Remedial Coursework Reform at California Community Colleges – AB 705

BACKGROUND

Despite AB 705 passing in 2017, too many Black and Brown students are still being placed in remedial classes that waste their time and money. Community college students need to know about their right to be placed directly in transfer-level English and Math classes.

Direct enrollment significantly increases students’ chances of completing college-level courses and transferring to a four-year college. Check out this “Know Your Rights” infographic on AB 705.

LEGAL ACTION

On June 29, 2021, Public Advocates filed letters demanding legal compliance from Los Rios Community College District and Cosumnes River College citing systemic failures in the Sacramento community college system’s implementation of AB 705—a law that was supposed to end the practice of disproportionately funneling Black and Latinx students into dead-end remedial math and English classes that did not count towards a transfer to four-year schools. For decades, many students have been trapped in these classes—wasting time, accumulating debt, and having their careers derailed. In the letters, Public Advocates concludes that Cosumnes River College and the Los Rios Community College District at large, are in violation of AB 705 for failing to provide students the legally required notice, support and access to transfer-level courses, and called for immediate reform.

Public Advocates also filed a petition with the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and the Board of Governors, calling on them to update AB 705 regulations to adhere more closely to the Legislature’s mandate that colleges “maximize” transfer-level course completion within a year for students. In addition to ensuring colleges affirmatively guide students into transfer-level courses in most instances, the petition requests that the regulations require colleges to offer extra instructional support to students who need it to succeed in their transfer-level courses. The data that has emerged on AB 705’s implementation over the past two years demonstrates overwhelmingly that such “co-requisite supports” are much more effective than remedial classes at maximizing student success.