Remedial Courses — Or Less College Emphasis?
President Obama wants American high schools to graduate kids who are college- and career-ready. But, statistics on remedial education indicate that that’s not going to be an easy goal to meet. In 2007-08, a third of first-year college students required at least one remedial education course in either math, science or English, according to the Associated Press (AP). And, students needing that extra help were not necessarily laggards. According to the nonprofit Strong American Schools, four out of five students requiring remedial classes graduated with a GPA of at least 3.0.
The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates that students graduating without basic, needed skills cost the U.S. $3.7 billion a year, of which $1.4 billion is spent on providing remedial classes. “From taxpayers’ standpoint, remedial education is paying for the same education twice,” Bob Wise, the group’s head, tells the AP. Moreover, students who need remedial courses are at high risk of dropping out.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is spending $100 million on research to improve remedial education, the news service says. It believes that there are better models. For example, El Paso Community College requires prospective students to take placement tests. But, some educators — like consultant Marty Nemko — say that the real problem is we’re pushing too many non-academically-inclined kids onto the college track, and too many colleges are accepting students who don’t belong there. Nemko tells the AP that the U.S. should follow the lead of countries like Japan, Finland and Germany and guide more kids into apprenticeship programs.
Filed under: K-12 Education News
