An Experimental Evaluation of Accelerated Pathways Through Developmental Education

Research indicates that students who take developmental (remedial) courses in college often struggle to persist in and complete credit-bearing coursework. These findings have spurred a range of reforms, many of which provide accelerated pathways through developmental education. One reform, corequisites, places students directly into a credit-bearing course and provides “just in time” developmental education support within the same semester.

AIR worked with five open- and broad-access institutions across Texas to conduct a randomized controlled trial that assigns students to either corequisites or traditional developmental education courses and then compares three-year outcomes in terms of course success, persistence, and degree completion. The goal of the study was to better understand the impact and implementation of corequisite courses in Texas community colleges.