Motlow State Community College incoming freshmen who required remedial coursework achieved impressive results in their college-level courses in the Fall 2015 semester.
Almost 70 percent of Motlow incoming freshmen require remedial instruction in math, reading or writing. Prior to the fall 2015 semester, students had to complete remedial courses before enrolling in the associated introductory (gateway) college course. Consequently, very few of these students ever enrolled in, much less completed, gateway courses in math and English. Due to this lack of progression, less than 10 percent graduated.
Beginning in the fall 2015 semester, Motlow implemented a new co-requisite remediation, or learning support, model. Students enrolled in remedial math also enrolled in gateway math during the same semester. Students enrolled in remedial writing also enrolled in gateway English. With the implementation of the new model, the remedial students’ success rate in the college-level math course nearly quadrupled, improving from 17 percent to 66 percent in one semester. The success rate of remedial reading and writing students in the college-level English course doubled. This success has resulted in hundreds more students completing gateway courses as compared to previous semesters.
These dramatic improvements coincided with another important milestone: the Tennessee Promise Scholarship program resulted in the highest freshman enrollment in Motlow’s history. Subsequently, there was a record number of students who needed remedial coursework, making the improvements all the more impressive.
