Panlilio, Maria Carmen. The effect of remediation and student support programs on the academic outcomes of underprepared college students. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3RF5T07
DescriptionAccess to higher education is no longer enough. The issue of the achievement gap between Black and Hispanic students on the one hand and White and Asian students on the other do not disappear when these students enter college. The consequences of this achievement gap are felt most keenly by the Black and Hispanic students in the post-secondary years of education as they are required to complete remediation courses in college before proceeding to take college level coursework that counts towards degree completion. One of the key reasons for this achievement gap is the higher probability of minority students from disadvantaged backgrounds dropping out of college due to remediation requirements (Attewell, Lavin, Domina, & Levey, 2006; Carroll, 2007; Venezia, Kirst, & Antonio, 2003). Remedial education is one means by which colleges attempt to help underprepared college students succeed in college-level coursework. This dissertation is a quantitative analysis of the transition to college and the subsequent academic performance of underprepared college students at a public, four-year, minority-serving institution of higher education. The study examines the effect of remediation and student support programs provided at this institution to assist underprepared students succeed. The study combines the use of regression discontinuity design and multiple regressions to provide insight on the effect of remediation and student support programs on the academic outcomes of these students. Data from this study suggest that remediation alone, as it is currently delivered, is not effective in helping improve student outcomes. Student support programs show greater evidence of helping improve the academic outcomes of these students. Further research on a broader scale is needed as the generalizability of the student sample in this study is limited. Improved measures of academic outcomes are also recommended to better analyze the effect of remediation, support programs and other interventions needed to help underprepared students succeed in college.