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Students Not Ready for Prime Time
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 05:18:46 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: Randall <rvh40 () insightbb com> Date: November 28, 2005 4:34:15 AM EST To: Dave <dave () farber net> Cc: JMG <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com> Subject: Students Not Ready for Prime Time http://tinyurl.com/bqe3f Colleges find many lacking Students fall short in math, English and put in remedial courses By Jodi S. Cohen Tribune higher education reporter Published November 20, 2005 In the lowest-level writing class at Columbia College, freshmen learn about the pitfalls of run-on sentences and the correct places for commas. In basic math, they learn about fractions, decimals and simple geometry. Sarah Rehder didn't expect to start college in either of these courses. A graduate of Curie High School in Chicago, she assumed she was prepared for college. But like many students in the state and nationwide, Rehder learned through a college placement exam that she wasn't ready for college-level coursework. Now she's learning--and paying for--material that she arguably should have mastered in high school. "I thought high school was supposed to prepare you for college," said Rehder, 18, a photography major and the first in her family to attend college. "I'm just doing the same thing over again that I did in high school. I didn't learn anything." Educators say high schools need to do a better job at teaching students the skills they will need to succeed in college. And they are also falling short when it comes to ensuring that students are mastering even the basics. State report card data released this month show that about 40 percent of high school juniors failed to meet standards in reading this year, and 47 percent failed to meet standards in math. In Chicago public schools, 59 percent didn't pass the reading test, and 73 percent didn't pass the math test. Performance on the high school exam, which includes the college entrance ACT test, is one way of gauging whether students are prepared for college, said Jennifer Presley of the Illinois Education Research Council. The council reported earlier this year that only about two-thirds of Illinois high school students who graduated in 2002 were at least minimally ready, based on ACT scores and grade-point averages, and a disproportionate number of poor and minority students were unprepared, Presley said. As colleges and universities grapple with declining state funding, the cost of remedial education is of increasing concern. What's more, if college-going rates continue to rise, the need for remedial courses is bound to increase. Such classes typically don't count toward graduation. "You want to put those scarce dollars toward new classes, financial aid, and not toward remediating students for the same skills they should have been taught in high school," said Kristin Conklin, who studies college readiness as a program director with the National Governors Association. "The big equity argument that shouldn't be lost is that these are the students who can least waste money on classes that don't count." For the first time, the Illinois Board of Higher Education is collecting data from the state's public and private universities about the number of students enrolled in remedial courses. Results are expected to be available next month. The high cost of catching up Community college students are most likely to enroll in remedial courses, also called developmental, preparatory or basic skills classes, educators say. Last school year, 21.3 percent of community college students in college credit programs took at least one remedial course, spending $106 million on the classes, according to the Illinois Community College Board. At the seven campuses of the City Colleges of Chicago, where the majority of students come from Chicago public schools, 61 percent of students who took the placement test were below college level in reading, 69 percent in writing and 92 percent in math. The numbers are higher for Chicago Public Schools students. At the University of Illinois at Chicago, 16 percent of students took preparatory English and 57 percent took preparatory math in fall 2004. But of the Chicago Public Schools students, 25 percent took preparatory English and 73 percent took preparatory math. The math classes do not count toward graduation. Even at the state university's flagship campus at Urbana-Champaign, about 6 percent of freshmen are taking math courses this fall that won't count toward credits needed for graduation. Tougher graduation rules Students continue to enter college unprepared even as the federal No Child Left Behind law holds elementary and high schools accountable for student success. What's more, Illinois increased its graduation requirements in August, although the full effect of the law won't be felt until 2012. By then, students will need four years of English, three years of math, two years of science and two intensive writing courses. Still, tougher requirements are only part of the solution, experts said. While algebra will be required next year, for example, the course content is undefined and could be more challenging in some schools than in others. Another problem, experts say, is that high school leaders typically design course curricula without knowing what colleges expect students to know. State Sen. Edward Maloney (D-Chicago), chairman of the Senate's higher education subcommittee, said he would like to see colleges send their syllabuses to high schools. "Rather than identify the titles of the courses, perhaps we need to identify the content of those courses and somehow communicate that to the high schools," Maloney said. While he praised tougher graduation requirements, he said Illinois should mandate a college preparatory curriculum in all high schools. Policy experts also have suggested that college leaders get more involved in helping high schools improve their curricula, and that high schools be held accountable when graduates start college unprepared. A recipe for failure City Colleges of Chicago bears the brunt of teaching students who leave Chicago schools unprepared. More than 95 percent of Chicago graduates test into remedial math, and 70 percent test into remedial English. About one-third fail the courses. Those students then become the least likely to graduate, with only about one in 10 students who start at the lowest level of math able to transition to college-level math courses. Deidra Lewis, executive vice chancellor at City Colleges, said that while the Chicago Public Schools system has done a good job in recent years of changing the curriculum to meet state standards, those requirements still do not match the skills needed for college. "We are attacking the student learning outcomes in the courses themselves," said Lewis. She said that the college has been working with Chicago schools and five universities to help city students get ready for college, and it hopes to see improvements soon. Martin Gartzman, Chicago Public Schools chief officer for math and science, said that two years ago, the district began requiring a double period of algebra for students who enter high school behind in math skills. The district also is trying to encourage more students to take algebra before high school so they can take more difficult math classes before they graduate. Nationwide, 34 percent of students take algebra before high school, but only 7 percent do in Chicago, Gartzman said. `A long way to go' "The rigor of our courses in many of our high schools is not the same as the rigor that is expected in other high schools outside of Chicago," Gartzman said. "We know we have a long way to go." Juaquina Murcio, 28, knows that first-hand. A 1995 graduate of what is now called Jones Preparatory High School in Chicago, she had to take a non-credit remedial math class before starting college level work at Northeastern Illinois University in the spring. Last fall, when Murcio took the placement exams, about 72 percent of Northeastern freshmen placed into one of two non-credit remedial math courses. Murcio recommended that Chicago make it mandatory for students to take four years of math. She took only two. "You go out as a student thinking you're complete, but you come to college and realize you're not," she said. Lewis said students are often shocked when they do poorly on placement exams. "What we are finding is that students may do well in high school and have a high GPA, but they are not taught the college readiness skills to be successful," she said. Getting back to basics That was true for Rehder, a freshman at Columbia, where she's in a writing class with 11 other students. She meets with a writing tutor once a week and revises each assigned paper at least three times based on comments from her instructor. Rehder and her classmate, Gabriela Rodriguez, a graduate of a Cicero public school, said that while they were disappointed to be placed in that class, they are learning more about writing than they ever have. "The teachers are way better than in high school. They actually care about you," said Rodriguez. Still, she said, "I can't wait to get all the basic mandatory classes out of the way." ---------- jscohen () tribune com -- http://htdaw.blogsource.com -- ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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