Purpose: Nearly one-third of college freshmen enroll in remedial courses because they are not prepared to handle college course work. Each year public postsecondary institutions spend over $1 billion on remedial education. To date, very little rigorous research has been conducted to determine if taking remedial courses improves subsequent student outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of remediation course work on academic outcomes (e.g., persistence, course completion, time to degree) and labor market performance.

Project Activities: This study examines the effects of remediation on postsecondary students in Texas and Florida. The research team is using data from the Texas Schools Microdata Panel and the Florida Education Data Warehouse. Both datasets include individual-level records for every student enrolled in public postsecondary institutions in Texas or Florida between 1990 and 2003. Both datasets also allow researchers to track student labor market experiences following departure from school.

Products: Products from this project will be published reports of analyses examining the effect of postsecondary remediation courses on students' academic and labor market outcomes.

Structured Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of remediation course work on academic outcomes (e.g., persistence, course completion, time to degree) and labor market performance.

Setting: The postsecondary public institutions are in Texas and Florida.

Population: The samples are drawn from administrative records that contain information on all students enrolled in Florida and Texas public postsecondary schools. All students who take the statewide college placement exams are included in the study.

Intervention: Students who do not meet minimum criteria on a placement exam are required to take postsecondary remedial courses.

Research Design and Methods: The research team is using a regression discontinuity design. In Texas and Florida, students are placed into remediation mainly on the basis of their scores on a placement exam. Consequently, there is a sharp drop in the likelihood of entering remediation at the exam's passing cutoff score. By focusing on students who score just above and just below the passing cutoff, the research team avoids biases associated with the correlation between test performance and other determinants of student outcomes.

Control Condition: The control group consists of students who score just above the threshold on placement exams and so are not required to take remedial courses.

Key Measures: Key measures are college persistence and achievement including receipt of a degree, years of college completed, time-to-degree, types of courses taken, and grades in first-year courses. In addition, state workforce databases are being used to generate measures of labor market success, such as total earnings.

Data Analytic Strategy: The research team is using a regression discontinuity design combined with "instrumental variables" statistical methods to estimate the impact of remediation on the academic and labor market outcomes in both states.

Products and Publications

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Martorell, P., and McFarlin, I. (2010). Help or Hindrance? The Effects of College Remediation on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(2): 436–454.

Martorell, P., McFarlin, I., and Xue, Y. (2014). Does Failing a Placement Exam Discourage Underprepared Students from Going to College? Education, Finance and Policy 10 (1): 46–80.