Community college students assigned to corequisite mathematic courses instead of remedial courses not only graduate faster, but earn higher wages.
That’s the findings of a study that has been tracking 900 community college students since 2013. The students all qualified for remedial courses, not-for-credit prerequisite courses designed to prepare a student for credit-bearing courses in the future. The 900 students were randomly placed in either a remedial course or a corequisite course.
Corequisite instruction allows students to take a college-level and credit-bearing course while also receiving supplemental support to ensure their success. Past studies have found that corequisite instruction improves retention, completion, and graduation rates for students regardless of their socio-economic background. This new study underscores previous findings and shows that graduating students sooner, and connecting them with the job market sooner, helps corequisite students earn higher wages.
“By shortening a student’s time to degree, their wages went up,” said Dr. Daniel Douglas, director of social science research and lecturer in sociology at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and co-author of the study. “Students that clear school obligations can get better attached to the labor market, have a longer tenure of employment or get into more secure positions.”
Douglas said the study’s results indicate just how significant an obstacle mathematic remediation can be. By moving a student’s first-year mathematics instruction towards corequisite courses, institutions can make a dramatic difference in a student’s life.
“We could see this single intervention lead to higher rates of associate and bachelor’s degree completion, and higher wages,” said Douglas. “This is something that can have an impact for a lot longer than I would have ever expected.”
Corequisite courses do not remove remedial education, rather reform it into more targeted support while closing off what experts call “exit points” for a student, more opportunities for life to get in the way of a student’s completion.