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Corequisite remediation had positive effects in some areas

• Corequisite students enrolled in more credit-bearing coursework and received more hours of reading and writing instruction in their first semester of college.
• Corequisite students were less likely to perceive their coursework as being too easy, boring, or repetitive of high school coursework.
• Corequisite students were less likely to know that they were enrolled in developmental education and less likely to feel embarrassed to be enrolled in the course.
• Corequisites were structured to enhance peer learning by mixing students by ability and arranging students in learning communities, and corequisite students spent less time on individual deskwork.
• Qualitatively, researchers found evidence of strong alignment in corequisite models, including focus on a common set of course materials and reliance on the same instructor to teach the college course and provide the academic support.

Some findings were mixed or negative

• Corequisite remediation students were less likely to report having plans to use tutoring in the future.
• Students assigned to standalone developmental education were more likely to perceive their instructors as believing in their potential to succeed.
• Despite smaller class sizes, corequisite students were no more likely to report one-on-one time with the instructor. The greater time spent on individual desk work in standalone developmental education was often used to provide one-on-one support and may have offered additional opportunities for student-centered instruction.

Until recently, many colleges provided academic support to students by requiring students to complete one or more developmental education courses in a subject area before they could enroll in college-level coursework. As early as 2010, research indicated that very few students were making it out of these developmental education courses and into credit-bearing coursework.

Colleges have been experimenting with new approaches that accelerate students into college courses. In this study, researchers focus on one of these approaches to acceleration: corequisite remediation. Corequisite remediation requires that students who are identified as requiring additional academic support be placed immediately into a college course while receiving aligned academic support during that same semester.

Research has shown that corequisite remediation has positive impacts on academic outcomes relative to the traditional approach of requiring students to take developmental education courses. However, little is known about how student experiences differ in corequisite remediation relative to developmental education courses.

In this report, researchers use data from a randomized control trial at five community colleges in Texas to examine contrasts in student experiences between college students who were assigned either to corequisite remediation or to standalone developmental education courses. Researchers examined eight areas: (1) early opportunities to make progress, (2) intensity and compression of academic practice, (3) rigor of coursework and expectations, (4) alignment of academic remediation with college coursework, (5) opportunities for student-centered learning, (6) opportunities for peer learning, (7) support for success skills (e.g., study skills, social and emotional competencies), and (8) exposure to stigma.

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