Remediation: Too many students need it, and too few succeed when they get it.

3. Remediation: Too many students need it, and too few succeed when they get it. Finding 5 75% 25%

4. Remedial students are much less likely to graduate.

5. What do we do about it? • Divert students from traditional approaches. • Mainstream students into college-level courses, provide co-requisite and embedded support. • Intensify instruction and minimize the time needed for preparation for college-level work. • Eliminate exit points where students are lost by not passing or not enrolling in courses. • Provide alternative pathways to quality career certificates. • Overhaul the current placement system.

6. What do we do about it? Answer this fundamental question: Is what’s being taught in remediation what students really need? • Revisit the structure and goals of remedial math. Make math a gateway, not a gatekeeper. • Reading and writing should be integrated.

10. Students are wasting time on excess credits … Finding 4 75% 25%

11. … and taking too much time to earn a degree.

12. Staying in school longer doesn’t significantly increase students’ chances of graduating. • For instance, giving full-time community college students one extra year to earn an associate degree and giving full-time four-year college students two extra years to earn a bachelor’s degree only increases graduation rates by 4.9% — for both groups. • We must help them complete faster.

13. What do we do about it? • Require formal, on-time completion plans. • Enact caps of 120 credit hours for a bachelor’s degree and 60 credit hours for an associate degree. • Create a common general education core program to ensure consistency. • Require full transferability of common core courses.

16. Nontraditional students are the new majority. Finding 1 25% 75% 75% of students are college commuters, often juggling families, jobs, and school. 25% of students attend full-time at residential colleges.

17. Graduation odds are especially low for students who are African American … Finding 3

18. … Hispanic

19. … older

20. … or poor

21. What do we do about it? • Use block schedules. • Allow students to proceed toward degrees or certificates at a faster pace. • Reduce the time students spend in class through online instruction or demonstrated competency. • Form peer support and learning networks. • Embed remediation into the regular college curriculum. • Provide better information on program costs and outcomes.

24. Too few students graduate. For part-timers, results are tragic — even when they have twice as much time. Finding 2 1-year certificate within 2 years 2-year associate within 4 years 4-year bachelor’s within 8 years

25. What do we do about it? • Urge states to measure what matters most. • Outcome metrics • degrees awarded annually • graduation rates • transfer rates • Progress metrics • remediation • success in first-year math and English • credit accumulation • retention rates • course completion • time and credits to degree

26. What do we do about it? • States must get serious that graduation, not just enrollment, is the goal. • States should set completion goals, statewide and by campus. • Start with a handful of explicit, easy-to-understand measures. • Tie a modest percentage of funding to performance.