High Remediation Rates Mean Paying Twice for Learning

[SoCalDem]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iOHlQuMUF6U9anesMfMGcqEbL1LgD9FKO7LG0

The AP has a disconcerting story that illustrates just how poorly prepared public school students are for college. According to Department of Education numbers, more than 30 percent of students entering American colleges require remedial training in at least one subject—in community colleges, it's more like 40 percent. Students forced into remedial classes are much more likely to drop out of college.

The cost of remedial education ends up being passed onto the taxpayer, who ends up paying twice to teach a student a particular subject. (That fact is less important than the human impact of failing to prepare students for college-level work, but monetary arguments are often better for prompting change.)

According to the AP story:

The price of providing remedial training is costly. The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates the nation loses $3.7 billion a year because students are not learning basic needed skills, including $1.4 billion to provide remedial education for students who have recently completed high school.

snip...

The basic goal here, especially on the college side of college- and career-ready, is to have higher education agree that the new "proficient" means ready to begin credit-bearing work in college without the need for remediation. The ultimate test of that is: Will higher education use these assessments as their assessment of college readiness and not retest students with another test to throw them into remedial courses? As Haycock emphasized, ending remediation will require colleges and K-12 educators to be on the same page with regard to what level of reading, writing, and mathematics is necessary for success in higher education.

The bonus is that doing so will save us all some money.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Maybe I'm not reading the article right. Are they recommending colleges dumb down their standards?

[exboyfil]

2. Ditto

You need a certain minimum proficiency to function in college. Nothing is going to change this fact. If you are in the Math, Science, or Engineering you should have at least Pre-Calculus before starting college. Our High Schools require 4 years of English, 3 years of Math and Science even to graduate. The expectation for most Math, Science, or Engineering majors is actually 5 years of Math and 5 years of Science (accomplished by starting High School classes in 8th grade). I know the competition is brutal at our High School. Remember that kids in other countries even have higher expectations.