User:Allincharlie/sandbox

Remedial education in the United States

Postsecondary remediation is delivered on both 2-year community college and 4-year university campuses in the U.S. The bulk of remedial courses focus on advancing underprepared students' literacy skills (english and reading) or math skills. However, remedial courses can also be offered for other subjects such as science or study skills. Often, students are placed into remedial courses based on standardized test scores on the ACT, SAT, or COMPASS. Some colleges and universities are exploring the use of previous academic performance in remedial placement.

Academics, policy-makers, and instructors are actively debating the merits of using just standardized placement tests in determining a student's need for remedial coursework. Thomas Bailey states that "States and institutions use many different assessments, and even when they use the same assessments, they often set different cutoff scores. Moreover, there is no obvious point of discontinuity in the distribution of cutoff scores that might provide a meaningful point to distinguish between “remedial” and ”college-ready” students." Cutoff scores often vary between states and between colleges within the same state.

(From the previous article to include...) The best way to deliver or whether to deliver remedial education is an active debate. As Bahr (Bahr 2008a, pp. 420–421) explains, "On one hand, it fills an important niche in U.S. higher education by providing opportunities to rectify disparities generated in primary education and secondary schooling, to develop the minimum skills deemed necessary for functional participation in the economy and the democracy, and to acquire the prerequisite competencies that are crucial for negotiating college-level coursework. On the other hand, critics argue that taxpayers should not be required to pay twice for the same educational opportunities, that remediation diminishes academic standards and devalues post-secondary credentials, and that the large number of underprepared students entering colleges and universities demoralizes faculty. Following from these critiques, some have argued for a major restructuring of remediation or even the elimination of remedial programs altogether." Allincharlie (talk) 21:29, 22 October 2013 (UTC)