A diploma to nowhere
Written by: | 10 Nov 2008
On college campuses across the United States, there is growing concern that incoming freshmen are not prepared for post secondary level course work.
The problem is big and growing according to Diploma to Nowhere, a study released in Sept. 2008 by Strong American Schools, a project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
“Each year, hundreds of thousands of high school graduates fail college placement exams. At many institutions, most of the students who enroll lack basic math and English skills,” the report says.
As a result of this lack of preparedness, the burden of getting these students up to par is falling on America’s colleges and universities and on the students themselves.
“When we think about students being unprepared for college, almost all colleges are having to offer lower level courses,” says Nancy Schafer, Yavapai College English instructor.
Schafer believes the problem is a cultural one. “I do believe high schools are having a problem but they are having the same problem we’re having. Culturally we don’t encourage reading and writing,” she says.
Why is this happening?
According to Connie Gilmore, YC’s Verde Valley campus dean of Liberal Arts and Social Science, there are a lot of reasons why students may need help catching up to college level work.
“Sometimes it’s because students just didn’t pay attention in high school. Now they realize they have to. Sometimes they have learning disabilities. Returning students sometimes need brushing up,” she says.
And it’s not just these types of students who need remediation.
Close to four out of five students enrolled in remedial classes in 2008 had a high school grade point average of 3.0 or higher.
According to Diploma to Nowhere, close to four out of five students enrolled in remedial classes in 2008 had a high school grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Additionally over half of them described themselves as “hard-working” students who completed their work.
“Sometimes it’s a shock for students when they take our placement exam and find out they are in English 100 even though they got A’s and B’s in high school,” Gilmore says.
The costs
According to Diploma to Nowhere, the cost of remedial education in public four-year colleges and universities exceeds $2 billion. At two year colleges such as YC, the study places the cost of remediation between $1,607 and $2,008 per student.
According to Schafer, YC has had to add remedial courses to the English department’s offerings.
The courses were added in backwards order; first adding English 100 to prepare students to write essays, then English 061 to teach them to string paragraphs into essays and most recently, 060 to assist students in learning how to weave sentences into paragraphs.
“All three are getting students ready for college writing 101,” Schafer says. Similar courses exist for reading.
The cost to students is high.
Success rates
According to Diploma to Nowhere, students who enroll in remedial education courses are far less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree. Based on figures from the high school graduating classes of 1992, 57 percent of the students who did not require remediation went on to achieve a bachelor’s degree within eight years.
Of those students who enrolled in remedial courses, only 19 to 29 percent, depending on the number of remedial courses required, earned a bachelor’s degree over the same period of time.
“The thing that’s discouraging for students is that they’re graduating from high school and they come in [to YC] and have to take three writing courses. We lose a lot of students because of that. I can’t blame them, they are discouraged,” says Schafer.
Among its recommendations for addressing this problem, Diploma to Nowhere suggests that along with adequate support for remedial students in America’s colleges and universities, American high schools “must bolster academic expectations and improve outcomes.” Additionally, the report recommends “a more interconnected K – 16 system with common goals and standards.”
Gilmore says, “A high school bridge program is something we could pursue. I’d like to see a closer connection. They’ve [high school students] figured out high school but the rules change when they get to college.”
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