Remedial Education and Co-Option

• In Event: 65.035 - Higher Education and the Role of Co-Option

Abstract

Objectives
Remedial education, the need for it and its failings, are a popular concern held by higher education administrators, policy-makers, faculty, staff, and students. But less attention is paid to the disproportionate number of black and brown students (Shaw, 1997) (Sparks & Malkus, 2013) who are blocked from college by failed remedial education systems. This paper looks at the racial disparity within remedial or developmental education as a continuation of a K-12 tracking system, designed to cultivate white learners, and marginalize Black and Brown learners. It looks at the entire US education system as one that is systematically filtering out students of color even after the point of college acceptance.

Theoretical Framework
This theoretical paper takes a Critical Whiteness Studies approach (Allen, 2004) (Leonardo, 2009), which seeks to identify and deconstruct white supremacism in systems and structures to ameliorate violence enacted against people of color. This paper also draws on Critical Race Theory (CRT) theory of Interest Convergence (Bell, 1980) to look at how school integration initiatives have been co-opted by white interests and applies this critical analysis and deconstruction to remedial education programming to see how Black and Brown students are being disenfranchised through the centering of white interests in higher education. This paper will highlight the disproportionate and detrimental impact of remedial education on Black and Brown students. In doing so, this paper will illustrate how remedial programming contributes to a compounded educational debt to students of color (Ladson-Billings, 2006).

Scholarly Significance
Throughout our history, post-Brown v. Board, we’ve seen whites inventing and re-inventing new forms of segregation. Case in point is the K-12 tracking system that serves to track Black and Brown students into lower-level courses (Tyson, 2011) (Donnor & Dixon, 2013), perpetuating the educational debt and great disparity that afflict students of color. White interests have traditionally been centered when addressing educational programs, including socially just-motivated solutions such as integration, which have shown to benefit white teachers and students and to segregate students as much as ever. Remedial education, and the great attrition we see in remedial students is a top challenge in higher education. This paper highlights the importance of centering the needs and interests of students of color in tackling remedial challenges, so as not to continue accumulating our education debt.

Author

• Naomi Nishi, University of Colorado - Denver