You are here: Home / Archives for remedial

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.

Filed Under: Careers, College Tagged With: , , ,

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.

Filed Under: College Tagged With: , , ,

French teachers: No aid for slow kids

July 19, 2009 By

French elementary teachers are rallying against government rules requiring extra work for slow learners, reports the Washington Post. They say it violates the French ideal of providing the same education for all students.

A new rule requires teachers to do two hours a week of remedial work with failing elementary students. Alain Refalo refused to obey the ministry directive. (The French education system is run from the top down.)

(Refalo declares) that youngsters cannot work fruitfully after a six-hour classroom day. Moreover, he pointed out, the ministry had just announced budget cuts in which 3,000 special education teachers were being eliminated — and whose jobs were to help students in difficulty.

In a protest letter to the education ministry, Refalo complained that American “ideas such as competition, individualist thinking, privatization and survival of the fittest were being introduced.”

Instead of doing remedial work, Refalo used the extra time to organize theater workshops, with an eye to encouraging his 10-year-old pupils to express themselves and to delve into literature.

What about the students who can’t “delve into literature” because they can’t read well?

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , ,

53% earn bachelor's in six years

June 4, 2009 By

Four-year colleges graduate 53 percent of students in six years, concludes an American Enterprise Institute analysis of Education Department data.  Diplomas and Dropouts looks at full-time students who enrolled in fall, 2001.

Looking at institutions with comparable admissions standards, there were notable differences.

•Among schools that require only a high school diploma for admission, Walla Walla University and Heritage University, both in Washington state, reported graduation rates of 53% and 17%, respectively.

•Among colleges that require high school grades averaging a B-minus or better, John Carroll University in Cleveland and Chicago State University in Illinois graduated 74% vs. 16%, respectively.

•In the “most competitive” group, Amherst College in Massachusetts and Reed College in Portland, Ore., graduated 96% vs. 76%, respectively.

Education Sector’s Kevin Carey explains how Cleveland State Community College in Tennessee boosted its success rate in Introducing a Remedial Program That Actually Works in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  Nearly two-thirds of new students must take at least one remedial class, comparable to the remediation rate for community college students nationwide. Until recently, nearly half failed their remedial courses; most dropped out.

John Squires, chair of the math department, decided to try the math “emporium model” popularized by the National Center for Academic Transformation.

Instead of attending traditional lectures in basic math, elementary algebra, and intermediate algebra, remedial students come to a large computer lab where they solve math problems and, when they need help, work with on-site faculty members and tutors. Courses are arranged in weekly modules with accompanying quizzes that can be retaken until students are ready for the next step.

. . . The percentage of remedial students at Cleveland State earning at least a C in the three math courses jumped from 55 percent to 72 percent.

Test scores are up too, and students who’ve gone through the remedial program are succeeding in college-level math classes. In fact, they’re earning higher grades than classmates who didn’t require remediation.

Cleveland State’s new approach costs less and gives professors more time for direct contact with students.  The flexibility saves students time and money too, Carey writes. Those who do well can complete two or three math courses in one semester.  The college is redesigning its math program completely — and the English Department is planning to try the emporium model.

Filed Under: College Tagged With: , , , , ,

In and out of college

December 28, 2008 By

Seventy percent of Boston’s public high school graduates go to a four- or two-year college, but few earn a degree or certificate, concludes a study funded by the Boston Foundation. They’re not prepared: At one community college, 80 percent of Boston public graduates required remedial math, reports the Boston Globe.

The study followed Boston students who transferred from one institution to another over a six-year period.  Only 12 percent of Boston students who started at a community college earned a degree or certificate of any kind;  one-third of four-year state college students and 56 percent of four-year, private college students earned a degree within six years.

The most successful local community college offers intensive five-week and 10-week courses to create a sense of urgency for students, emulating University of Phoenix courses for working adults.

Via The College Puzzle.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
Newer Posts »