Unit 4: Reducing the Remediation Tab

The tremendous cost of remedial classes has motivated higher education to rethink how these classes are taught. Obviously, the easiest way to reduce the cost of remediation is to make sure students are prepared when they graduate from high school. Since higher education can not control that, it has since begun to try to control the costs associated with the delivery of these classes.

Southwest Tennessee Community College offers all the remedial courses that are needed, but a creative way in providing these classes has emerged. This college is providing the last level of remedial English and the first level of college level English in one course. Any student who has scored highly enough to only have to take one level of remedial English may have the ability to complete it and the college level English in the same semester, in the same class. This helps to reduce the cost and the number of remedial classes offered each semester. Southwest also offers two levels of remedial math in one class during one semester. Again, reducing costs.

Outsourcing remediation to companies such as Sylvan Learning Center and Kaplan Education Center is another way that higher education is considering decreasing the tab. These companies promise to "save institutions money and speed up the remedial process" (The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1998). Some states have even proposed that the districts from which students who need remediation emerge should be sent the bill for remediation. Perhaps, a large bill would cause superintendents to ask some questions within the districts (Townsend and Twombly, 2001). Ultimately, saving higher education money by decreasing remediation is the issue here.



The Institute for Higher Education Policy. (1998a). College remediation: What it is. What it costs. What's at stake. Washington, DC: Institute for Higher Education Policy.

Townsend, B.K., & Twombly, S. B. (2001). Community Colleges: Policy in the Future Context. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.