Millions of eager students are falling out of California’s Community Colleges because of a broken remedial education system.
Students placed in remedial courses get caught in a basic skills bottleneck that too often does not let them enter college level classes that will ensure they can reach their college dreams and be prepared for good jobs.
75% of California Community College students are assessed and placed into basic skills courses

Only 1 in 5
students will ever
complete a degree
Where you begin can determine your destiny
Traditional Path
Community College Freshman
Assessment

College Ready
No Remediation Necessary
College Level Courses
Diploma
Not College Ready
Traditional Remedial Path
*32,000 students were assessed into 3 levels below college-level math
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students fall out
students fall out
students fall out
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College Level Courses
Diploma
93% of students DO NOT make it out of remedial math.
Placement is Destiny
Thanks to policy changes at the California Community Colleges, transfer-level courses have become the default starting point for students as soon as they step onto campus. This puts students on a faster path to graduation, side-stepping the unnecessary barrier of remedial education courses.
Research has shown that ALL students have higher chances of completion when enrolling directly into transfer-level courses.At colleges that have significantly broadened access to transfer-level courses, the proportion of students completing a transfer-level course within one semester rose 18 percentage points in Math and 30 percentage points in English in 2018.
Among students taking transfer-level courses with corequisite support, completion is double that of students taking remedial English (63% vs. 32%) and almost five times that of students taking remedial math (65% vs. 14%) (PPIC).
Even students with the lowest high school GPAs face better odds when they enroll directly in a transfer-level course rather than a traditional remedial course.

Source: Analysis by the Multiple Measures Assessment Project, Statewide Data from 2007-2014, Corequisite Data from F2016-2018 (N=4332).

Source: Analysis by the Multiple Measures Assessment Project, Statewide Data from 2007-2014, Corequisite Data from Pre-Calc & Business Calc F2016-F2018 (N=241).
For more on how the new placement practices are boosting student success at California Community Colleges, read:
Redesigned Remedial Path
*A student’s odds of completion are 4.3 times greater than the traditional remedial path
- Changing Assessment & Placement Policies
- Redesigned & Shortened Remedial Courses
- Co-Requisite Remediation & Contextualization
Standardized testing severely under-places one third of students. In fact, research has shown that high school grade point average is the strongest predictor of performance in college level coursework. Using multiple measures of student readiness helps ensure more accurate placement!
Works to reduce or eliminate the time a student spends in remediation by leveraging strategies that 1) place more students directly into college level coursework, 2) institute co-requisite models that enroll underprepared students in transfer- level work with additional support, and 3) align a single semester remedial course with the transfer-level course in the students’ program of study.
Prepares students for college and career by utilizing instructional strategies designed to link basic skills with academic or occupational content – focusing on concrete applications in a specific career context.
Basic Skills & Student Outcomes
Transformation Program
California made a historic $60 million investment to establish the Basic Skills & Student Outcomes Transformation Program in the 2015-16 Budget Act. Under this program, California Community Colleges have an opportunity to receive financial support, professional development and the technical assistance they need to adopt or scale up, promising practices in the delivery of remedial education instruction.
Resources
Reports:
Remediation: Higher Education’s Bridge to Nowhere
Powerful Acceleration Strategies that Produce Results
Core Principles for Transforming Remedial Education
Articles:
From a Discourse of Deficiency to a Discourse of Faith
Transforming Remediation: An Essential Part of Campus Equity Efforts
Other:
Stuck at Square One: College Students Increasingly Caught In Remedial Education Trap
Transformation Program Award Winners (1st round)
Transformation Program Award Winners (2nd round)
California Community Colleges Office of the Chancellor Press Release
Resources for Campuses:
Transformation Program Recommendations FAQs
Webinar on Transformation Program Best Practices
Practitioners: California Acceleration Project; Career Ladders Project; Carnegie Math Pathways
Bright Spots in Remedial Education
These 64 California Community Colleges received grants under the Basic Skills and Student Outcomes Transformation Program. These strategic investments will help colleges scale or adopt practices that have been proven to substantially increase student success.