Most American colleges and universities offer special courses for students who lack some of the reading, writing, and mathematics skills that are critical for college-level work (Roueche & Roueche, 1999). This phenomenon is known popularly as remedial education, although many educators avoid that label, preferring terms such as developmental education, skills courses, or college preparation courses. Developmental or remedial education is widespread: Our analyses indicate that about 40% of traditional undergraduates take at least one such course, and remediation is even more common among older nontraditional students (Woodham, 1998). Remedial coursework has become a politically contentious issue in the last decade or so (Kozeracki, 2002; Soliday, 2002). Some commentators view the existence of remedial or developmental courses as evidence that many of today's college students are not academically strong enough to manage college-level work and should not have been admitted into college in the first place (Harwood, 1997; Marcus, 2000; Trombley, 1998). From this perspective, the existence of remediation suggests that some institutions have lowered their standards for admission, and have subsequently" dumbed down" courses so that unprepared students can