Remedial Coursetaking at Public Institutions

Every year, millions of new college students arrive on campus lacking the necessary

academic skills to perform at the college level. Postsecondary institutions address this

problem with extensive remedial programs designed to strengthen students’ basic

skills. In 2011−12, about one-third of all first- and second-year bachelor’s degree

students—29 percent of those at public 4-year institutions and 41 percent of those at

public 2-year institutions—reported having ever taken remedial courses (Skomsvold

2014). Remedial coursetaking rates could be higher if estimates were based on

transcript data (Radford and Horn 2012) or if colleges made remedial education

mandatory for all students assessed as academically underprepared for college-level

work (Bailey and Cho 2010).