Question

Excerpt from "How Prepared Are Students for College Level Reading? Applying a Lexile-Based Approach." Despite recent national- and state-level legislative initiatives focusing on postsecondary success and an increasing emphasis on educational attainment to successfully enter the job market, high rates of enrollment in remedial college courses indicate that many students are graduating from high school unprepared for college-level work (Strong American Schools 2008; Terry 2007). Based on the context clues, what does the word "remedial" mean?

Answer 1

remedial means that the student has to take a course that prepares them for a higher level subject. for example, if you are not ready for algebra how can you take the subject and succeed. another example is writing...most high school students graduate with no sense of what it means to read let alone write properly in a college setting. if you need a refresher or more tutelage on how to read and write then there are some colleges who offer "remedial" courses that allow the student to learn what is needed in order to advance to a college level reading course. college is demanding and if you are not able to keep up with the textbook material, then there is a chance that you will find it difficult to succeed in college. a side-note...context clues are just that clues within the statement of how to discover the meaning of the unknown word.