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

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  • 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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    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.
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    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.

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