A large percentage of young Americans leave high school without the academic preparation they need to succeed even in the watered-down version of college today. For that reason, many colleges instituted remedial (or “developmental”) classes — typically in English and math — that were intended to get such students ready for their real coursework.
Of late, however, there has been pushback against remedial classes. In today’s Martin Center article, Dr. Esam Sohail Mohammad argues for a “mend it, don’t end it” approach. He writes, “Mandating that most developmental education at community colleges disappear turns the idea of inclusion on its head. Such a policy hurts those whom it purports to help. Unprepared students do not suddenly become more prepared for college work simply because remediation support disappears.”
Mohammad advances several ways of improving remedial classes: better assessment of students coming in, getting unprepared students into “regular” courses while they’re doing their remedial work, and breaking the developmental material into “bite-sized” modules.
Mohammad concludes, “Developmental education in community colleges, as it stands today, is hardly something to celebrate. Yet it exists in its current form to address the disturbing fact that far too many incoming freshmen, for far too long, have been not just underprepared but unprepared to take on degree-level college classes. This is a serious problem. Public policy to address it requires serious thought, measured innovations, and judicious decision-making across the pipeline from elementary school to college.”