Some 60 percent of new community college students aren’t ready for college-level classes. Those placed in basic math or reading rarely make it out of the remedial sequence, much less to a degree. Do they belong in college?
Community college or adult ed?
February 7, 2011 By
Can differentiation work?
November 21, 2010 By
With the demise of tracking, teachers are supposed to “differentiate instruction,” tailoring instruction to advanced, average and struggling students in the same class. It’s not easy, writes Mike Petrilli in Ed Next.
The idea, according to Carol Tomlinson of the University of Virginia (UVA), is to “shake up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn.” Ideally, instruction is customized at the individual student level.
Holly Hertberg-Davis, also at UVA worked with Tomlinson on a large study of differentiated instruction which included teacher training and ongoing coaching.
Three years later the researchers wanted to know if the program had an impact on student learning. But they were stumped. “We couldn’t answer the question,” Hertberg-Davis told me, “because no one was actually differentiating.”
Petrilli visits Piney Branch Elementary in Takoma Park, Maryland, a high-achieving school with a very diverse student body. How does differentiation work?
First, every homeroom has a mixed group of students: the kids are assigned to make sure that every class represents the diversity of the school in terms of achievement level, race, class, etc. Then, during the 90-minute reading block, students spend much of their time in small groups appropriate for their reading level. (Redbirds and bluebirds are back!) . . .
For math, on the other hand, students are split up into homogeneous classrooms. All the advanced math kids are in one classroom, the middle students in another, and the struggling kids in a third. This means shuffling the kids from one room to another (a process that can be quite time-consuming for elementary school kids). But it allows the highest-performing kids to sprint ahead; one of the school’s 3rd-grade math classes, for example, is tackling the district’s 5th-grade math curriculum. . . .
The rest of the time—when kids are learning science or social studies or taking “specials” like art and music—they are back in their heterogeneous classrooms. Even then, however, teachers work to “differentiate instruction,” which often means separating the kids back into homogeneous groups again, and offering more challenging, extended assignments to the higher-achieving students.
. . . All kids spend most of the day getting challenged at their level, and no one ever sits in a classroom that’s entirely segregated by race or class.
The school also offers the ”highly gifted” curriculum for very bright students in the same class with students who are working at grade level. Completely integrating the gifted class didn’t work. The performance spread was too wide.
What Piney Branch calls “differentiated instruction” looks a lot to me like fluid ability grouping for academic subjects. Teachers, how does differentiation work in your school?
Differentiated instruction is a fad with no basis in research, argued Mike Schmoker in Education Week.
When it’s done properly, differentiation helps students learn, responds Tomlinson, in a letter.
But, again, can it be done properly by the average teacher with a class that includes a wide range of abilities and disabilities?
Personalizing online learning
October 22, 2010 By
On Community College Spotlight: Inspired by Facebook, the University of Phoenix is working on a platform that would personalize online learning.
K12, which specializes in online learning for K-12 students, and Blackboard, which makes course-management software, will partner to sell online remedial courseware to community colleges.
New York may raise Regents bar
June 19, 2010 By
New York’s Regents diploma “doesn’t mean college-ready,” says Merryl Tisch, Regents chancellor. So the test will get harder, even though that’s likely to depress rising graduation rates.
Seventy-five percent of New York City’s high school graduates who go on to City University require remedial math and/or English classes, Tisch complains. The class of 2011 will face a higher standard.
In 2009, 59 percent of city students passed the Regents and earned a diploma, up from 46.5 percent in 2005. That’s likely to decline.
Tisch also wants to end the practice of letting teachers grade their own students’ Regents exams. By the 2011-12 school year, all exam answer sheets will be scanned and submitted to the state for analysis. That “could include checking for suspicious erasures or unusual answer clusters that may suggest cheating,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
Remediation first
March 25, 2010 By
Back in the last century, California State University system set a goal: Only 10 percent of freshmen would require remedial English or math classes. The reality: 60 percent of first-year students take remedial classes, despite earning a B average or better in high school. Staring in 2012, unprepared freshmen will have to take Early Start remedial classes before enrolling, reports Educated Guess.
That could take the form of an online course, an intensive summer bridge session at a CSU campus or a CSU-designed English writing course during students’ senior year in high school.
However, CSU would offer remediation to students who take Early Start classes but still need help.
Eleventh graders can take a voluntary CSU test as part of the state exam to see if they’re prepared for college classes: 83 percent fail the English portion and 43 percent fail the math. In theory, they can raise their skills in 12th grade.
CSU . . . has designed an expository reading and writing course, concentrating on persuasive writing, and has trained 4,500 high school teachers to teach it. It can be integrated into a senior or junior year English course or taught as a semester- or year-long course. The problem is that only about one-quarter of the state’s 1,000 comprehensive high schools use it, and only 15 percent intensively.
Why not require the college-prep English course for all college-bound students who aren’t in AP English? And require them to meet CSU standards or start at a community college that’s better equipped to help students catch up.
