AB 705 shows huge promise but many Black and Latinx students are being left out
On December 9, 2020, Public Advocates and the California Acceleration Project released a report on the state of remediation reform in California’s community colleges. The report looks at the second year of implementation of Assembly Bill 705, a 2017 law that overhauled practices that were derailing students from their educational goals.
The report highlights the significant progress the state’s community colleges have made implementing AB 705 reforms, including doubling student completion of transferable, college-level math and English in the first year of full implementation. But it points to the need for further changes to ensure that uneven implementation does not continue to drive inequitable outcomes for Black and Latinx students.
Resources
Key Findings
- California made substantial initial progress in transforming placement and remediation in the first year of implementation (Fall 2019). Student completion is approximately 30 percentage points higher at colleges that have replaced remedial courses with corequisite support in transfer-level classes.
- In the second year of implementation (Fall 2020), progress has slowed and some colleges have even backtracked by increasing remedial offerings. Research has established that remedial courses reduce student completion for every demographic group studied to date, but at 69 colleges, remedial classes still make up over 20% of introductory math sections offered. Out of California’s 116 community colleges, only 3 have achieved 100% implementation of AB 705 changes in both English and math.
- There are significant racial inequities in the implementation of the law. Black and Latinx students disproportionately attend colleges that have maintained large remedial math offerings. Colleges serving over 2,000 Black students are more than twice as likely to be weak implementers of AB 705 as other colleges.
Contact
Email Student Engagement and Policy Associate Karina Paredes at kparedes@publicadvocates.org if you have questions about the report.
