The Louisiana Board of Regents extended its study of remedial students accepted into higher education institutions at its October meeting on Wednesday.
The Developmental Education Co-Requisite Delivery Pilot, started in 2012, offers students who do not meet college acceptance requirements entry to the colleges and supplemental instruction.
Previously, the Core 4 plan, which outlines basic guidelines for college admittance, would stop offering developmental courses in 2014 for students who didn’t meet the plan’s standards. But the Board felt in order for the program to be evaluated properly, it needed to be extended.
Pilot students will report to the board with their grades and post-test results to see how effective the program is. There are currently 15 institutions in the pilot study.
Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell said another important part of extending the pilot is comparing results with information from other institutions.
Though this initiative was approved, not every state institution is participating.
Regent Robert Levy said the schools that do not participate will not be allowed to admit remedial students, unless there is a special exception.
Additionally, the Board has introduced the preliminary budget request for Fiscal Year 2014-15. The budget is a first draft for the upcoming year.
To determine the numbers, the Finance Committee used a cost calculator and in the preliminary request will ask for a total of $187 million in additional funds from the state.
Barbara Goodson, deputy commissioner for Finance and Administration, said in this request, all tuition will be retained by each institution.
The Pennington Biomedical Research Center requested $3.3 million in addition to its $16.7 million base. The money will be used to get more programs up and running.
The proposal outlines a $30 million fund for the Board to help institutions out of backlog. Goodson said the money can come from one-time funds and its purpose is to help
various institutions.