The California Community Colleges system began overhauling its placement and remediation policies and practices seven years ago, via the implementation of AB 705. How has this reform affected student success in transfer-level math, a key milestone on the path to college completion? And how have students’ long-term outcomes changed? Our focus is on the years 2022 to 2024—by 2022, access to transfer-level courses was close to universal, and cohorts of students were starting college under AB 705.

Completion rates for transfer-level math courses have continued to improve

In fall 2024, 58% of first-time math students completed a transfer-level course in their first attempt, a 7 percentage point gain since fall 2022. Practically all students were enrolling directly in transfer-level math courses, so this increase was not driven by expanded access.

Completion gains have varied across demographic groups. Latino and Black students saw much larger increases in one-term completion rates than their Asian and white peers. Completion rates among first-time math students aged 25 or older grew more sharply than rates among traditional-age students, and increases were slightly higher among women than men.

Recent improvements have been driven largely by statistics and liberal arts math (SLAM). In fall 2024, about six in ten first-time math students enrolled in SLAM courses, and SLAM completion rates increased by 5.4 percentage points, to 62%. Both corequisite courses and standalone sections saw improvements. We do not see similar increases among first-time math takers of transfer-level math courses leading to Calculus I (i.e., college algebra, trigonometry and precalculus).

Transfer rates to four-year colleges have risen

This is especially true for two-year outcomes. From 2019 to 2022, 11% of students transferred within two years of initial enrollment, 4.5 percentage point gain over the average rate from 2015 to 2018.

Here, too, gains have varied across demographic groups. Two-year transfer rates increased more for women vs. men, for traditional-age vs. older students, and for Asian vs. Latino and Black students.

Longer-term outcomes are better for students who pass transfer-level math in their first attempt. About a fifth (19%) of students who completed transfer-level math in their first attempt transferred within two years, versus only 4% of students who did not. Students who do not complete these courses on the first try are more likely to leave the system without transferring or earning degrees.

These outcomes have not worsened under AB 705. Two-year outcomes of students who successfully complete transfer-level math courses on the first try do not differ greatly from outcomes of successful students in pre–AB 705 cohorts—despite concerns about expanded access prompting instructors to dilute course content, leaving students unprepared for more advanced coursework.

Longer-term outcomes improved for students with remedial needs. Specifically, 8% of students who started in math courses with concurrent remedial support transferred to a four-year institution within two years of initial enrollment, compared to just 3% of students who started in below-transfer-level courses.

Looking ahead

The improvement of short- and long-term outcomes in the years since AB 705 implementation is encouraging. However, more work is needed to increase the odds that students who do not successfully complete transfer-level math on the first try will persist and achieve their academic goals.

College initiatives that address the academic and non-academic needs of students should be prioritized—of particular interest are programs that provide wraparound support, especially those modeled on effective evidence-based programs like CUNY ASAP.
Implementing well-designed corequisites should also play an important role. Some colleges are having great success with corequisite models, while other colleges are lagging far behind.
The state’s $64 million investment to support the implementation of AB 1705 may lead to additional improvements in student outcomes. Future research should examine how colleges have invested these funds, and how these investments impacted completion rates and racial/ethnic gaps.
More research is needed on Calculus I, which has been debated in the context of AB 1705, and has been more of a gatekeeper than a gateway to business and STEM majors. We need to see if an increase in students enrolling directly in and completing Calculus I is linked to increases in the number and diversity of students earning degrees and/or transferring to four-year colleges as BSTEM majors.

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About the Authors

Marisol Cuellar Mejia is a senior fellow at the PPIC Higher Education Center. Her research focuses on community college students and their path towards a four-year degree. Her recent projects have focused on examining statewide reforms to developmental education, recent trends and barriers to transfer from community colleges to four-year colleges, and the economic returns to a college degree. She is also a member of the PPIC Economic Policy Center, where she studies labor market trends. Her other areas of expertise include housing in California, and demographic trends. Before joining PPIC, she worked at Colombia’s National Association of Financial Institutions as an economic analyst, concentrating on issues related to the manufacturing sector and small business. She has also conducted agricultural and commodity market research for the Colombian National Federation of Coffee Growers and the National Federation of Palm Oil Growers of Colombia. She holds a master’s degree in economics from Universidad del Rosario and a master’s degree in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis.

Charlie Wigul is a research associate at the PPIC Higher Education Center, where his work focuses on community college students and their path toward a four-year degree. Prior to joining PPIC, he worked as a research assistant at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in data science with a minor in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mary Severance is a senior editor at the Public Policy Institute of California. She edits and helps develop publications and briefings so that they are accessible to their audiences. She also writes copy for the PPIC website and for institutional publications. Before she joined PPIC in 2008 as the institute’s production editor, she was a senior project editor at University of California Press. She has also worked as a copyeditor and college English instructor. She holds an MA and PhD in English from the State University of New York, Buffalo, and a BA in English from Carleton College.