Getting There II: A Statewide Progress Report on Implementation of AB 705. Are California Community Colleges Maximizing Student Completion of Transfer-Level Math and English?

A new law, Assembly Bill 705 (Irwin), is driving dramatic changes to how the California Community Colleges place students into English and math courses. In fall 2019, AB 705 began requiring the colleges to use students' high school grades as the primary means of placement; restricting colleges from denying students access to transferable college-level courses; and giving students the right to begin in courses where they have the best chance of completing the English and math requirements for a bachelor's degree. This report--a collaboration between the Campaign for College Opportunity and the California Acceleration Project--analyzes early AB 705 implementation efforts across California's community college system. It is a follow-up to the regional analysis of 47 colleges in the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, and greater Los Angeles that was published in September 2019. This report examines fall course schedules and websites from 114 of the state's community colleges to identify bright spots and problems in implementation, with particular focus on the extent to which college course offerings are aligned with the AB 705 standard of "maximizing" student completion of transfer-level English and math courses. The report includes findings from an examination of the websites of a subset of colleges to analyze the messages students are receiving about placement when a substantial number of remedial sections remain on the schedule. The analysis reveals that colleges have approximately doubled the proportion of transfer-level classes they offer. There also has been dramatic growth in the number of colleges offering corequisite remediation--that is, curricular models in which students receive additional support while enrolled in transferable college-level classes. Despite this progress, the report identifies several areas of weak implementation that will need further attention from the colleges, the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (Chancellor's Office), and possibly the State Legislature. [The Campaign for College Opportunity commissioned the California Acceleration Project (CAP) to conduct this analysis. For "Getting There: Are California Community Colleges Maximizing Student Completion of Transfer-Level Math and English? A Regional Progress Report on Implementation of AB 705," see ED598343.]