Year Colleges

This paper addresses the issue of developmental education in the community college. Across the country, states are increasingly discouraging four-year institutions from offering remedial education. The City University of New York and the California State University system are phasing out remedial instruction. In the 1999-2000 academic year, public two-year colleges served over 345,000 resident alien students, while public four-year institutions served fewer than 245,000 resident aliens. Approximately 60 % of resident aliens who were first-time students at public two-year colleges in 1999-2000 took at least one remedial course. This paper defines remedial education as those courses in reading, writing, and mathematics offered to students lacking the necessary academic skills to perform college-level work. The Education Commission of the States (ECS) sent surveys to 50 states for this study; 47 were returned. Highlights of the findings follow. Every state allows community colleges to fund remedial education using state funds. However, several states provide no funding specifically earmarked fo