Tired of teach basic math to high school graduates, Foothill Community College math instructors have persuaded local teachers to adapt the college’s remedial math program for middle-school students who’ve fallen behind, reports the Mountain View Voice.
Students work individually through 10 “modules,” starting at the beginning with whole number concepts. The math students must write out each problem, box their answers and correct every mistake on their work.
There are no grades in the typical sense: To pass an exam at the end of each module, and move on through the program, students must score 87 percent or better.
. . . After the students take their assessment tests, the teachers meet and re-shuffle the classes. Students are grouped by their progress, so they will always be amongst peers who are around the same level.
I’ve seen this work in elementary school: Group students by performance level in math or reading, teach what the group needs to learn and let them move on quickly to a higher level. But principals told me it’s tricky to do because tracking raises accusations of bias. But dumping unprepared students in classes they can’t handle — and asking teachers to teach a huge range of skills in the same class — is OK.
In The Old College Lie, Quick and the Ed’s Chad Aldeman links to a Dallas Morning News story on high school graduates who passed all their classes and tests but find themselves in college learning how to use commas and distinguish between “your” and “you’re.”
'Algebra for all' flunks the test
February 10, 2010 By
Pushing algebra for all students has failed to prepare low-achieving students for college, reports Education Week.
• An analysis using longitudinal statewide data on students in Arkansas and Texas found that, for the lowest-scoring 8th graders, even making it one course past Algebra 2 might not be enough to help them become “college and career ready” by the end of high school.
• An evaluation of the Chicago public schools’ efforts to boost algebra coursetaking found that, although more students completed the course by 9th grade as a result of the policy, failure rates increased, grades dropped slightly, test scores did not improve, and students were no more likely to attend college when they left the system.
Students with very poor math skills are “misplaced” in algebra classes, concluded Tom Loveless in a 2008 Brookings Institution paper.
“No one has figured out how to teach algebra to kids who are seven or eight years behind before they get to algebra, and teach it all in one year,” said Mr. Loveless, who favors interventions for struggling students at even earlier ages.
Algebra-for-all policies were a reaction to research showing that remedial math is a dead end, especially for low-income and minority students, while algebra is a “gateway” to advanced math classes and then to college.
But putting all students in the same math class seems to have held back the high achievers without doing much for the low achievers, says Elaine M. Allensworth of the Consortium on Chicago School Research.
“Meanwhile, the kids who weren’t taking advanced classes before are taking them now,” she said, “but they’re not very engaged in them. They have high absence rates and low levels of learning.”
Some districts now are double-dosing, requiring low-scoring students to take a math “readiness” class at the same time they take algebra. In many schools, algebra teachers “spend a very large portion of that year on basic arithmetic,” said William Schmidt, a Michigan State education professor.
It seems obvious that schools should teach arithmetic in elementary school to give students a shot at learning algebra in eighth or ninth grade. Why isn’t this happening? And if detracking holds back the good students, frustrates the poor students and exhausts the teacher, why keep doing it?
Update: Students who worked in a computer lab on a pre-algebra and algebra learning program outscored similar students taught in a classroom, reports What Works Clearinghouse.
What to do about unskilled college students
December 13, 2009 By
Many college students can’t do math or read well, write Sandra Stotsky and Ze’ev Wurman on Minding the Campus.
Estimates of those needing remedial classes before taking credit courses range from 30% of entering students to 40% of traditional undergraduates. . . .
A 2004 U.S. Department of Education study reports that 42% of freshmen in public two-year institutions need remediation.
. . . More than half of all college students will not earn a degree or credential, according to a 2009 Gates Foundation report drawing on national education statistics. For community college and low-income students, it notes, the numbers are much worse.
What to do? Teaching college skills to college-bound high school students would seem like an obvious answer. But Stotsky and Wurman fear a push to change college coursework to be doable by the minimally skilled.
The Gates Foundation . . . faults our post-secondary institutions for not having “responded to their students’ increasingly complex and diverse needs.” One goal of Gates’ Postsecondary Success Initiative is to make both curriculum and instruction at the post-secondary level “more effective and engaging” by integrating technology into instruction, redesigning entire courses, and “contextualizing” these courses “to match students’ field of interest.” Details are lacking, but this seems to mean that academic degree programs would be versions of programs now offered in vocational technical high schools, the kind of schools these students should have had the opportunity—and encouragement—to enroll in.
Raising high school expectations would not increase the dropout rate, they argue. Massachusetts, which has the toughest standards in the nation, reduced its dropout rate by 12 percent in 2008, they write.
Math teaching without the math
November 16, 2009 By
“Math educators” have dumbed down math content in a vain effort to “engage” low achievers, charges Sandra Stotsky in City Journal.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) 1989 standards lead to “trendy, though empirically unsupported, pedagogical and organizational methods that essentially dumb down math content.”
