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Data center: Remediation rates by school
Written by Nancy Mitchell on Feb 22nd, 2010. | Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org
I am wondering why Cripple Creek-Victor School District RE-1 is not listed in the data table.
Lisa Noble – Because Cripple Creek-Victor High School did not have at least 25 graduates who attended a Colorado college or university at any time during the past five years. So the Colorado Commission on Higher Education does not list their remediation rates – for it or for any other school with fewer than 25 grads attending a state college. The idea seems to be that it’s such a small number that it might identify those students who need help. But I think that information would be extremely useful for the public to know.
What the CCHE does instead is throw the grads of these smaller schools, along with private school grads and out-of-state grads, into an “other” category. The other category is then added to all Colorado high schools with 25 or more graduates attending a state college or university.
This is fine for the CCHE’s purpose, which is to look at the overall remediation rates at its colleges and universities. But Ed News wanted to look at the effectiveness of the state’s public high schools – so we only included the data for schools with publicly disclosed remediation rates in at least one of the last five years.
I asked but the CCHE was unable to pull apart the “other” numbers to allow us to include the smaller schools. Sorry for the long-winded answer but I do wish we could have added them.
Reasons why DPS Graduates need math remedial coursework
1. The Course Sequence is One-size fits all. Algebra I in 9th Grade, Geometry in 10th Grade, and Algebra II in 10th grade. Whether you are on grade level, behind grade level, or above grade level on CSAP, you are given the same sequence of courses.
2. Over half the graduates from DPS who attend CCD take Math 030(the lowest level remedial course offered) which teaches basic arithmetic skills such as adding and subtracting negative numbers. These skills are not taught or addressed in the DPS curriculum pacing.
3. DPS does not allow anything below Algebra I to be taught in High School and does not align its Math Curriculum to address the content taught in College Remedial Courses.
4. DPS’s chosen Algebra I text book requires students to use a calculator to solve problems. Remedial courses at CCD do not allow students to use calculators.
I was very impressed with the drop-down info and thrilled to see that Platte Canyon #1 students perform as well as my perception — but have pondered for many years whether our success is at least partly the result of the “nothing else to do up here” factor, while kids in town have so many more distractions and options. Before digital tv, many local kids’ choices came down to Homework, Housework and Crummy TV Reception, and local school events were some of the best-attended occasions in town simply for lack of any other options. In our limited-numbers perspective, an achieving student sticks out and so does one who’s struggling (if not, his or her sibling will likely get the same teacher, so at some point at least, the Piper will have to be paid).
I figure that kids in town probably need more personal and parental discipline to stay on task, especially if they figure that they can just migrate to another school if any particular one doesn’t work out — simply because there are so many other interesting “things to do in Denver before you’re dead.”
Hmmm….what was it that Hilary said? …wasn’t it something about a village?
[...] talked eloquently about the state’s college remediation problem (see the EdNews Data Center for school-by-school stats on this problem). “I bring the bill because I’m not sure our kids are prepared for [...]
So what is the solution? As stated in the “American Educator” the AFT’s magazine, Fall 2010, students need to be tested for college readiness their Junior year (or sooner). Then steps can be taken at the high school level to remediate those students before they leave. Students and parents deserve to know if the child is ready for college before they start paying the big bucks. In regards to math, schools should be targeting students being ready for Algebra 1 as freshmen. They need to remediate in middle school if not so. This is true for other content areas as well. High schools should be using the same placement tests as the colleges..who is going to make these available? Our education system needs to be looking at K-12 as a continuous progression oflerning skills and content knowledge. Help those kids who are not proficient, don’t just move them on through the system. ……….and we haven’t even addressed those issues like frequent moves, lack of attendance, professional turnover etc that disrupts so many student,s progression.