Remedial education classes could soon be fully eliminated at community colleges in California.
A bill has been sent to Governor Gavin Newsom that would mostly ban remedial math and English classes, which can’t transfer with credit to four-year universities.
If signed, it will impact 46 colleges, including Miramar in San Diego.
LAist says Assembly Bill 1705 was passed by the State Legislature, winning the approval of lawmakers who are frustrated that some students are still being funneled into remedial classes, violating the spirit of a 2017 law, Assembly Bill 705, which said colleges can’t place students in remedial classes unless they are highly unlikely to succeed in transfer-level coursework.
The new law builds off the initial one by creating stricter rules detailing the limited scenarios when colleges are allowed to enroll students in remedial classes. Certain groups of students would be exempt from needing to go directly to transfer-level classes, such as some disabled students, students who didn’t graduate from high school and students in some career technical education programs. A college could also enroll a student in a remedial course if the college can prove, based on the student’s high school grades, that the student would be more likely to earn a degree by doing so.
San Diego Miramar College is also hoping to get rid of two remedial courses of intermediate algebra that remain in its course catalog.
Anne Gloag, chair of the college’s math department, said her department’s desire is to have zero remedial courses but continues to offer them to satisfy faculty elsewhere at the college, and as an example, some chemistry courses, have intermediate algebra as a prerequisite.