IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reihed/v61y2020i4d10.1007_s11162-020-09590-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Failing at Remediation? College Remedial Coursetaking, Failure and Long-Term Student Outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Tanya Sanabria

    (California State University, Los Angeles)

  • Andrew Penner

    (University of California, Irvine)

  • Thurston Domina

    (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

Abstract

Colleges offer remedial coursework to help students enrolling in post-secondary education who are not adequately prepared to succeed in college-level courses. Despite the prevalence of remediation, previous research presents contradictory findings regarding its short- and long-term effects. This paper uses a doubly robust inverse probability weighting strategy to examine whether the degree completion and wage outcomes associated with remedial education vary by passing or failing remedial coursework. Using the NLSY Postsecondary Transcript-1997 data, we find that almost 30% of remedial course takers fail a remedial course. Students who took and passed their remedial coursework at both 2-year and 4-year colleges were more likely to graduate from college than similar students who did not take remediation. For both 2-year and 4-year college entrants, students who failed remedial coursework were less likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree and, among degree receivers, took longer to graduate. Students who entered 2-year or 4-year colleges and who failed remedial coursework earned lower wages over time compared to similar students who never took remediation. Among 4-year college entrants, these wage differences seem to be explained completely by degree completion. However, wage differences for 2-year college entrants still remain after accounting for degree receipt. Our findings thus suggest that while many students may benefit from remedial education, a substantial number of students struggle with remedial coursework and fail to realize the intended benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanya Sanabria & Andrew Penner & Thurston Domina, 2020. "Failing at Remediation? College Remedial Coursetaking, Failure and Long-Term Student Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(4), pages 459-484, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reihed:v:61:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s11162-020-09590-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11162-020-09590-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11162-020-09590-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11162-020-09590-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric P. Bettinger & Bridget Terry Long, 2009. "Addressing the Needs of Underprepared Students in Higher Education: Does College Remediation Work?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(3).
    2. Paul Attewell & David Lavin & Thurston Domina & Tania Levey, 2006. "New Evidence on College Remediation," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(5), pages 886-924, September.
    3. Di Xu & Shanna Smith Jaggars & Jeffrey Fletcher & John E. Fink, 2018. "Are Community College Transfer Students “a Good Bet” for 4-Year Admissions? Comparing Academic and Labor-Market Outcomes Between Transfer and Native 4-Year College Students," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 89(4), pages 478-502, July.
    4. Juan Carlos Calcagno & Bridget Terry Long, 2008. "The Impact of Postsecondary Remediation Using a Regression Discontinuity Approach: Addressing Endogenous Sorting and Noncompliance," NBER Working Papers 14194, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Paco Martorell & Isaac McFarlin, 2011. "Help or Hindrance? The Effects of College Remediation on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 436-454, May.
    6. Bailey, Thomas & Jeong, Dong Wook & Cho, Sung-Woo, 2010. "Referral, enrollment, and completion in developmental education sequences in community colleges," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 255-270, April.
    7. Lockwood Reynolds, C., 2012. "Where to attend? Estimating the effects of beginning college at a two-year institution," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 345-362.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nick Huntington-Klein & Andrew Gill, 2021. "Semester Course Load and Student Performance," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(5), pages 623-650, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Di Xu & Sabrina Solanki & Ashley Harlow, 2020. "Examining the Relationship Between 2-year College Entry and Baccalaureate Aspirants’ Academic and Labor Market Outcomes: Impacts, Heterogeneity, and Mechanisms," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(3), pages 297-329, May.
    2. Hodara, Michelle & Xu, Di, 2018. "Are two subjects better than one? The effects of developmental English courses on language minority and native English-speaking students’ community college outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 1-13.
    3. Michal Kurlaender & Lester Lusher & Matthew Case, 2020. "Is Early Start a Better Start? Evaluating California State University's Early Start Remediation Policy," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 348-375, March.
    4. Judith Scott-Clayton & Peter M. Crosta & Clive R. Belfield, 2012. "Improving the Targeting of Treatment: Evidence from College Remediation," NBER Working Papers 18457, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Lindsay C. Page & Judith Scott-Clayton, 2015. "Improving College Access in the United States: Barriers and Policy Responses," NBER Working Papers 21781, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Page, Lindsay C. & Scott-Clayton, Judith, 2016. "Improving college access in the United States: Barriers and policy responses," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 4-22.
    7. Pugatch, Todd & Wilson, Nicholas, 2018. "Nudging study habits: A field experiment on peer tutoring in higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 151-161.
    8. Büchele, Stefan, 2020. "Should we trust math preparatory courses? An empirical analysis on the impact of students’ participation and attendance on short- and medium-term effects," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 154-167.
    9. Gordanier, John & Hauk, William & Sankaran, Chandini, 2019. "Early intervention in college classes and improved student outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 23-29.
    10. Lindsay Daugherty & Russell Gerber & Francisco Martorell & Trey Miller & Emily Weisburst, 2021. "Heterogeneity in the Effects of College Course Placement," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(7), pages 1086-1111, November.
    11. Kalena E. Cortes & Joshua S. Goodman & Takako Nomi, 2015. "Intensive Math Instruction and Educational Attainment: Long-Run Impacts of Double-Dose Algebra," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(1), pages 108-158.
    12. Federick Ngo, 2019. "Fractions in College: How Basic Math Remediation Impacts Community College Students," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(4), pages 485-520, June.
    13. Bailey, Thomas & Jeong, Dong Wook & Cho, Sung-Woo, 2010. "Referral, enrollment, and completion in developmental education sequences in community colleges," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 255-270, April.
    14. Clémentine Van Effenterre, 2017. "Post 16 remedial policies: a literature review," CVER Research Papers 005, Centre for Vocational Education Research.
    15. Paco Martorell & Isaac McFarlin, Jr. & Yu Xue, 2014. "Does Failing a Placement Exam Discourage Underprepared Students from Going to College?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(1), pages 46-80, November.
    16. Pei Hu & Christine G. Mokher & Kai Zhao & Toby J. Park-Gaghan & Shouping Hu, 2023. "Has a U.S. Developmental Education Reform for Academically Underprepared Students Affected College Enrollment?," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    17. Judith Scott-Clayton & Olga Rodriguez, 2014. "Development, Discouragement, or Diversion? New Evidence on the Effects of College Remediation Policy," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(1), pages 4-45, November.
    18. Cortes, Kalena E. & Goodman, Joshua Samuel & Nomi, Takako, 2015. "Intensive Math Instruction and Educational Attainment," Scholarly Articles 34298862, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    19. Phoebe Kotlikoff & Ahmed S. Rahman & Katherine A. Smith, 2022. "Minding the gap: academic outcomes from pre-college programs," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 3-28, January.
    20. Stefan Buechele, 2019. "Should We Trust Math Preparatory Courses? An Empirical Analysis on the Impact of Students' Participation and Attendance on Short- and Medium-Term Effects," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201927, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:reihed:v:61:y:2020:i:4:d:10.1007_s11162-020-09590-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.