strengthen the effect of remedial education, while encouraging a diverse set of learners to remain engaged with higher learning.