Remediation at the Community College: Student participation and outcomes

Community colleges play an important role in remediation; over 40 percent of first-year students at public two-year colleges take remedial courses (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). Furthermore, recent developments suggest that many states are moving toward concentrating all remediation in their community college systems. For example, in 1999 the City University of New York (CUNY) passed a resolution to phase out most remedial education at the system’s four-year institutions and move it to the community colleges. Likewise, California encourages students to complete their remediation at a two-year college before entering the four-year system. Several other states, including Arizona, Florida, Montana, South Carolina, and Virginia, prohibit public four-year universities from offering remedial education.