Abstract
Florida passed legislation in 2013 that exempted many students from developmental education, and required colleges to implement new instructional modalities for optional developmental education courses. This paper uses an economic model of remediation to examine how changes in college course taking before and after the reform altered costs to completing introductory college-level courses in math and English for students and institutions, and whether cost savings differ by racial/ethnic subgroup. We also take into account changes in short-term costs relative to course completion rates to examine whether the reform is cost effective overall. We find that the total cost per completer (including costs to both students and institutions) decreased after the reform by $894 in English and $1851 in math. This resulted in efficiency gains of 34% in English and 30% in math. The results from Florida provide promising evidence that statewide developmental education reforms may be an effective mechanism for reducing costs to students and institutions. Reform efforts may also help to reduce racial/ethnic gaps in the costs to gateway completion in both subject areas, which has important implications for equity.
Highlights
Developmental education has significant cost implications for both students and institutions, with up to $7 billion spent annually on instructional expenditures for developmental education programs nationwide (Scott-Clayton et al 2014)
We examine the cost effectiveness of a large-scale reform of developmental education enacted at all Florida College System (FCS) institutions since fall 2014
We begin by looking at the change in the number of pre-gateway courses taken before and after Senate Bill 1720 (SB 1720) (Table 2)
Summary
Developmental education has significant cost implications for both students and institutions, with up to $7 billion spent annually on instructional expenditures for developmental education programs nationwide (Scott-Clayton et al 2014). The costs of traditional developmental education programs may be unevenly allocated among racial/ ethnic groups, as Black and Hispanic students have an increased probability of assignment to developmental education relative to their White counterparts (Attewell et al 2006; Bettinger and Long 2005), and are more likely to need multiple levels of remediation (Bailey et al 2010). Given that these subgroups experience different educational trajectories, the reform may alter coursetaking patterns and their associated costs in a way that benefits (or harms) some groups more than others. We consider whether the reform addresses the broader system of inequalities that have historically shaped developmental education in terms of who enters developmental education, who gets stuck in unsuccessful pathways, and who may face unintended consequences from reform efforts
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