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College remediation rates rise
Written by Todd Engdahl on Feb 7th, 2012. | Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org
Why not put the blame on high schools and K-12? Who is to blame for this students? parents? We should just expect rates to raise as more low-income and minority students graduate from high school and attend college….I strongly disagree. It assumes high schools and K-12 in general has no means of changing the remediation level of students, not true. It seems there is a fundamental and systemic problem when students are given diplomas from some high schools/districts and more than half require remediation. Not only is it a huge cost for the state, but it is totally unfair to students that thought their high school diploma meant they were ready for college level work.
Van you are correct. When I was on the state school board in the late 1980′s I tried to get a law/regulation that would take money out of the k12 budget to give to higher education for providing remedial courses. One approach I advocated was to send the remediation bill to the high school that gave out a diploma without insuring that students were literate in each subject.
That idea never got past the school boards and unions political power to protect their money.
Then I tried to see if we could ‘take it off of the top’. That would be taking the then $24 million from the overall school finance act and giving it to the colleges to pay for the remedial courses that they offered. That also died.
Sadly remediation is not a burden placed on the student’s budget, and creates more debt for students trying to do well in college yet damaged by their K12 experience.
After fighting vouchers for decades I have come to seek them, in a fair manner, in order to empower students and their families to be heard and responded to by local school boards. Let the money travel with the student from school to school, public or private. It is interesting that many politicians like to ‘attack’ the socialist European countries. Yet most northern European countries, the ones that out perform our schools, provide choice and permit more parental freedom for k12 than we do.
third paragraph of above should say ‘now’ not ‘not’.
Why do we use the ACT as a indicator of college readiness when it is intended to be used as a way to rank students? The ACT is used to compare what a student knows to other students. The test is written to purposely have some students get the answer wrong, in order to rank them. Ever wonder why the remediation rate stays similar from year to year? It’s because the ACT norms their results. We need a better indicator of what a student knows and does not know. The results might be better or worse. At least it would be more accurate.
Ed, can K-12 be reimbursed from the colleges for students who get college credit for their high school experience? IB or AP course credit?
Van, I understand and share your frustration but I don’t think it’s fair to put the blame solely on schools especially in light of those systemic problems that you mention. It might be more fair to share some of that blame with the district or even the state. Heck, in a state like Colorado, there’s even enough blame to share with all of the taxpayers who continually vote ‘no’ on education funding increases.
The reality is that a high school diploma has never meant that the bearer is necessarily ready for college work. You might say that it should and I would likely agree with you but it doesn’t. Not even in the best districts. I went to school in Iowa when it was number 1 in the country in education and, even there and then, a diploma didn’t mean that. Many of my classmates went straight to work in manufacturing or service and many went to community college where some required remediation. The alternative, at least until the systemic problems are addressed, is to fail an awful lot of students. I know that in an ideal world that wouldn’t be true but we must recognize the important distinction between the maxims “Anybody can achieve” and “Everybody can achieve”. Right now, the first is true but the second, unfortunately, is not.
Mark, your point about ACT is a fair one though it seems to matter little whether it is a 10th grade CSAP or ACCUPLACER score in terms of identifying students needing remediation. I also would like a much deeper assessment of what kids know and can do, e.g. “A Levels.” The bigger issue has to do with why schools issue diplomas to students suggesting they are ready for college work when they know they are not and have known this for years! It isn’t fair particularly when many students will take out loans and the students will be holding the dept. It is a totally messed up system for low-income kids particularly when you add the for-profit colleges with their “game design programming” programs in the mix.
Perhaps, schools shouldn’t admit students that are not qualified for their school. Institutions have varying standards for admission. Students should apply to, and be accepted into, schools where they meet the criteria. The effort is in finding the right fit. If a student wants to be admitted to a certain school, they should be responsible to meet the admission requirements. If one needs remediation, they can go get it, then reapply.
As a teacher I’d like an asseesment that is set up to measure instruction if I am to be held accountable. As a school I want to “mine” the assessment data to decipher what is going on. It is very difficult to get to the meat of the issue if we are using an aptitude exam that is normed. I’d love to work with higher Ed to develop our own state assessment.