The effects of remedial math on student outcomes : evidence from an higher education institution in Chile using regression discontinuity design

Abstract

For countries concerned about equity and access to higher education, providing support services for academically underprepared students is key to increase their probabilities of success. Remedial courses provide opportunities for underprepared students to develop their basic skills in their initial semester of enrollment. However, adding additional coursework like a remedial course may increase students’ academic workload, a decrease in their academic performance, or directly slow them down, increasing their probabilities to drop out. Our study explores the consequence of being assigned to a remedial math course in a context of a fixed curriculum. This allows us to explore the effect of remediation course taking on the same courses and credits that non-remedial students take, providing a more accurate landscape of the impact of remedial course policy. Using a unique administrative dataset from one of the largest vocational education postsecondary institutions in Chile, we examine the effects of enrollment in remedial courses on diverse student outcomes employing a Regression Discontinuity (RD) design exploiting an institutional cutoff. Our results show that being assigned to the remedial course increases student’s grades in their subsequent math course and decreases the likelihood of desertion during the first semester, but the retained students seem to leave the semester right after. These results are promising for a math remedial policy, which has to be carefully balanced with additional support to avoid students from feeling overwhelmed and drop out a semester after.