Post-secondary education presents a number of benefits to both the individual plus the society, like higher pays, lower unemployment rates and reliance on the government, a wider tax base, and more civic involvement. Access to this education, however, is still a challenge for a lot of families. According to estimates, over a third of 1st-year learners take up remedial coursework in either Mathematics or English; in some institutions, it can range between 60 and 70% of learners (Bettinger, Boatman, & Long, 2013, p. 94). Most often, students who have taken up remedial/developmental courses are excluded from enrolling for college-level courses; owing to this, remediation has essentially become the entry (or barrier) to training at …show more content…
Less than half of learners in remediation actually finalize the series in its entirety. Furthermore, longer-term outcomes, like overall credit accumulation and completion of a degree – for remedial students – are also much lower. However, this reality alone is not proof that remediation courses are not effective. Since remedial students have lower preparation levels than students not in remediation, the expectation would be that remedial students would less likely continue and finish a degree even minus a remedial course. The outcomes are varied when new sources of data that make a comparison of similar learners are utilized to examine the impact of remediation on learner outcomes. For instance, in assessment of the impact of remediation in Ohio, Bettinger and Long (2009) established that remedial learners at colleges in Ohio were more likely to continue and finish a bachelor’s degree in college than those who were not required to register for the courses – despite having comparable test scores and backgrounds (p. …show more content…
The decisions on policy regarding where remedial should be allowed or whether it should be limited have significant repercussions for college access and for whether going to college is actually a way out of hardship. For states and institutions, if they intend to advance academic achievement and levels of skill and reduce reliance on government, they should thoroughly consider ways of governing and providing