Remedial education

Remedial education (also known as developmental education, basic skills education, compensatory education, preparatory education, and academic upgrading) is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic skills such as literacy and numeracy.Placement test scores are not especially good predictors of course grades in developmental education classes. More importantly, the tests do not have much explanatory power across a range of measures of performance including college GPA, credit accumulation, and success in gatekeeper English and math classes.For example, those with the greatest need for developmental math may be expected to enroll in and pass pre-collegiate math or arithmetic, basic algebra, and intermediate algebra, in order to prepare them forcollege-level algebra. Remedial education (also known as developmental education, basic skills education, compensatory education, preparatory education, and academic upgrading) is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic skills such as literacy and numeracy. Whereas special education is designed specifically for students with special needs, remedial education can be designed for any students, with or without special needs; the defining trait is simply that they have reached a point of lack of preparedness, regardless of why. For example, even people of high intelligence can be under-prepared if their education was disrupted, for example, by internal displacement during civil disorder or a war. In Canada, the process whereby mature students take secondary school courses so that they can qualify to take post-secondary education is called academic upgrading. The Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia defines academic upgrading as 'programs offered to adult learners who require the academic pre-requisites needed for entry into many occupational programs.' The Alberta Ministry of Enterprise and Advanced Education advises that academic upgrading can be pursued through a post-secondary institution, a school board program such as a storefront school, or via distance learning. Postsecondary remediation is delivered on both 2-year community college and 4-year university campuses in the U.S. The bulk of remedial courses focus on advancing underprepared students' literacy skills (English and reading) or math skills. However, remedial courses can also be offered for other subjects such as science or study skills. Many students are placed into remedial courses through placement tests such as the ACT, SAT, ACCUPLACER, or COMPASS assessments. Often, each college or university sets its own score thresholds for determining whether a student must enroll in remedial courses. However, some states are moving toward a uniform standard for remedial placement cut scores. Students are required to enroll in remedial courses before advancing to a college level course in that subject. Colleges review a student's score by subject - math, English, science, etc. - and compare that score to the school's cutoff. For example, a college might use a score of 19 on the ACT math section as the threshold for determining whether a student must enroll in a remedial math course or college-level math course. Particularly at community colleges – which are open enrollment to any student with a high school degree or GED – multiple semesters of remedial coursework may be available to and required of students that enter with low placement test scores. Whether placement tests are the most effective method of placing students is an open debate across the US. Some colleges and states are experimenting with using high school GPA and placement test scores to determine student course referral. A study of placement tests by the Community College Research Center in 2012 found: Using GPA with standardized test scores may also improve the accuracy of remedial placement and limit the likelihood of placing students into additional remedial courses they may not need. North Carolina recently implemented a statewide policy that allows two-year colleges to use both placement test scores and high school GPA to place students. Estimates on the portion of students in higher education taking remedial courses vary. At two-year colleges the percentage reported of students taking at least 1 remedial course varies from 41% to as high as 60%. Students from low-income households, African American students and Hispanic students are more likely to enroll in remedial courses. National estimates show that among two-year college students, students age 17-19 are most likely to enroll in remedial courses followed by students age 20-24 and then students age 25+.