Rep. Tj Cox Joins the Reintroduction of The Remedial Education Improvement Act

Press Release

Yesterday, Rep. TJ Cox (CA-21), joined Rep. Doanld Norcross (NJ-01), Rep. Seth Moulton (MA-06), Rep. Angie Craig (MN-02) and Rep. Andy Kim (NJ-03) in reintroducing the Remedial Education Improvement Act to make remedial/developmental education programs more effective, fair and less expensive. Although necessary, developmental education programs make college take longer and therefore more costly to students and their family. The Remedial Education Act improves or develops programs based on five reform models which have a proven track record of success. The Act would implement these reforms, establish a competitive grant program, and allow for the use of federal student aid dollars to support up to two years of developmental education.

"We must ensure that students across our nation who need extra support are given an equal opportunity to learn and earn degrees," said Rep. TJ Cox. "The Remedial Education Improvement Act would improve remedial education by making it more efficient and less expensive for students to reach completion and graduation. Students in my district would greatly benefit from these evidence-based support programs. I'm committed to working with my colleagues across the aisle to advance this important legislation."

About the Remedial Education Improvement Act
The Remedial Education Improvement Act would provide competitive grants to a geographically diverse set of colleges and universities of various sizes to develop or improve remedial education based on five models that have shown success during small-scale implementation. Aside from implementing evidence-based models to improve remediation, students in programs funded under this grant may also use federal student aid dollars to support up to two years of remediation, removing another barrier to on-time completion for remedial students. The legislation would also require evaluation of program effectiveness in order to determine the best systems of support that lead to college degree completion. The five program models outlined in the Act include:

Aligning Coursework: requires partnerships between colleges or universities, and local educational or state educational agencies to develop courses to prepare and support students before requiring remedial coursework at college. Funds can also be used to provide early assessments to students on their college readiness and intervene before the students enter college.
Accelerated Coursework: courses are revised to allow either short, intensive remediation or enrollment in more than one sequential course per term.
Modular Instruction: focuses remediation on specific skills needed to be successful in college coursework and provides targeted interventions rather than course sequences.
Co-requisite Enrollment: provides concurrent classes that are offered to support students while enrolled in credit-bearing courses.
Systemic Reform: enables colleges and universities to implement comprehensive, integrated, evidence-based support programs across the institution that enable students enrolled in remedial education to reach completion and graduation.

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