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>Remedial Courses Increase Chances That Underprepared Students Will >Complete Their Degrees, Study Finds > > >By DAVID GLENN > >Remedial courses appear to improve poorly prepared college students' >odds of eventually completing a degree, two economists reported in a >working paper distributed last week. > >The new study, which draws on data for more than 28,000 students who >entered public colleges and universities in Ohio in 1998, arrives at a >time when some state governments and university systems are debating the >cost-effectiveness of remedial programs. The Nevada Board of Regents, >for example, recently adopted a plan that will eliminate state subsidies >for remedial courses. Without the subsidies, students will have to pay >the full cost of such courses. > >Scholars have generally found it difficult to estimate the effectiveness >of remedial courses. Few colleges rigorously evaluate their own >programs. Earlier studies have often found that students who take >remedial courses have worse grades and higher dropout rates than their >peers. But that in itself is no surprise, since remedial students >generally have weaker skills and high-school preparation than the >typical college student. > >The challenge for researchers has been to find a valid apples-to-apples >comparison that can assess the experiences of students with roughly >equivalent skills and preparation. In other words: If Douglas and >Elizabeth enter college with identical C- high-school grades and >identical achievement-test scores, and Douglas begins college with >remedial courses in English and mathematics, is he likely to be better >off than Elizabeth in the long run? > >The authors of the new paper -- Eric P. Bettinger, an assistant >professor of economics at Case Western Reserve University, and Bridget >Terry Long, an associate professor of education and economics at Harvard >University -- believe that they have solved the puzzle. > >Their new study takes advantage of the fact that Ohio's public colleges >and universities have considerable discretion in setting their >remediation policies. Some institutions, for example, require students >who score worse than 580 on the verbal portion of the SAT to take >remedial writing courses. But other Ohio colleges use lower SAT-score >cutoffs -- in some cases, as low as 410. There is also similar variation >in the colleges' standards for high-school grade-point averages. > >So a student in one corner of Ohio with a 2.1 high-school GPA and a >verbal SAT score of 520 might (hypothetically) enter a Dayton-area >community college and be required to take remedial courses in writing >and mathematics. Meanwhile, in Youngstown, a student with an identical >high-school record might enter the local community college and face no >such requirement. With a large enough number of such pairs, it becomes >possible to generalize about the effects of remedial courses. > >The Ohio Board of Regents provided Mr. Bettinger and Ms. Long with data >on 28,376 students who entered public colleges in Ohio in 1998 (with >appropriate steps taken to prevent any student from being identified by >name). The two economists then developed a statistical model that >assesses the progress of the students through the spring-2003 semester. > >The researchers were especially interested in a subgroup -- >approximately 15,000 students -- whose high-school grades and test >scores were low enough that they would have been required to take >remedial courses at some Ohio colleges, but not so low that they would >have been required to take remedial courses at all 25 institutions >included in the study. > >Among the students in that group, the researchers found that those who >took remedial courses in mathematics were 9.6 percent less likely to >drop out of college within five years than were students with similar >high-school preparation who did not take such courses. > >Students who took remedial courses in English, the researchers found, >were 17.3 percent more likely to complete a bachelor's degree within >four years than were students with similar high-school preparation who >did not take such courses. > >The students who took remedial courses in English were also 18.9 percent >less likely to transfer to a less-selective college than students in the >comparison group. > >The authors note that their study has at least one important limitation. >Because of its methodology, the study reveals nothing about the >experiences of students whose high-school grades and test scores were so >low that all 25 public Ohio colleges would have required them to take >remedial courses. > >Mr. Bettinger and Ms. Long's study has been presented at several >seminars, but has not yet completed a formal peer review. It was partly >financed by a grant from the Lumina Foundation. An abstract is available >on the Website (http://www.nber.org/papers/w11325) of the National >Bureau of Economic Research. The full paper may be purchased for $5 on >the same site. > >* * * > >In a related study, the U.S. Education Department's National Center for >Education Statistics released a report on Thursday about the differing >outcomes between students who enroll in college right out of high school >and those who delay their enrollment, for economic or other reasons. > >According to the report, "Waiting to Attend College: Undergraduates Who >Delay Their Postsecondary Enrollment," students who delay beginning >their postsecondary education are at a "significant disadvantage" >relative to those who go straight to college from high school, in terms >of how well prepared they are, how much they have to work to finance >their education, and so on. > >Delayed matriculators also tend to be outperformed by their peers who do >not delay: 40 percent of delayed entrants earn some kind of >postsecondary credential, compared with 58 percent of immediate >entrants. > Link to delayed enrollers from Inside Higher Ed: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005152 Source: http://insidehighered.com/ Cordially, Dan Kern AD12 Reading Skills East Central College 1964 Prairie Dell Road Union, Missouri 63084 Phone: 636-583-5195 ext. 2426 Fax: 636-584-0513 Email: [log in to unmask] Kern ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To access the LRNASST-L archives or User Guide, or to change your subscription options (including subscribe/unsubscribe), point your web browser to http://www.lists.ufl.edu/archives/lrnasst-l.html To contact the LRNASST-L owner, email [log in to unmask]