Early Findings from an Experimental Evaluation of Accelerated Pathways in Texas

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.

This presentation describes the early findings from an experimental evaluation of accelerated pathways in Texas community colleges, including a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of writing/reading corequisites. Specifically, the study assesses the impact and implementation of three types of corequisite models. This presentation addresses the context for the study, including background on Texas writing/reading corequisites, and presents early findings on short-term student impacts and implementation. The research is supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.