Public community colleges enroll a high percentage of high risk students. The majority of these students dropout of college.

At Gloucester County College, New Jersey of 718 entering students in the Fall of 1988 only 196 or 27% completed requirements for a certificate or two year associate degree after six semesters. In an effort to increase the success of entering students, Gloucester County College gave each student a state mandated placement examination in Reading Comprehension, English Composition, and Mathematics Computation and placed those students who failed the exams in pre-collegiate developmental courses hoping thereby to prepare them for regular collegiate level work.

In this study, the possible effects of 19 variables on the students’ academic progress toward program completion were examined. These included: personal and education attributes of the students, characteristics of the high schools from which they were graduated, their scores on entry level tests of basic skills, and their performance in remedial, developmental, and regular collegiate level classes.

In general, high risk students were more likely to drop out of Gloucester County College regardless of their initial placement in regular, developmental, or remedial courses. On basis of this study, it remains unclear whether or not remedial courses promoted program completion. It is clear, however, that students who were assigned to pre-collegiate level courses dropped out sooner than other students, earned fewer credits, and with lower QCAs when doing so, and rarely persisted through graduation. Yet, on basis of entry level test scores alone, as many as 20% of those who failed one or more tests were graduated and an additional 16% were still persisting after six semesters.