Colleges Find Area Freshmen Unready
My children are victims of this as well. Jerry Keimig and Joy Rose refused to provide services to my children that qualified for special education. Now I am paying for remedial classes in college. Meanwhile, the children that are going were on the honor roll all of the way through high school. It appears that pushing students through is the priority of the day.
Colleges find area freshmen unready
More than 40 percent of area public high school graduates in 2009 entered Missouri colleges and universities so far behind in reading and math that they took at least one remedial course once they arrived on campus, data show.
Of the 7,067 area graduates who enrolled that year as freshmen in state-funded schools, 3,029 of them landed in academic purgatory, taking catch-up classes that didn't count toward a college degree, according to the Missouri Department of Higher Education.
The proportion of Missouri public school students who end up in remedial college classes has risen only slightly in recent years but is up sharply since 1996. Thirty-eight percent needed remediation before moving on to college-level courses in 2009, compared with 26 percent 14 years ago.
"It is concerning," said Rusty Monhollon, senior associate in academic affairs for the Missouri Department of Higher Education. "It's not a problem that has one easy answer."
President Barack Obama has set a national goal of having the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.
But with college remediation on the rise in some states, such as Missouri, it could be a difficult goal to attain. Studies suggest that the farther behind students are when they enter college, the longer it takes to earn a degree or certificate, if they do at all.
Nationally, about 1.3 million students are taking remedial courses at public two-year and four-year institutions at a cost of at least $2.3 billion, according to a 2008 report by Strong American Schools, a nonprofit financed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Illinois does not track the percentage of its high school graduates in remedial courses, but other data suggest the state also struggles with college readiness.
DIFFERENT STANDARDS
In Missouri, state and college officials partly blame the increased demand for college remediation on high schools, where graduation standards don't always line up with what students must know to succeed in college. They also say the proportion reflects the fact that enrollments are up at two-year colleges — schools that typically accept all students no matter what their skill level.
"If we just said, 'No, you're not college ready, so come back when you are,' we're turning our backs on a huge number of students and a large pool of talent," Monhollon said.
Officials in higher education are working with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to define college readiness and a more uniform standard of what high school graduates must know to tackle college-level work.
"High expectations is a critical piece," said Margie Vandeven, assistant commissioner for the office of quality schools at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. "We need to expect that all of our students can be college and career ready."
Some recent high school graduates say they were surprised at how unprepared they were when they arrived on college campuses.
Demond Cox, a 2006 graduate of University City High School, struggled his sophomore year at Missouri University of Science and Technology, where he majors in mechanical engineering. He didn't need remedial help, but received tutoring. Cox took honors and Advanced Placement classes in high school.
Nevertheless, "I wasn't used to studying," he said.
Other graduates who'd taken college-prep classes and landed on the high school honor roll can spend several semesters catching up.
"You do get students who, through whatever system or school they've had, and for whatever reason, are unprepared," said Sandra Brady, assistant professor in reading at St. Louis Community College at Meramec. Some of these students are 'surprised, shocked, angry," she said. "They think, 'I have a high school diploma. What are you telling me?'"
Typically, colleges place students in remedial classes based on their scores on college admissions tests or on national college entrance exams, such as the ACT.
The ACT tests skills in four areas: mathematics, reading, English and science. In Missouri, just 26 percent of students in 2010 met or exceeded benchmarks in all four areas. In Illinois, the proportion was 23 percent. Students who meet the ACT benchmarks have a 75 percent chance of earning a C or better in those college courses.
VARIED READINESS
In the St. Louis area, the level of college readiness varies widely among public high schools, ranging from 4 percent of graduates needing to play catchup, to 92 percent.
On one end of that spectrum is Metro High in the Central West End, a selective magnet school where students must earn C's or above to remain enrolled. Just 4 percent of graduates — or one of the 25 who attended state schools — took a remedial college class.
In contrast, nearly every college-bound graduate of Vashon High School in north St. Louis ended up in remedial college classes. Ninety-two percent of them took at least one.
Both Metro and Vashon high schools are in the St. Louis School District.
Graduates from suburban public high schools also had varying levels of college readiness.
Those who graduated from Timberland High School in the Wentzville School District were among the best prepared, with 6 percent in remedial courses. Those from high schools in the Parkway, Rockwood and Clayton school districts ranked toward the top, according to state data.
