Report: Community college leading in implementing AB 705
The local community college is leading the way in helping first-time students complete transfer- level English and math within one year of enrollment.
The California Acceleration Project and Public Advocates released a report Wednesday that shows College of the Redwoods is leading the way in implementing the changes required by Assembly Bill 705, which mandates community colleges refrain from placing students in remedial English and math classes and place them based on high school grades. Specifically, 96% of the introductory English courses offered by CR were transferable to four-year institutions.
“They’ve been really at the forefront, especially in the far north, around rethinking remediation,” said Katie Hern, English professor at Skyline College and co-founder of the California Acceleration Project.
Hern started the project with a math professor about a decade ago after they realized putting students in remedial coursework was hurting more than helping them, and professors at CR began working with them early on, “around Year 2,” to begin implementing changes, she said.
In a column published in May 2019, CR President Keith Flamer wrote the community college had “done away with placement tests that are unreliable in determining a student’s capacity” and “eliminated all remedial English courses.
“This fall, students who need additional support can receive it while they take transferable, collegelevel English, rather than spending an entire semester in a remedial class,” Flamer wrote.
College of the Redwoods did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
“Redwoods is a great example of a college that has been bold in making these changes,” Hern said, “and they’re seeing the benefits — their students are seeing the benefits.”
A November report from the Public Policy Institute of California titled “A New Era of Student Access at California Community Colleges” showed the outcomes of the changes, including an increase in the number of students completing transfer-level coursework.
In 2015, 43% of first-time students enrolled in a transferable English courses at CR compared to 100% in 2019, according to the institute’s data. In 2015, 31% of students were successfully passing the course in one semester compared to 68% in 2019.
For comparison, CR students that started in remedial coursework and took a year of English had a 51% rate of successfully passing a transferable English class.
For math, 29% of firsttime math students enrolled in a transferable math course in 2015 compared to 95% in 2019, according to the report data. In 2015, 18% of CR students were passing transferable math coursework in one semester, which jumped to 52% in 2019.
Students who started in remedial coursework at CR and spent three semesters taking math had a 42% chance of completing transferable math courses.
“So that’s only in one semester compared to three semesters plus a summer,” Hern said.
AB 705 was passed in 2017 to require community colleges “to maximize the probability that the student will enter and complete transfer-level coursework in English and mathematics within a one-year timeframe” and restrict them from requiring students to enroll in remedial courses.
“Students placed into remediation are much less likely to reach their educational goals,” the bill stated. “According to the Student Success Scorecard, just 40% go on to complete a degree, certificate, or transfer outcome in six years, compared to 70% for students allowed to enroll directly in collegelevel courses.”
Data presented in the acceleration project’s report show students at all GPA levels are more successful when starting in transfer-level courses and the most successful when that course is tied to a corequisite course aimed at providing additional support.
Students with below a 2.3 GPA in high school had an 8% success rate when starting in a non-transferable math course compared to 29% when starting directly in a transfer- level math course, according to the report data. That jumped to 45% with corequisite support.
“T hese changes are showing that students are much more capable than our past remediation practices gave them credit for,” Hern said. “And College of the Redwoods is really moving in the right direction in willing to change what they do to help more students be successful.”