Opinion
College & Workforce Readiness Letter to the Editor

Aligned Curricula Outpace Remediation

April 03, 2013 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

To the Editor:

We read with great interest the article “Remedial Placements Found to Be Overused” (Feb. 20, 2013) on the overuse of remediation, and we couldn’t agree more.

Our experience with thousands of faculty members over the past 15 years indicates that there is a vast disconnect between high school and higher education curricula. Teachers are often unaware of this disconnect, but once aware and given the opportunity to vertically align curricula, they find their students succeed in college-level courses regardless of what the students’ placement tests might have indicated.

Our data over time and across demographics show that this works. The Institute for Evidence-Based Change, or IEBC, launched a pilot program with faculty from a high school district and a community college that tested this.

Faculty members met regularly in facilitated intersegmental councils to align English-composition curricula across the segments. After the curriculum had been incorporated in the high school for several years and students immersed in it throughout their high school education, those who made A’s or B’s were allowed to waive placement-test results and enroll directly in college-level English-composition courses.

By the second year, the success rate (86 percent) for those students surpassed the success rate (66 percent) for those students who had placed in the courses via tests.

However, if test results had been used for course placement, 74 percent of our pilot-group students would have been enrolled in remedial courses that they clearly did not need.

By aligning curricula, students and institutions save both time and money. Student persistence and completion increase, and colleges are able to put more resources into teaching college-level courses.

No one benefits when resources are mistakenly directed toward remediating students who do not need it.

Shelly Valdez

Director of Educational Collaboration

Institute for Evidence-Based Change

San Diego, Calif.

A version of this article appeared in the April 03, 2013 edition of Education Week as Aligned Curricula Outpace Remediation

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness Explainer Students With Undocumented Parents Have Hit a FAFSA Road Block. Here Are 3 Options
A FAFSA expert provides advice for a particularly vulnerable group of families.
4 min read
Social Security benefits identification card with 100 dollar bills
JJ Gouin/iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Infographic Students Feel Good About Their College Readiness. These Charts Tell a Different Story
In charts and graphs, a picture unfolds of high school students’ lack of preparedness for college.
2 min read
Student hanging on a tearing graduate cap tassel
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness How International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement Programs Compare
Both the IB and AP programs allow students to earn college credit in high school. Though how the program operate can differ.
1 min read
Marilyn Baise gives a lecture on Feng Shui and Taoism in her world religions class at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2024.
Marilyn Baise gives a lecture on Feng Shui and Taoism in her world religions class at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2024.
Zack Wittman for Education Week
College & Workforce Readiness Dartmouth and Yale Are Backtracking on ‘Test-Optional’ Admissions. Why That Matters
The Ivy League schools say test scores help them make better decisions, but most schools are keeping tests optional.
6 min read
Image of a bank of computers in a library.
baona/E+