Assessing the Effect of Corequisite English Instruction Using a Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

This is the first study to provide experimental evidence of the impact of corequisite remediation for students underprepared in reading and writing. We examine the short-term impacts of three different approaches to corequisite remediation that were implemented at five large urban community colleges in Texas, and we explore whether corequisites have differential impacts on students with different characteristics. Results from three first-time-in-college cohorts indicate that corequisite remediation increased the probability of completing a first college-level English course within one year by 24 percentage points and within two years by 18 percentage points. The impacts were positive for all three of the corequisite models examined and for traditionally underrepresented groups, including Hispanic students, first-generation college students, and students whose first language is not English. We saw modest positive impacts on the accumulation of college credits but no effect on persistence in college.