海角大神

Lulu Matute still remembers the sinking sensation she felt when she heard the news.

It was the fall of 2012, and Ms. Matute had just taken the placement exam that gauged every prospective college student鈥檚 skill in math and English. She had hoped to earn her associate鈥檚 degree at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and transfer to a four-year institution within two years. 鈥淏ut based on the layout my counselor gave me, I was going to be there for three and a half, because I was starting at the lowest-level math,鈥� she says.

The 18 extra months in remediation 鈥� work she would have to do for no credit 鈥� meant she was stuck juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet as she delayed getting a bachelor鈥檚 degree.

鈥淲hat I needed for my life was to start where I was at. Meet me where I am, school. Move forward,鈥� Matute says. 鈥淩emediation felt like we were going to move backwards.鈥�

Others in her remedial math course felt similarly, she says. Every week, she watched fellow students drop out of class, discouraged. 鈥淏y the end of that semester, there were only a handful of us left,鈥� she explains.

Over the past decade, experiences like Matute鈥檚 鈥� backed by聽聽鈥� have served as impetus for a wave of reforms in remedial, or developmental, education at postsecondary institutions in California and across the country.

贵谤辞尘听听迟辞听, policymakers and educators are revising their approaches to remediation in an effort to streamline the path from enrollment to graduation. This month, California State University 鈥� the largest four-year public university system in the country 鈥� announced聽聽to its developmental education policy, starting at placement and weaving through coursework and student support programs. About one-third of California鈥檚 114 community colleges have adopted similar reforms.

The new direction stems in part from a broader shift in priorities, as educators recognize the economy鈥檚 growing demand for postsecondary certification.

鈥淭he focus for some time now has been on getting students in the door,鈥� says Hans Johnson, director of the Higher Education Center at the Public Policy Institute of California. 鈥淭he new focus has been on identifying better ways of overcoming the obstacles for students to succeed. Reforms in remedial education are one part of that.鈥�

Also driving the call for change are findings that suggest that traditional remedial coursework聽聽students of color and low-income and first-generation students.

鈥淭here was growing clarity that the systems we had set up hoping to help students were having these terrible unintended consequences,鈥� says Katie Hern, an English instructor at Chabot College in Hayward, Calif., and co-founder of the California Acceleration Project, a remedial education advocacy group. 鈥淵ou鈥檒l never increase college completion if you keep losing students at the front door in these remedial course sequences that they don鈥檛 even earn credit for.鈥�

The right kind of support?

The thrust of the argument to overhaul remedial education lies in research that shows an overwhelming number of students who enroll in such courses never get on a graduation or transfer track. Nearly 70 percent of students at community college and 40 percent at public four-year universities take at least one remedial course, according to data from the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University. Yet聽聽of community college students who start in a remedial course manage to earn a degree within eight years. At four-year institutions,聽聽of remedial students graduate within six years, compared to more than 55 percent of students who start at college-level courses.

鈥淭his is the entire way we鈥檝e set up 鈥榮upport鈥� for underprivileged students,鈥� Professor Hern says.

Matute, raised by immigrant parents in a poor West Side neighborhood in Chicago, says she could easily have been a casualty of the system.聽But after her first semester, she signed up for a class that offered a faster way to become eligible for transfer to a four-year institution. The course plunged remedial students into pre-statistics.

Most of the students were like her, Matute says: immigrant, low-income, first-generation, all a little intimidated by the notion of statistics. 鈥淚t was intense,鈥� she says.聽鈥淏ut it was high-support.鈥� Their professor encouraged the class to work in groups, use the school鈥檚 free tutoring services, and keep each other accountable.

鈥淚t created a community,鈥� Matute says, and that 鈥渂ecame part of the equation that helped so many of us succeed.鈥� Within two years of enrolling, she received her associate鈥檚 degree in behavioral sciences, arts, and humanities, with a 3.9 GPA.

Indeed, an early evaluation of the CCSF program showed that students who took pre-statistics did just as well in the school鈥檚 transfer-level math course as those who took the traditional remedial route, which involves one semester of elementary algebra followed by another in intermediate algebra. The students in pre-statistics also received their transfer qualifications within five semesters聽at a higher rate (42 percent) than those in elementary algebra (17 percent).

Similar results at other California community colleges 鈥� such as Long Beach City College and Cuyamaca College in El Cajon 鈥� spurred already burgeoning efforts to streamline the remedial process. In July, the state community college system released a document detailing聽聽for the 2.1 million students enrolled in its campuses. The report outlines plans for adopting revised policies around developmental education.

鈥淲e have had to take a hard look at how we get more students to complete a college credential in a more timely way,鈥� says chancellor Eloy Oakley.聽

California State University followed suit in August with聽聽that calls for a replacement, beginning in 2018, of all traditional remedial courses across the system鈥檚 23 campuses. In their place, the chancellor鈥檚 office called for the development of credit-bearing courses that provide embedded, or 鈥渃orequisite,鈥� support.

The order also expands the use of measures like high school GPA and SAT scores to assess whether or not a student is college-ready.

鈥淲e carefully considered the evidence that suggests if we revise the way we assess and place students, a great number of them can take college-level courses, especially if you give them adequate support,鈥� says James Minor, CSU鈥檚 senior strategist for academic success. 鈥淭hat requires us doing business differently.鈥�

Quantity vs. quality of graduates

Critics of the reform movement often chide advocates for prioritizing quantity over quality. 鈥淭oo many administrators and legislators simply think of the bottom line 鈥� the number of graduates 鈥� and in doing so disregard quality and standards for all students,鈥� educators Alexandros Goudas and Hunter Boylan wrote in聽聽of CCRC鈥檚 research.

While remedial education today is far from perfect, they noted, policymakers need to be careful before advocating major 鈥� and potentially harmful 鈥� changes to developmental courses. 鈥淚t is a disservice, to students and the country, to move them through without assuring proper understanding,鈥� they wrote.

There鈥檚 also concern around the time and resources it takes to revamp something as unwieldy as remedial education, especially across campuses. And convincing educators on the ground that the returns are worth the investments has been a slog, says Lena Carew, founder of Students Making a Change, a student-led advocacy group that fights to reform remedial education.

But it鈥檚 the students who are perhaps the most thrilled to see change take place. Maggie White, president of the California State Student Association, says students have been talking about problems with remedial education for years. And as someone who took remedial courses herself, Ms. White sees great potential in CSU鈥檚 decision to scale up reform. 鈥淚f it works, if it gets rid of barriers to graduation, I think we can see shifts across the whole country,鈥� she says.

For Matute, who has since joined Students Making a Change, it鈥檚 extra personal. After wrapping up at CCSF in 2014, she transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. She now works with a progressive nonprofit that supports candidates of color nationwide, maintains a 3.9 GPA, and is set to receive her bachelor鈥檚 in American Studies come spring.聽

Matute attributes much of her success to the pre-statistics course that she says redirected her educational destiny.

鈥淚t made a huge difference in time, in money, in academics, and in morale,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hese policies are looking at the cracks [in the system] and filling them in. I鈥檓 a living testament to how they work.鈥