#remediation

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Thinking and Linking

College without remediation

Joanne Jacobs

Sep 19, 2018
2 min

College without remediation

If remedial classes don’t help college students succeed — and there’s lots of evidence for that — what’s the alternative? California State University needs to develop better supports for poorly prepared students and help high schools improve academic rigor, writes Michael Kurlaender, professor of education policy at University of California Davis, in Education Next. “Only 30 percent of California 11th graders are deemed ready for college-level work in both mathematics and Eng

Raising college grad rates may lower quality

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 23, 2018
1 min

Raising college grad rates may lower quality

The push to get more students to a college degree may be lowering the quality of a college education, writes Jon Marcus for the Hechinger Report. Dual enrollment is helping high school students earn college credits — but are they really meeting college standards? Increasingly, instructors are high school teachers — not college professors. More students are starting in college-level classes, while trying to learn basic skills, instead of doing remedial work first. Does that lo

For the unprepared, college is a ripoff

Joanne Jacobs

May 1, 2018
1 min

For the unprepared, college is a ripoff

Colleges are ripping off poorly prepared students, charges Walter Williams, a George Mason economics professor, in the Daily Signal. “Only 37 percent of 12th-graders tested proficient or better in reading, and only 25 percent did so in math,” on the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Williams points out. “Among black students, only 17 percent tested proficient or better in reading, and just 7 percent reached at least a proficient level in math.” Yet most of the

It helps to aim high

Joanne Jacobs

Jan 3, 2018
1 min

It helps to aim high

So far, there are 28 comments on last week’s post about charges that community college placement tests are a “segregation machine” pushing blacks and Latinos to dead-end, no-credit, remedial courses. That’s a lot for any post, but remarkable during the holiday season. Nearly 70 percent of high school graduates enroll in college in the fall, writes Jeffrey Selingo in the Washington Post. But many never complete a degree. Starting at a four-year university rather than a communi

Remediation called ‘segregation machine’

Joanne Jacobs

Dec 28, 2017
2 min

Remediation called ‘segregation machine’

Community college placement tests create a “segregation machine,” pushing Latinos and blacks to dead-end remedial courses, a professor told an inewsource San Diego/Hechinger team of reporters. Wendy Smith, an English professor at San Diego Mesa College, believes most students can start at the college level — and succeed — with extra help, report Meredith Kolodner, Brad Racino and Brandon Quester. Anthony Rodriguez and Juneba Sulaiman failed a college math placement exam, but

Grad rate rises as diploma’s value falls

Joanne Jacobs

Dec 7, 2017
1 min

Grad rate rises as diploma’s value falls

America’s high school graduation rate is at an all-time high, yet a high school diploma doesn’t signify college readiness, career readiness or even attendance at school, writes Brandon Wright. “We’ve simultaneously lowered the bar for high school graduation while pushing for more high school graduates to attend college,” he writes. Unprepared students often are left with college debt but no degree — or skills. Half of remedial students never take a college-level course. Wrigh

Keep ‘American dream machine’ running

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 21, 2017
2 min

Keep ‘American dream machine’ running

My grandfather, who came to the U.S. as a boy round about 1900 — one of those huddled masses sailing past the Statue of Liberty — went to City College of New York for a semester or two before quitting to start a candy business. It failed. But his second try was a success. (His big product was malted-milk balls, the kind that now come in milk cartons. He patented the process for aerating malt, making him, in my mother’s words, “the inventor of the modern malted-milk ball.”) An

Remediation for college credit

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 7, 2017
2 min

Remediation for college credit

Starting in 2018, California State University will give students college credit for courses that include remediation, reports the Los Angeles Times. Thirty-nine percent of Cal State freshmen are placed in remedial math, English or both, reports EdSource. These students come from the top third of the state’s graduates. In an executive order, Chancellor Timothy P. White told the system’s 23 campus 23 campus presidents to use high school grades and SAT/ACT scores to determine co

