| For decades, remedial education has been extensively used in higher education and studied as an effective tool to help overcome the challenge of student unpreparedness. While previous studies on remedial education addressed the academic failure of students, this study focuses on academic success of African American females. This causal-comparative study compares four levels of preparedness to answer the research question: How does remedial education affect academic success of FTIC (First-Time-In-College) and degree-seeking Female African Americans in two-year community colleges? For the purpose of the study, secondary data were collected on a sample of 747 participants belonging to three cohort groups from the institution hosting the research. The researcher analyzed collected data in the pursuit of differences among four subgroups (No Prep, One Prep, Two Prep, and Three Prep). For this analysis, the grouping variable was the level of preparedness (prep levels) with four possible values. Those values were labeled No Prep, One Prep, Two Prep, and Three Prep. The dependent variable was the academic success measured by the retention rates, graduation rates, persistence rates, and the transfer rates. For the data analysis, the researcher uses the Predictive Analytic Software (PASW) version 18.0 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows. The one-sample proportion z tests were used to determine if there were statistically significant differences among prep levels for retention rates and graduation rates within cohort or between. On the other hand, univariate Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) helped determine whether there were significant differences among prep levels for persistence rates and transfer rates. Considering the overall outcome of data analysis for retention, the null hypothesis could be partially rejected, as there was a clear indication that retention rates varied with the number of mandates. For all three cohorts, results suggested that graduation rates decreased as the number of remedial courses increased. As for persistence rates, results indicated statistically significant differences among Prep levels for only 2004 and 2005 cohorts. Regarding transfer rates, the null hypothesis could be partially rejected, as results suggested that transfer rates decreased with the number of required remedial courses for college readiness. |
