Has a U.S. Developmental Education Reform for Academically Underprepared Students Affected College Enrollment?

Abstract

State policymakers in the United States have in recent years experimented with new initiatives to change the procedures used by public institutions to assess and assign academically underprepared students to non-credit developmental education (or remedial) courses. This study explores whether the most recent developmental education reform in Floridas—Senate Bill 1720 has affected student enrollment in the Florida College System (FCS) institutions and whether the enrollment effects vary by race/ethnicity and age. Through a difference-in-differences analysis, we did not find statistically significant effects of the reform on the college enrollment in Florida, neither on the racial or age compositions of the student population, compared to non-Florida institutions in the surrounding region. These null results provide valuable implications for policy and research consideration in Florida and beyond.