Who's really college-ready?

Thursday, February 21, 2013
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The State University system spends $70 million a year on remediation — i.e. teaching incoming students what they needed to learn in high school to make them college-ready, but didn’t. And the students themselves have to spend time and money, usually borrowed, to take non-credit courses to get them up to snuff. It’s a waste, and SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher wants to do something about it.

Ideally, that something would be to make sure every student applying for admission to college could handle the work.

Unfortunately, that is far from the current reality. While the graduation rate statewide is 74 percent, just 34 percent of graduates are college-ready, according to the state Education Department. This despite their passing grades on local exams, standardized tests and Regents, and all the talk of higher standards. Obviously, plenty of kids just get pushed along and told they should go to college and are ready for it — even if they probably shouldn’t, and aren’t.

Zimpher’s proposed remedy is a test for high-schoolers to take at the end of their sophomore year so they and their teachers can identify deficiencies and start correcting them before graduation. She says she and Education Commissioner John King will work together, meeting once a month, until a test can be developed.

The Education Department has already done some things to assess, and improve, college-readiness. It has made a minimum score of 75 on English and math Regents exams the yardstick, compared to a passing grade of 65. And it’s moving toward a common core curriculum, which will ensure that students in all schools cover the same basic material and are taught the same basic skills.

But two Regents exam scores are a pretty crude, limited measure, especially since they are curved. And the common core curriculum is still being developed.

Zimpher’s test, even though it would be yet another test students had to take, could be more than a diagnostic tool. It could be a wake-up call, a spur for students to keep working rather than cruise, as upperclassmen, particularly seniors, often do.

For others, who haven’t the ability or real desire to go to college, it could be encouragement to take vocational courses, go to vocational school, join the military, learn a trade. There’s nothing wrong with that, although the trend in recent years has been to act as if college is the only path to success.

It can lead to success, provided one finishes (and many remediated students do not); but even then, as the large number of recent college graduates who are either unemployed or not working in their chosen field show, it’s no guarantee. High school students need a broader range of options, and colleges need to stop accepting those who aren’t ready for college work.



February 21, 2013
4:30 p.m.
biwemple says...

I really think SUNY should not be spending much at all for remediation, especially not at its four-year colleges or University Centers. If a student is accepted and then fails to meet college-level work standards at one of these colleges, then let them fail and then perhaps re-apply to SUNY for admission after they've proven they can do the work. There's a real expensive lesson that needs to be learned here by a society that seems to try and shield its younger members from failure at any cost. Failure is simply part of the learning process and must be allowed to occur occassionally. Of course, if SUNY is admitting students that really can't do the work then that speaks volumes about their admissions process not working so well and they're not screening applicants closely enough to filter out those who are simply not prepared. That slot for an incoming freshman could've possibly gone to another student who really was ready for college-level work but was denied acceptance. Not everyone should go to college right out of High School either regardless if they are prepared or not. It's time we change that mainstream ideal because some people really do need to go do something else after they graduate from High School.

February 21, 2013
10:13 p.m.
birmy says...

I would like The Gazette to provide a story and break down the 70 million figure. I have seen the 70 million figure about a dozen times in many newspaper articles. It sounds like the students who are paying for this instruction are somehow costing the school money by paying for remedial courses... Hmmm.

Please provide how many campuses provide remediation, in what form, how many instructors provide the instruction and what is the pay range of the instructors. 70 million sounds like a lot of money but I would like to learn how exactly the money is spent especially if that figure is going to result in yet another newspaper article about it and yet another exam for the students to take.

Please provide how much much SUNY "takes in" by students paying for remedial courses. Let's see if that 70 million figure we have been reading about so much holds up.

It is pretty funny if not sad that we need another test to determine what students know and what they don't. Can't the Regents Exams in their totality determine a level of proficiency and college readiness?

February 25, 2013
9:23 a.m.

Test in sophomore year is the most positive proactive concept SED has broached possibly ever.

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