The Sunshine State Is Slashing Funding for Remedial Education--- Big Mistake!

According to this morning's Chronicle of Higher Education,  after the state system made remediation optional, student participation allegedly plummeted.  Legislators therefore cut funding.  Leaders of the state's 28 open-access colleges are protesting that the legislature has goofed.  They say that the nature of remedial programs has morphed, but that --- if anything --- student use of such services has grown... and grown more costly.

It's hard for me to believe anything else.  Twenty years ago, when I left the private practice of law to return to the academy, my three-year transition job was teaching legal research and writing at Widener University's law school in Wilmington, Delaware.  Back in the day, Widener Law School pulled up the rear among law schools in the Greater Philadelphia area.  It had the largest student body among the region's law programs and was a bit of a bottom feeder from among the applicant pool.  Consequently, remediation was a "must."

In fact, during my time at Widener (1993-96), the law faculty called for a reduction in the size of the student body to be accomplished by chopping off the bottom strata.  I well recall a faculty meeting at which the president of the university drove down from the main campus in Chester (PA).  His message:  we'll spend more money on remediation, but we won't shrink the enrollment.  And why would they?  The law school was Widener's cash cow.

Fast forward 20 years and, if anything, I see an even greater need for remedial assistance for students at all but the best colleges and universities.  And, as the Florida folks apparently are claiming, the nature of the remedial services has evolved.  Research has revealed that remedial courses often are perceived by students as stigmatizing.  This is especially true with regard to our students of color.  A 2016 CUNY study is particularly compelling in its conclusion that mainstreaming students directly into introductory courses, complemented by intensive tutoring, is a far superior way of ensuring weak students' success, as measured by pass and graduation rates.

Bottom line: remediation has evolved from traditional remedial (usually no-credit) courses to more sophisticated approaches, such as the use of embedded tutors.  But remediation is as vital to the success of a large swath of our student bodies as it ever was, if not more so.