Stotsky suggests emulating high-math-achieving countries, which “teach arithmetic in the elementary grades in a coherent curriculum leading, step by step, to formal algebra and geometry in middle school.”
Stotsky served on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, formed in 2006, which looked at how best to prepare students for Algebra 1, “the gateway course to higher mathematics and advanced science.”
The panel found little if any credible evidence supporting the teaching philosophy and practices that math educators have promoted in their ed-school courses and embedded in textbooks for almost two decades. It did find evidence for the effectiveness of a highly structured approach to teaching computational skills, called Team Assisted Individualization; of formative assessment, which entails ongoing monitoring of student learning to inform instruction; of the use of high-quality technology for drilling and practicing; and of explicit systematic instruction for students with learning disabilities and other learning problems.
Stotsky was the chief writer of Massachusetts’ highly regarded standards.
Reporter Beth Fertig of WNYC is following the fortunes of remedial math students at a New York City community college. Most hope that more education will qualify them for better jobs: 10 of 28 students passed the first quiz.
Also check out Math Matters by the Hechinger Institute. While written as a guide for education writers, it offers a useful perspective on the math wars.
Where college dreams go to die
September 11, 2009 By
Community college remediation is Higher Ed’s Bermuda Triangle, writes Camille Esch in the Washington Monthly. “Vast numbers of students enter, and for intents and purposes disappear.”
Community colleges are required to accept virtually anyone interested in higher education, no matter how unprepared, and today an astonishing 84 percent of incoming California community college students don’t qualify to take college-level math classes that can count toward a four-year degree (in English, it’s over 70 percent).
We don’t know what works and what doesn’t, though she suspects better remediation for the top half of remedial students could make a difference. The ones with elementary reading, writing and math skills — and poor work habits — may be a lost cause.
In Silicon Valley, middle-aged workers are using short-term vocational programs at community colleges to train for new jobs, reports the San Jose Mercury News. Duane Bjerke, a 47-year-old construction worker, is studying energy conservation.
Late at night, often sharing a table with their own children, these older students hit the books. Many say their reading, writing and arithmetic skills are rusty; others admit that this is the first time they’ve focused on academics. But they bring extra motivation to the classroom. “I’m Steady Eddie. A person like me is on time, ready to go,” Bjerke said. “Some of the young kids — they show up late, don’t bring a pencil, don’t do their homework.”
Even those who start at four-year colleges often fail to complete a degree. Crossing the Finish Line by William Bowen, Matthew Chingos and Michael McPherson looks at which students earn a diploma — who doesn’t — at public universities. Undermatching — qualified students choosing less-demanding universities or two-year colleges — depresses the graduation rate, they write.
They may have had their reasons, such as staying close to home or lack of money (though more selective schools aren’t always pricier). But the authors argue bigger factors are “inertia, lack of information, lack of forward planning for college, and lack of encouragement.” The data suggest low-income and minority students, and especially those whose parents don’t complete college, are especially susceptible.
In North Carolina, “undermatched” students earned higher grades but took longer to get through college and were graduated ” at a rate 15 points lower than comparably prepared students who went to more selective schools.”
Between the overmatched and the undermatched, it’s a miracle anyone earns a degree.
Try, try the first time
August 14, 2009 By
San Jose State students who flunk remedial English or math won’t be able to retake the course at the university. There’s no money in the budget for repeat remedial students, reports the San Jose Mercury News.
Opponents of the new policy say it will hurt those who are already struggling: the low-income and ill-prepared students who fill remedial classrooms.
“I worry that if they can’t afford it, they won’t come back. They’ll drop out,” said professor Stefan Frazier, who teaches remedial writing classes. While some students fail because they don’t study hard enough, others need an extra semester of review because they were ill-prepared in high school, he said.
San Jose State and other California State University campuses draw from the top third of graduates in the state based on an index of grades and test scores. Yet, due to rampant grade inflation, more than half of first-year students require remediation. San Diego State, a desireable and crowded campus, cut all remedial classes years ago, requiring students to co-enroll at a community college. At San Jose State, one third to one half of students who take remedial English in the fall need to try again in the spring; fewer students fail remedial math.
Sending students to community colleges, which specialize in remediation, makes sense for university budgets and for students’ budgets. Those who aren’t ready to handle college English or math will spend a lot less money catching up at a community college. If word filters down that remedial chances are limited, perhaps more students will do the work in high school.
Way too many students are unprepared for college, writes Education Gadfly’s Checker Finn in a push for national standards.
Besides the on-campus challenges they will encounter, they begin with the handicap of a high-school diploma that signifies “time spent” and “courses taken” but not “skills and knowledge acquired.” Studies by ACT have shown that fewer than one-fourth of high-school graduates who take that organization’s tests–presumably because they intend to go to college–are academically prepared for college-level work in English, math and science.
CSU students typically earned B’s in high school in college-prep courses. If they’d known they needed to do more to prepare to earn a college degree, they might have worked harder or smarter. Or changed their aspirations.
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