Remedial education has been an enduring, integral part of higher education, as has the concern about the place of remediation in college-level education. That concern has led to a long-standing debate which encompasses issues of equity--providing adequate preparation for a diverse student population--and issues of quality -- ensuring high standards at colleges and universities.
As early as the late 1800s, colleges and universities in America operated programs to prepare students for undergraduate work. Often, however, the students enrolled in such preparatory programs were barely teenagers. Therefore, they did not have the same number of years of elementary and secondary school education as today's college-level remedial students. Over 40 percent of entering students in colleges in the United States in 1894 were preparatory students.1 Preparatory programs were considered pre-college and generally were found at 2-year colleges from the 1920s until the late 1960s.
In the 1970s, remedial education at 2-year and 4-year colleges became more common in response to changing enrollment patterns of entering freshmen, declining high school achievement levels, and adoption of open admission standards on the part of many institutions. The state of remedial education in higher education institutions as the 1990s begin is the topic of this report.
This report presents the findings of a Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) survey of colleges on remedial/development programs offered during fall 1989. The survey was conducted to meet the need for information at the national level on the extent of remedial education and the characteristics of remedial programs. The survey provides national estimates on the following:
It also provides information on characteristics of remedial courses and programs, such as the type of credit given, requirement status, use of placement tests, most frequent provider of remedial education, evaluations conducted, support services offered, activities engaged in to reduce the need for remedial education, and maintenance of retention and baccalaureate degree graduation rates for students who enrolled in remedial courses.
This study provides the first data collected at the national level since a 1983-84 FRSS survey on the same topic. In addition to updating the national picture of college remedial education, the current survey attempted to furnish estimates of racial/ethnic participation in remedial education in order to determine the extent of remedial education provided to minority students by higher education institutions. Racial/ethnic breakdowns are not reported, however, because the percentage of institutions that maintained and could provide these data was too low to serve as the basis for the computation of national estimates.
The survey first asked whether institutions offered a remedial course in reading, writing, or mathematics. "Remedial studies," for the purposes of this study, were defined as any program, course, or other activity (in the area of reading, writing, or mathematics) for students lacking those skills necessary to perform college-level work at the level required by the institution. Throughout the questionnaire, these activities were referred to as "remedial/ developmental." However, respondents were asked to include any activity meeting the definition, regardless of name. Colleges may have used one of a variety of names such as compensatory and basic skills all of which meet the definition for remedial studies.
The report presents all of the data for all institutions, by control (public and private), type (2-year and 4-year), geographic region (Northeast, Central, Southeast, and West), enrollment size of institution (less than 1,000; 1,000 to 4,999; and 5,000 or more) and minority status (student body less than 50 percent white and student body greater than or equal to 50 percent white). Some of the characteristics are interrelated. For example, only 22 percent of 2- year institutions are private, compared to 70 percent of 4-year institutions. Similar patterns generally emerge for public and 2-year colleges; likewise, private and 4-year colleges often have similar patterns.
Survey findings in this report are organized into three main sections. The first section discusses the number of institutions, courses freshmen, and teachers involved in college-level remedial education; the second describes remedial courses and programs; the third compares data from this survey to data from the 1983-84 survey.
1 Arthur Levine, Handbook on Undergraduate Curriculum. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1978.
