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Remedial education (also known as developmental education, basic skills education, compensatory education, preparatory education, and academic upgrading) is assigned to assist students in order to achieve expected competencies in core academic skills such as literacy and numeracy.

Whereas special education is designed specifically for students with special needs, remedial education can be designed for any students, with or without special needs; the defining trait is simply that they have reached a point of underpreparedness, regardless of why. For example, even people of high intelligence can be underprepared if their education was disrupted, for example, by internal displacement during civil disorder or a war.

In Canada, the process whereby mature students take secondary school courses so that they can qualify to take post-secondary education is called academic upgrading. The Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia defines academic upgrading as "programs offered to adult learners who require the academic pre-requisites needed for entry into many occupational programs." The Alberta Ministry of Enterprise and Advanced Education advises that academic upgrading can be pursued through a post-secondary institution, a school board program such as a storefront school, or via distance learning.

Post secondary remediation is delivered on both 2-year community college and 4-year university campuses in the U.S. The bulk of remedial courses focus on advancing underprepared students' literacy skills (English and reading) or math skills. However, remedial courses can also be offered for other subjects such as science or study skills.

Many students are placed into remedial courses through placement tests such as the ACT, SAT, ACCUPLACER, or COMPASS assessments. Often, each college or university sets its own score thresholds for determining whether a student must enroll in remedial courses. However, some states are moving toward a uniform standard for remedial placement cut scores. Students are required to enroll in remedial courses before advancing to a college level course in that subject. Colleges review a student's score by subject - math, English, science, etc. - and compare that score to the school's cutoff. For example, a college might use a score of 19 on the ACT math section as the threshold for determining whether a student must enroll in a remedial math course or college-level math course.

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