Forty-two percent of entering freshmen at public two-year colleges and about one out of five (20 percent) entering freshmen at four-year public institutions enrolled in at least one remedial course in fall 2000, according to Remedial Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions in Fall 2000, a new department report by the National Center for Education Statistics in the Institute of Education Sciences.

Virtually all (98 percent) of public two-year colleges and 80 percent of public four-year institutions offered at least one remedial reading, writing or mathematics course in fall 2000. The report also found that students in remediation spent more time in those courses in 2000 than they did in 1995: the proportion of students who spent an average of one year in remediation increased by seven percentage points (from 28 to 35 percent) while the number who spent less than one year in remediation dropped seven percentage points (from 67 to 60 percent).

"I wish I could tell you that remediation isn't necessary in today's world, but sadly, it is," said U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige. "My hope is that through No Child Left Behind, we can strengthen our nation's primary and secondary education so that all students enter the postsecondary world as prepared as possible. While I understand the need for remedial education, I would hope that someday we wouldn't need to rely on remediation to do the job that the K-12 system should be doing to academically prepare students."

"This administration thinks that all children can learn and through No Child Left Behind, we are going to make sure that a quality education becomes a reality for all children, regardless of their skin color, ethnic heritage or zip code."

Overall, in fall 2000, 76 percent of degree-granting postsecondary education institutions offered at least one remedial reading, writing or mathematics course, and 28 percent of entering freshmen enrolled in at least of one those courses.

The report also examined the ways in which remedial education was organized and delivered:

• A common strategy for determining students' need for remediation was to give all entering students placement tests, and most institutions (75 to 82 percent of them) had mandatory policies for students who needed remedial reading, writing or mathematics education to enroll in such courses.

• Most institutions (82 to 88 percent) placed some restrictions on the regular courses that students could take while they were enrolled in remedial courses, and 73 to 78 percent of the institutions cited institutional credit (as opposed to degree credit) as the most frequent type of award for remedial reading, writing or mathematics courses.

• A majority of the institutions (57 to 72 percent) reported that remedial reading, writing and mathematics courses were most frequently provided by a traditional academic department, and 13 percent of the institutions offered remedial courses through distance education.

• Between 1995 and 2000, there was an increase (from 3 percent to 13 percent) in the proportion of institutions overall that offered remedial courses through distance education.

• In the fall 2000, about one third (31 to 35 percent) of the institutions reported that computers were used frequently by students as a hands-on instructional tool for on-campus remedial reading, writing, or mathematics courses; computers were used occasionally by 40 to 41 percent. Twenty four to 29 percent of institutions indicated that they rarely use computers for remedial instruction.

The study, conducted through NCES's Postsecondary Education Quick Information System (PEQIS), was designed to provide national estimates on the prevalence and characteristics of remedial courses and enrollments in two- and four-year postsecondary institutions in the fall of 2000 and to compare these findings to the 1995 PEQIS study on the same topic. This study also examined two issues not covered in the 1995 study: types of technology used in the delivery of remedial education through distance education courses, and the use of computers for remedial education.

The study can be downloaded at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004010

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