New Remedial-Education Reform Bill: Central Valley colleges help lead the way

Dr. Benjamin Duran, CVHEC executive director and Merced College president-emeritus with CVHEC Board members James Preston, president of West Hills Community College-Lemoore, and Dr. Carla Tweed, president of West Hills Community College-Coalinga.

New state legislation to advance remedial education reforms in the California Community Colleges system will remove what Dr. Benjamin Duran, Central Valley Higher Education Consortium executive director, calls “unintentional stumbling blocks for the neediest students.”

Duran said the passage of new legislation — Assembly Bill 1705 which builds off AB 705  passed in 2017,  will strengthen the implementation of co-requisite support courses for essential gateway courses on California’s community college campuses.

“We look for a complete transition away from remedial developmental education courses that often stood as unintentional stumbling blocks for the neediest students,” Duran said.  “We are proud that Central Valley community colleges have been leaders in reversing the impact of decades of remedial education on college completion rates.”

See related stories

How Community Colleges Are Changing Remedial Education (Community College Review – May 31, 2022)

Remedial Education Leaves Many Colleges in a Quandary (Community College Review – May 4, 2022)

 Inside Higher Ed story (May 27, 2022):

California Assembly Passes Remedial-Education Reform Bill

By  Sara Weissman

(May 27, 2022) — The California Assembly unanimously passed new legislation May 25 to advance reforms to remedial education in the California Community Colleges system.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 1705, builds off a law passed in 2017, which prevented community colleges from requiring remedial English or math courses without first considering students’ high school GPA and coursework and determining they are “highly unlikely to succeed” in classes that earn transferable college credits.

Colleges have lagged in implementing the prior law, Assembly Bill 705, so the new bill stresses that colleges must enroll students in the math and English classes where they have the highest chances of completing transfer requirements. It also prohibits colleges from requiring students to repeat math and English classes passed in high school, among other measures to enroll more students in credit-bearing coursework.

“Remedial classes cost students time and money and don’t move them closer to their goals,” Jasmine Prasad, vice president of legislative affairs for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, said in a press release. “AB 1705 will help more students achieve their educational and career goals without being delayed or derailed by remedial courses.”

The bill, which now heads to the State Senate, has the support of Prasad’s organization as well as the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center, among other organizations.

“AB 1705 is an opportunity to address placement practices that have historically excluded thousands of students of color,” Adrián Trinidad, assistant director for community college partnerships at the USC Race and Equity Center, said in the press release. “To make our community colleges racially just, we need to upend a status quo that frames students of color as deficient and incapable of success.”