Remedial education, although widely used and disguised with other names, was rarely talked about for it could tarnish a school's reputation if widely discussed. Today, more and more colleges and universities are ditching the old stigma associated with remedial education, reinventing their remedial education and retention programs and, in the process, helping shore up America's higher education system. Foundations are beginning to pour money into innovative remedial or developmental education programs. Evolving federal policy will hasten the change even more, educators say, if President Barack Obama's ambitious education goals for the next decade are to be met. There are several important factors behind the growing movement to enhance higher education's focus on remedial education as part of its core mission, advocates say. They range from the changing demographics of the college population, including an increasingly older population returning to college with math skills that need updating, to a job market that today requires better trained employees in math, language and technical skills than was the case a generation ago. Advocates for remedial education seem to have identified the key elements for any school's efforts to teach underprepared students and retain them beyond their first year of college: (1) Intervene early; (2) Assume nothing and start with the basics; (3) Target remediation; (4) Test and retest; and (5) Try learning communities. For sure, there are critics of the new thrust toward remedial education. Still, remedial advocates say, facing the challenge with fresh ideas is preferable to continuing past practices.