NSHE’s Corequisite Mathematics and English Reform

NSHE and its governing Board recognize that traditional remediation does not work. Far too many students have entered on long pathways of traditional remediation that, instead of opening the door to college access, has closed it. For many years the System has focused on remediation; however, the System’s policy paper Traditional Remediation Does Not Work published in February 2019 brought new fervor to reforming remediation. The paper discusses similar findings from Complete College America’s landmark report Remediation: Higher Education’s Bridge to Nowhere, concluding that:

• traditional remediation is not working;
• corequisite remediation results in much higher student success outcomes; and
• regardless of academic preparation, success levels are higher for students in corequisite remediation.

The Board of Regents have established student success goals that aim to increase degree productivity by 2025 dramatically. The mandate of corequisite support will work to eliminate equity gaps in access to college-level courses and improve success rates by removing substantial barriers for students. Across NSHE, underrepresented minorities, including Pell-eligible, first-generation, and students of color are all overrepresented in remediation, causing systemic challenges for them accessing college-level coursework, much less graduating. Remediation within the state has been one of most substantial barriers to college success, and the mandate for corequisite support transforms the experience for thousands of NSHE students.

In June 2019, the Board of Regents adopted a policy that eliminates traditional models of remediation and mandates corequisite support for all degree-seeking students with full-scale adoption by Fall 2021 in alignment with the strategic goal of improving student success. Board Policy (Title 4, Chapter 16, Section 1) mandates the delivery of corequisite support for students that would traditionally place in lengthy, unsuccessful models of traditional remediation.

The two-year-long implementation process before the effective date will result in a complete redesign of pathways for mathematics and English, revisited means of placement using multiple measures, as well as robust assessment and evaluation tools to ensure success long-term.

To support implementation, the Nevada System of Higher Education has developed a Corequisite Implementation Task Force. Each of NSHE’s seven teaching institutions have representatives from mathematics, English, and administration on the Task Force. The Task Force is responsible for the systemwide Action Plan, which will be presented to the Board of Regents for approval in September 2020.

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