Some of the items on this survey were also included in an FRSS survey of remedial education in higher education institutions conducted in 1983-84. To determine what changes have occurred over the last 6 years, items from the 1989-90 survey were compared with items from the 1983-84 survey that were asked in the same or similar manner. The 1983-84 survey asked for the "Number of separate courses (Do not count courses repeated in more than one semester or multiple sections of the same course more than once)." The 1989-90 survey asked, "What is the number of remedial/ developmental courses with different catalog numbers in fall 1989? (Do not count multiple sections of the same course.)"
The 1983-84 survey found that 82 percent of institutions offered remedial courses in reading writing or mathematics.11 The 1989-90 survey found the number of institutions offering remedial courses decreased to 74 percent. To substantiate this 8 percent decrease, institutions that participated in both studies were compared (slightly more than one-fifth of the institutions in the 1989-90 survey were also in the 1983-84 survey). Overall, of institutions that had participated in both samples, 7 percent fewer offered remedial courses in 1989-90 than in 1983-84.
A downward trend also appeared in the percentage of 4-year institutions offering one or more remedial course in reading writing or mathematics from 1983-84 (78 percent) to 1989-90 (64 percent; Table 15). This trend reappears in both remedial reading and remedial writing at 4-year institutions:
The decrease in the percentage of institutions offering remedial courses was accompanied by a decrease in freshman enrollment in remedial courses. In remedial writing and remedial mathematics courses, this decrease was found for all, public, 4-year, and large institutions. In remedial reading courses, the decrease in freshman enrollment was found only in public and large institutions (Table 16). For example, at large institutions freshman enrollment in remedial reading fell from 16 percent in 1983-84 to 11 percent* in 1989-90.
While participation in remedial courses maybe decreasing, academic support services appear to be on the rise. For example, the number of colleges offering support services specifically for students needing remediation increased from 90 percent to nearly 100 percent.
11 n the previous survey, standard errors were calculated only on selected items. To
determine the standard errors for the remaining items, the ratios of the known standard
errors from the 1983-84 survey over the corresponding standard errors from the 1989-90
survey were computed. Then the average of the ratios based on standard errors for all
institutions was calculated, as was the avenge of the ratios based on standard errors for
subsets (e.g., public, private, 2-year, 4-year, large, small) of all institution. In the former,
1983-84 standard errors were 95 percent of 1989-90 standard errors (based on the average of
5 ratios); in the latter, 1983-84 standard errors were 63 percent of 1989-90 standard errors
(based on the average of 4 ratios and ignoring 1 outlier).
*Standard error is greater than or equal to 10 percent of the estimate (Table 19).
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