The recent report that 30 percent of Colorado high school graduates who enrolled in public in-state colleges last year needed remediation in math, writing or reading is shocking for the taxpayers who foot the bill for public education.
Colorado community colleges are charged with providing remedial education programs for all higher education students – those who recently graduated from high school or earned GEDs and those who go to college years after high school.
College is tough, but it’s a lot tougher for people who aren’t prepared to do the work. Even someone who is adept at math will have a tough time progressing through those courses if he lacks the reading skills to understand the textbook. If a student can’t grasp the reading, how will he answer questions or write an essay?
Health care workers are in high demand, but would you trust a nurse or pharmacist to administer medication if he or she couldn’t do basic math?
When students come to Community College of Denver, they take a placement test unless they can prove mastery of basic skills via acceptable ACT or SAT scores or if they have a prior college degree.
The test measures a person’s skills in reading, math and English. It’s not a pass-or-fail test, but a tool advisers use to place students in the classes that are most appropriate for their skill levels.
If the student has low scores in any area of the test, the adviser will place him in a remedial class that will teach him missing skills and prepare him ready for college-level work.
Students who take developmental reading classes are literate, but they can’t comprehend what they’re reading at the level they need to pass college classes.
Students who lack reading skills can’t monitor their own comprehension of the material they read. Developmental Reading classes teach students strategies for understanding and give them valuable study skills.
The majority of students who test into developmental classes at CCD lack basic math skills. Brad Sullivan, who chairs Developmental Math at CCD, said students in his classes can count, add and subtract. Beyond that, many can’t do other basic math functions without using a calculator.
At CCD, 40 percent of students who need developmental math classes test into the lowest level, where they learn basic arithmetic, like fractions, before going on to pick up the algebra skills they will need for college-level math.
Taxpayers assume that anyone who has recently graduated from high school must have all the skills for the next education level. Unfortunately, many students do not. The K-12 curriculum doesn’t necessarily align with the college curriculum – something CCD and Denver Public Schools are working hard to correct.
Unfortunately, high school curriculum often looks backward, building on skills students learned in elementary and middle school, instead of looking forward to the specific skills students will use in college.
CCD has partnered with DPS to get students at several high schools ready for college, and our efforts continue.
Basic skills labs already are privately funded at Abraham Lincoln, Emily Griffith and CEC Middle College of Denver high schools. Students at those schools can take the developmental education classes and use the labs while they are still developing skills, avoiding the need for remediation when they get to college.
Out of the partnership between DPS and CCD, two unique high schools were born. CEC Middle College of Denver and Southwest Early College students take the placement test when they are sophomores. The curriculum ensures that they are learning the skills they need to take college classes while still in high school. The goal for these students is to earn an associate’s degree by the end of “grade 13” and enter a four-year institution as a junior.
While long-term data is not available – CEC Middle College is in its third year and SEC its second – CEC already ranks among the top-performing DPS high schools. CEC students already are on the Auraria campus, taking classes alongside traditional college students. SEC students are taking college classes at CCD Southwest, located on the Teikyo Loretto Heights University campus.
The news on remediation should lead school districts around the state to look forward at the skills their students need to succeed in higher education. Ideally, remediation should be reserved for the students who start college years after high school, not those who recently earned their diplomas.
Dr. Christine Johnson is president of Community College of Denver.
