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Editorial: Remedial classes signal shortcoming in schools
Teacher Laura Kasey of Highlawn Elementary works with students on reading in March 2009. Rigorous coursework and instruction throughout students' school careers can better prepare them with the reading and math skills required to begin college.
Purchase this photoThe gap between what a high school graduate knows and what an incoming college freshman should know is finally getting some well-deserved attention.
West Virginia Schools Superintendent Steve Paine is urging county school systems to partner with state universities to reduce enrollment in remedial courses on the college level, according to The Associated Press. More than half of students in the state's community college system are taking at least one form of a remedial course at a college level, according to a report from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.
While that number has decreased from 75.2 percent taking English courses in 2003 to 65.5 percent taking English courses in 2007, that is still too many students who are ill-prepared for college life.
Marshall University is offering its first remedial English class this fall -- something that was part of Marshall Community & Technical College before the split of the two institutions. In its first offerings, Marshall's eight class sections are nearly full. Those courses would serve 160 incoming freshmen that didn't acquire the necessary skills in high school to take college level English courses.
A report called "Diploma to Nowhere" released last fall by the advocacy organization Strong American Schools says that this problem isn't limited to West Virginia. Nationwide, nearly a million students are in some sort of remedial course at a two-year college. The organization says these noncredit courses cost up to $2.89 billion. That is a cost of up to $2,500 per student. And this is for teaching students something they should have learned in high school.
The Strong American Schools report said even students who took college-preparation courses in high school or had a grade point average of 3.0 or higher struggled in college level courses.
That is just the students who are going to college. How many graduates who aren't college bound don't have these skills?
But there are solutions to this problem, and Paine says some of those have been seen in the state. He cited Williamstown High School, where English teachers talked with professors at West Virginia University-Parkersburg about differences in instruction. He also said Berkeley County has had a successful partnership with Shepherd University.
The Strong American Schools report also listed some successes on a large scale and recommended partnerships between colleges and secondary schools.
Cabell County Superintendent Bill Smith agrees. He says that the school system's teachers should work closer with college professors to help students acquire the skills needed to succeed at the college level.
The school system has been working toward encouraging students to take more rigorous courses at high school, hoping students are taking classes equivalent to their first year in college.
The school system is moving in the right direction, but more than talk is needed. It, other public schools and the region's universities and colleges should work closely with each other to tackle the learning gap and develop strategies to ensure that students have the necessary skills before they leave high school.
While Smith stresses efforts for students to take more rigorous classes in their last two years of high school, rigor is not something that is just for the last year of high school. The focus should be on teaching children the good basic math and English skills that can be utilized throughout their school years -- as well as in their lives.
