Delayed Start for a Shortened Remedial Mathematics Course: The Effect on Student Retention

Much research has demonstrated an inverse relationship between appointment delay and one-shot appointment-keeping behavior. In the present study, we investigated whether such relationship is observed with recurrent behavior, such as class attendance and retention within a college course. When a 4-week remedial arithmetic course at an urban community college started at three different times in a semester, the within-course retention rate of the group that started the latest, hence had the longest delay, was the lowest. The aforementioned inverse relationship was observed, while there was no significant difference among the groups in terms of students’ final exam scores. A few suggestions for possible future studies, along with implications for practice, are made. We recommend the use of various forms of reminders to offset the negative impact of delayed start of a course