Graduates of affluent public schools aren't necessarily college ready. At Ladue Horton Watkins High School, 21 of the 76 graduates in 2009 who went to state-funded schools needed extra help once they arrived. The number of graduates needing remedial help has the school district's attention. Most of Ladue's 299 graduates that year went on to some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the nation, where remedial classes aren't offered.
Even so, "Ladue has to pay attention to those numbers," said Ken Fox, a college and career advisor at Ladue High. "We're not serving all our students if we don't."
The least prepared graduates came from the region's most struggling high schools — Vashon, Roosevelt, Soldan, and most other high schools in the St. Louis Public School District.
Barbara Harris graduated in 2010 from Roosevelt High School, where she took some college prep classes and occasionally landed on the honor roll, she said. But Harris rarely had homework.
This fall, Harris tested into remedial reading and the lowest level of remedial math at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, where she's pursuing general studies. She eventually hopes to get into a nursing program. But first, Harris must complete two more semesters of remedial math before she can even enroll in college algebra.
"I could be taking something else," Harris said. "If high school had prepared me for college-level algebra, I wouldn't have to spend so many hours catching up."
SCHOOL STRATEGIES
St. Louis Superintendent Kelvin Adams said the district was working on strategies to make students more college ready, such as improving math and reading skills in all grades, and refreshing their skills before test time.
"We want to give kids the best opportunity," Adams said. "We don't want all of their dollars spent on remedial courses."
In Missouri, state education leaders say they are working to close the knowledge gap. Last year, the state Board of Education adopted a set of common core standards — a list of things students must learn to graduate — to meet that end.
In some school districts, high schools are working on personal study plans to address each senior's weaknesses, Vandeven said. "We're getting a lot of inquiries into how to best serve high school students and make that senior year more meaningful," she said.
For the time being, the demand for remedial courses is steady.
At the University of Missouri-Columbia, about 700 students were enrolled this fall in 23 offerings of Math 0110 — a precursor to college algebra. The school spends more than $70,000 teaching the course.
The demand is much higher at the St. Louis Community College system, which offered 46 different remedial courses this past semester, primarily in math, reading and English.
More than 17,000 students enrolled in 922 different sections of those remedial courses, though the actual number of students was smaller than that, because many took more than one class.
"It's not a good thing," said Brady, the reading instructor at St. Louis Community College at Meramec. "But honestly, this is the reality with which we are faced. Our job is to take them from where they are and help them move forward."
Tim Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Colleges find area freshmen unready
More than 40 percent of area public high school graduates in 2009 entered Missouri colleges and universities so far behind in reading and math that they took at least one remedial course once they arrived on campus, data show.
Of the 7,067 area graduates who enrolled that year as freshmen in state-funded schools, 3,029 of them landed in academic purgatory, taking catch-up classes that didn't count toward a college degree, according to the Missouri Department of Higher Education.
The proportion of Missouri public school students who end up in remedial college classes has risen only slightly in recent years but is up sharply since 1996. Thirty-eight percent needed remediation before moving on to college-level courses in 2009, compared with 26 percent 14 years ago.
"It is concerning," said Rusty Monhollon, senior associate in academic affairs for the Missouri Department of Higher Education. "It's not a problem that has one easy answer."
President Barack Obama has set a national goal of having the world's highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.
But with college remediation on the rise in some states, such as Missouri, it could be a difficult goal to attain. Studies suggest that the farther behind students are when they enter college, the longer it takes to earn a degree or certificate, if they do at all.
Nationally, about 1.3 million students are taking remedial courses at public two-year and four-year institutions at a cost of at least $2.3 billion, according to a 2008 report by Strong American Schools, a nonprofit financed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Illinois does not track the percentage of its high school graduates in remedial courses, but other data suggest the state also struggles with college readiness.
DIFFERENT STANDARDS
In Missouri, state and college officials partly blame the increased demand for college remediation on high schools, where graduation standards don't always line up with what students must know to succeed in college. They also say the proportion reflects the fact that enrollments are up at two-year colleges — schools that typically accept all students no matter what their skill level.
"If we just said, 'No, you're not college ready, so come back when you are,' we're turning our backs on a huge number of students and a large pool of talent," Monhollon said.
Officials in higher education are working with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to define college readiness and a more uniform standard of what high school graduates must know to tackle college-level work.
"High expectations is a critical piece," said Margie Vandeven, assistant commissioner for the office of quality schools at the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. "We need to expect that all of our students can be college and career ready."
