BOSTON GLOBE Editorial | COMMUNITY COLLEGES | March 12, 2012
IT’S DISPIRITING to open a community college’s course catalog and see page after page of course descriptions on math fundamentals, including fractions and percentages. Massachusetts can cut down on this problem by testing students’ readiness for college work while they’re still in high school – and sparing them from spending their savings or financial aid on remediation courses that don’t even count toward graduation requirements.
Even one-year certificate programs, such as phlebotomy, require students to show the ability to do college-level work. Yet about 60 percent of incoming students at the state’s 15 community colleges are required to take one or more remedial courses. These courses eat up about one-third of all tuition and fees paid by students.
One solution is to introduce high-school juniors and seniors to the Accuplacer exams they must take prior to registering for courses on state and community college campuses. Doing so would allow testers to identify students’ weaknesses in core subject areas in time to address them during high school. Whatever its other virtues, the state-mandated MCAS now given to 10th graders is not designed to predict college readiness.
A pilot program offered by JFY Networks, a nonprofit career training program, provides an example of how such a system could work. The group has offered Accuplacer Diagnostics – a new series of tests developed by the College Board – to about 40 students in three Massachusetts high schools. Based on the Accuplacer pretest results, these students would have been required to enroll in a total of 75 remedial courses at community colleges. But after instruction, which happened largely online, that number fell to 47 remedial courses. JFY Networks recently expanded the program to about 1,000 students in five high schools.
Community college shouldn’t be just another year of high school. Governor Patrick recently proposed adding $10 million to the state’s budget to beef up the community college system’s workforce development capabilities. That’s not enough to have a profound impact on academic departments in 15 colleges. But it could make a significant difference if used in high schools to reduce the need for remedial courses later on.
This post authored by Joan Reissman
Many educators, politicians etc. are decrying the state of college readiness in our community colleges. The statistics are staggering-with 65% of community college students taking at least one developmental course and only 35% of those students who begin with these courses earning a degree. This is not a new problem. When I was working for a community college, I would see the work my former GED students were doing in college and I was amazed to find out that they were paying to take math courses that were on the same level as the most elementary portions of the GED.
Although many people talk about this problem, few talk about solutions or the success that’s possible in a relatively short period of time. Let me tell you a success story.
JFYNetWorks and Community College of Rhode Island collaborated in a short-term Accuplacer Readiness program this summer. One student in particular stands out. This student had dropped out of high school, but he returned to school last year and received a GED in the spring. This student started the summer facing a long series of developmental courses to be taken in the fall. His status when he finished the program at the end of the summer—’College Ready’.
The student studied almost all day—at least four to six hours. He worked with JFYNetWorks Accuplacer Readiness software and Community College of Rhode Island tutors to hone his skills and review concepts that he may have forgotten. He worked with computer based instruction and received additional assistance from tutors to reinforce concepts. This example shows what can be accomplished with some hard work in six weeks. What’s the lesson of all this? Students don’t have to be trapped in an endless maze of developmental courses. With some diligence, eliminating or placing out of developmental courses is possible—so let’s stop complaining and get to work.
Read more about JFYNetWork’s Accuplacer Readiness Program – White Paper.
Ideas—what’s your solution to this community college issue?
The Path to Post-Industrial Careers‘The measure we care most about is whether you go to college.’
-Bill Gates | Wall Street Journal | July 23, 2011
Ever since Daniel Bell coined the term “post-industrial” in 1973, college has been recognized as the principal path to a career in the new economy. Enrollment rates nationwide have gone up for all demographic groups, especially in Massachusetts, which has the 3rd highest college enrollment rate in the nation. But these positive trends mask some perplexing gaps. Although enrollment is up, college completion rates remain stubbornly low. While many more people of all demographic groups are realizing the benefits of college and taking the first step of enrolling, the majority of them may never earn a degree.
The graduation rate for Massachusetts community colleges is only 18%. For the state universities (formerly state colleges), the rate is 51%. Enrolling in college is the first step, but completing a degree is the goal, and far too many entering students drop out before graduating. Some drop out for financial reasons, some because of illness or simple lack of interest. But the largest number fails to complete college because they cannot do the work. They are victims of the preparation gap.
The most significant barrier to college completion is inadequate academic preparation. Nationwide, 65% of all community college students are required to take at least one “developmental” (remedial) course in reading, writing, or math. Developmental courses cover basic skills students should have learned in elementary and high school such as addition and subtraction, decimals and fractions, reading comprehension and sentence structure. Many thousands of students take developmental courses each year. In Massachusetts, more than 20,000 entering community college students are scheduled for these classes this fall. Fewer than half will complete them. Of those that do complete, only 35% will ever earn a degree. The discrepancy between the skills required for college work and the skills possessed by these thousands of “developmental” students is the Preparation Gap.
This post is an excerp from a recent white paper authored by Gary Kaplan, Executive Director of JFYNetWorks. More of this white paper in future posts. It is an EYE OPENER!
Read the entire whitepaper