Arithmetic to algebra in a semester

Joanne Jacobs

Jun 22, 2017
2 min

Arithmetic to algebra in a semester

Remedial math is the Bermuda triangle of community colleges. Many enter. Few go on to pass a college-level math class. City University of New York’s community colleges have developed a catch-up class that prepares a majority of students for college in one semester, writes David Kirp, a Berkeley professor public policy, in the New York Times. CUNY START, which includes “good teaching and I-have-your-back counseling,” could end the curse of remedial math, he believes. Can you

Cal State set to drop placement tests

Joanne Jacobs

May 23, 2017
1 min

Cal State set to drop placement tests

California State University, which recruits from the top third of California graduates, plans to stop using placement tests to decide whether students need remediation in English and math, reports Emily DeRuy in the San Jose Mercury News. Instead, CSU schools will analyze high school grades and SAT or ACT scores. Students in a summer math prep class at CSU, San Bernardino. Photo: Robert A. Whitehead/CSUSB Currently, almost 40 percent of freshman start in no-credit remedial co

Is it college or middle school?

Joanne Jacobs

May 3, 2017
2 min

Is it college or middle school?

California State University schools will stop placing unprepared students in remedial courses, reports EdSource. Instead, they’ll have a chance to earn college credit in “co-requisite” courses, while learning basic skills. “Giving college credit for classes that an advanced eighth-grader could complete” will debase the value of a Cal State degree, writes Ed Realist, a California high school teacher. CSU is not ending its practice of accepting students who aren’t capable of co

California legislators target remedial ed

Joanne Jacobs

May 2, 2017
1 min

California legislators target remedial ed

Community college remediation is doing more harm than good, argues the California Acceleration Project in a new report, Up to the Challenge. A proposed state law would require community colleges to use high school grades as well as placement tests to decide whether students need remedial coursework, reports KPCC. Colleges would have to show a student was “highly unlikely to succeed” in a college-level course before placing a student in remediation. Some community colleges ha

It’s hard to create schools that ‘work for everybody’

Joanne Jacobs

Apr 3, 2017
1 min

It’s hard to create schools that ‘work for everybody’

Creating schools that “work for everybody” is a challenge, writes Education Week‘s Catherine Gewertz. When the bell rings at Wheaton North High School, a river of white students flows into Advanced Placement classrooms. A trickle of brown and black students joins them. But mostly, the Latino, African-American, and Asian teenagers file into lower-rung classes. Six years ago, the school eliminated the remedial track. Low achievers, who primarily come from lower-income, minority

A guided path to a degree

Joanne Jacobs

Apr 2, 2017
3 min

A guided path to a degree

Young people go to college to search for him/her/xe-self, explore, experiment, discover a passion . . . Or perhaps to retake algebra, stumble through classes that won’t fulfill a major, go into debt and drop out without a credential. Flexibility leads to failure for most students at unselective two- and four-year colleges, writes Tina Rosenberg in the New York Times. Colleges have decided that structure leads to success. Many are creating “guided pathways” that help students

Too poor for college

Joanne Jacobs

Mar 27, 2017
1 min

Too poor for college

Millions of Americans start college, but never finish a degree. Why not? Poor preparation and too many competing responsibilities, conclude Michael Lawrence Collins and Joel Vargas. “Close to two-thirds of community college students work to support themselves and their families while in school, and they may be facing homelessness and hunger,” write Collins and Vargas. “Many are single parents, and more than a third are the first in their families to attend college.” Remedial

Remaking remediation

Joanne Jacobs

Mar 26, 2017
2 min

Remaking remediation

Eighty percent of new community college students in the City University of New York system test into remedial reading, writing and/or math, reports the New York Times. “At the end of one year, only half of all students in remediation have advanced out of those classes.” CUNY is revamping remediation in hopes of boosting success rates, reports the Times. Future students will take a different placement test with a retest option if they come close to passing. Associate degree pr

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