Reducing Gaps in Educational Attainment: The Role of Remediation Reform in California Community Colleges

• In Event: The End of Remediation in California's Community Colleges: Policy Implementation, Student Outcomes, and Faculty Experiences

Abstract

California’s racially minoritized students are more likely to begin their postsecondary education at California Community Colleges (CCC), the nation’s largest public higher education system. Unfortunately, until recently this group of students had been disproportionately placed in remedial courses, which slowed or halted their academic progress. In an effort to broaden access to gateway courses and improve equity in student outcomes, in 2017 the state passed landmark legislation known as Assembly Bill 705 (AB 705), requiring CCCs to comprehensively reform their assessment and placement policies.

Specifically, AB 705 requires that colleges maximize the probability that students enter and complete gateway coursework in English and math within one year. Colleges are also required to use information like high school GPA and prior coursework as the primary criteria for placement recommendations. As part of AB 705 implementation, colleges are also moving away from traditional remediation and embracing corequisite models of remediation—which provide students additional academic support while enrolled in the gateway course.

Using a mixed-methods design, this study examines the impact of the placement and curricular changes under AB 705 on a variety of student outcomes during the first three terms of implementation, from fall 2019 to fall 2020. Our quantitative strategy uses longitudinal student-level data provided by the CCC Chancellor’s Office (data covers the universe of students enrolled across the 116 colleges in the system) and an interrupted time-series design (ITS). ITS models will produce impact estimates by comparing student outcomes after the reform was implemented (2019 and 2020) to the outcomes that might have been expected based on pre-reform trends (2015- 2018). Additionally, we conduct a difference-in-differences analysis that exploits variation in the scope and timing of reform implementation across colleges and over time. We also conduct semi-structured interviews with faculty and staff at strong and weak implementer colleges. The main goal of these interviews is to learn more about the ways in which colleges are addressing equity gaps in student outcomes post-AB 705 as well as the challenges that they are facing. Additionally, because colleges had been in a post-COVID environment for one year, interviews also explore lessons learned from the pandemic.

Early findings suggest that access to, and success in, gateway math and English courses has increased substantially among first-time English and math students of all racial/ethnic groups, but equity gaps remain especially in math. This suggests that colleges need to be more intentional about racial equity as they move forward with implementing and scaling reforms. We also find evidence that students in corequisites are more likely to successfully complete the gateway course within one term than students who start in traditional remediation are to complete the course in one year. Moreover, Latino and Black students are better represented in successful completions when enrolled in corequisites. These findings will provide early insights to policymakers, researchers, and practitioners on the role of AB 705 in addressing equity gaps for racially minoritized students and contribute to informing current reform efforts in California and beyond.

Authors

• Marisol Cuellar, Public Policy Institute of California

• Olga Rodriguez, Public Policy Institute of California