Some recent high school graduates say they were surprised at how unprepared they were when they arrived on college campuses.
Demond Cox, a 2006 graduate of University City High School, struggled his sophomore year at Missouri University of Science and Technology, where he majors in mechanical engineering. He didn't need remedial help, but received tutoring. Cox took honors and Advanced Placement classes in high school.
Nevertheless, "I wasn't used to studying," he said.
Other graduates who'd taken college-prep classes and landed on the high school honor roll can spend several semesters catching up.
"You do get students who, through whatever system or school they've had, and for whatever reason, are unprepared," said Sandra Brady, assistant professor in reading at St. Louis Community College at Meramec. Some of these students are 'surprised, shocked, angry," she said. "They think, 'I have a high school diploma. What are you telling me?'"
Typically, colleges place students in remedial classes based on their scores on college admissions tests or on national college entrance exams, such as the ACT.
The ACT tests skills in four areas: mathematics, reading, English and science. In Missouri, just 26 percent of students in 2010 met or exceeded benchmarks in all four areas. In Illinois, the proportion was 23 percent. Students who meet the ACT benchmarks have a 75 percent chance of earning a C or better in those college courses.
VARIED READINESS
In the St. Louis area, the level of college readiness varies widely among public high schools, ranging from 4 percent of graduates needing to play catchup, to 92 percent.
On one end of that spectrum is Metro High in the Central West End, a selective magnet school where students must earn C's or above to remain enrolled. Just 4 percent of graduates — or one of the 25 who attended state schools — took a remedial college class.
In contrast, nearly every college-bound graduate of Vashon High School in north St. Louis ended up in remedial college classes. Ninety-two percent of them took at least one.
Both Metro and Vashon high schools are in the St. Louis School District.
Graduates from suburban public high schools also had varying levels of college readiness.
Those who graduated from Timberland High School in the Wentzville School District were among the best prepared, with 6 percent in remedial courses. Those from high schools in the Parkway, Rockwood and Clayton school districts ranked toward the top, according to state data.
Graduates of affluent public schools aren't necessarily college ready. At Ladue Horton Watkins High School, 21 of the 76 graduates in 2009 who went to state-funded schools needed extra help once they arrived. The number of graduates needing remedial help has the school district's attention. Most of Ladue's 299 graduates that year went on to some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the nation, where remedial classes aren't offered.
Even so, "Ladue has to pay attention to those numbers," said Ken Fox, a college and career advisor at Ladue High. "We're not serving all our students if we don't."
The least prepared graduates came from the region's most struggling high schools — Vashon, Roosevelt, Soldan, and most other high schools in the St. Louis Public School District.
Barbara Harris graduated in 2010 from Roosevelt High School, where she took some college prep classes and occasionally landed on the honor roll, she said. But Harris rarely had homework.
This fall, Harris tested into remedial reading and the lowest level of remedial math at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, where she's pursuing general studies. She eventually hopes to get into a nursing program. But first, Harris must complete two more semesters of remedial math before she can even enroll in college algebra.
"I could be taking something else," Harris said. "If high school had prepared me for college-level algebra, I wouldn't have to spend so many hours catching up."
SCHOOL STRATEGIES
St. Louis Superintendent Kelvin Adams said the district was working on strategies to make students more college ready, such as improving math and reading skills in all grades, and refreshing their skills before test time.
"We want to give kids the best opportunity," Adams said. "We don't want all of their dollars spent on remedial courses."
In Missouri, state education leaders say they are working to close the knowledge gap. Last year, the state Board of Education adopted a set of common core standards — a list of things students must learn to graduate — to meet that end.
In some school districts, high schools are working on personal study plans to address each senior's weaknesses, Vandeven said. "We're getting a lot of inquiries into how to best serve high school students and make that senior year more meaningful," she said.
For the time being, the demand for remedial courses is steady.
At the University of Missouri-Columbia, about 700 students were enrolled this fall in 23 offerings of Math 0110 — a precursor to college algebra. The school spends more than $70,000 teaching the course.
The demand is much higher at the St. Louis Community College system, which offered 46 different remedial courses this past semester, primarily in math, reading and English.
More than 17,000 students enrolled in 922 different sections of those remedial courses, though the actual number of students was smaller than that, because many took more than one class.
"It's not a good thing," said Brady, the reading instructor at St. Louis Community College at Meramec. "But honestly, this is the reality with which we are faced. Our job is to take them from where they are and help them move forward."
Tim Barker of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
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