Posted on 03/14/2010 9:24:44 AM PDT by Saije
When Mahala Muzopappa began taking classes at Westmoreland County Community College last year, she realized she was not ready for college-level math.
Though she had earned As and Bs at Apollo-Ridge High School, Muzopappa, 19, struggled in her college algebra class, relying on a peer tutoring program to pass.
"I didn't feel prepared," the photography major said. "It took a whole semester for me to catch up."
Kristen Jeannette, a sophomore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, ended up on academic probation during her freshman year.
"The adjustment -- it's so hard," said Jeannette, 19, who took a college-prep course at Riverside High School in Ellwood City. "They teach a whole different way here. No one's going to spoon-feed you anymore."
While more Pennsylvanians than ever before are beginning post-secondary education, many are struggling with college-level work.
Muzopappa and Jeannette now are thriving in college, but others never catch up.
Less than two-thirds of students who enroll in a four-year college in Pennsylvania will earn a bachelor's degree within six years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Among students pursuing an associate degree, only one in three will graduate within three years.
"There's a lot of room for improvement," said Michael Race, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. "We have a lot of people who are not completing college."
This month, the department announced that the commonwealth joined Complete College America, an alliance with 16 other states, in an effort to raise college graduation rates by 2020.
The alliance will require Pennsylvania to set goals for increasing graduation rates and to take a hard look at why it is so difficult for many students to earn a degree, Race said.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
How many tax dollars were spent on this "study", which concludes a fact that has been known for decades ? - more junk science
The saddest part is, today’s college-level is yesterday’s junior high school-level. These poor idiots would be completely unprepared for the actual educational standards our nation once enjoyed before Marxists invaded academia.
Wanna bet that this study’s conclusions will be utilized to shovel yet more state taxpayer money to the public schools?
Less than two-thirds of students who enroll in a four-year college in Pennsylvania will earn a bachelor's degree within six years,
If math is not your thing...why are you taking it in college???
Most degrees require at least two math courses, i.e. College Algebra, and another (Statistics, Trig, etc.) in order to meet the general requirements.
In Before the Captain Obvious post.
Like, duh. Community college is for those who can't make it in a four year university. With Hussein's new vamp on No Child Left Behind where everyone is a winner and no one is a loser, they'll have more and more who won't be prepared. OTOH, many of those students simply aren't college material. Many are getting in only due to their minority status. There's multiple times more minority scholarships than there are for deserving bright white kids (non-PC but it's the truth) so they are given every chance in the world to succeed. However, if they never applied themselves in the first 12 years, is it any wonder they are dropping out.
You can't teach a child if you pity them. -- My mom, a librarian, said that when the leftist white teachers started moving into the inner-city schools and coddling the kids rather than preparing them.
I earned a bachelor's degree in 3 years and it was a snooze-fest even taking 19-21 hrs. a semester. Now days they aren't allowed to take more than 15 without special permission. Seems to me colleges are continuing to spoon feeding or they're after the money garnered by making students stay in longer.
Hardly. More like for those who want to end up with as little crushing student loan debt as possible (unless, of course, daddy and mommy are paying the bills).
College freshmen are required to take all kinds of coursework that may seem unnecessary or unrelated to their majors. I was an engineering student (ME) but I was required to take freshman Chem & English Comp like everybody else. For me it was a repeat of stuff that I had in High School and a complete waste of my time (and tuition).
We use to joke about the lazy, drunk, and wee’ weeded up kids who were forcing a four year degree into five years.
But six years ?
Where are the parents ?
<But six years ?
Some of the long time frame is the result of kids fooling around, but more of it is due to 1) kids working while in school and taking longer to get through the program and 2)required courses that aren’t offered regularly so the student has to hang around or take a term off and then come back. That shouldn’t happen, but it does. Most people who go to school for 5-6 years are not going full time during that whole period.
I took 8 myself. But then I also worked, and I owe nothing, so.
How about not judging us? It was a conscious choice to work to pay off school.
I agree about keeping them in longer. I had to get special permission when I had enough saved up to take 12 courses in a row in history.
As for community college, if I did it all over again, I’d have gone there in the first place. I had full freight and ended up turning it down to go to the big university. There are plenty of reasons why a student would choose a community college, not the least of which is that it substantially reduces the cost of their degree.
My sister and I ‘went back’ to college as grown women, and some of these kids out of high school were just plain lazy. They were acting as though they were still in high school.
Many of us worked thru school : at least one full time job every summer and during school breaks with as much overtime as possible or a second job.
Then a series of part time jobs during the school months.
High school kids who are not prepared for college level math classes, or much else, then drop out is a problem.
The social promotion by high school teachers and administrators is a bad idea. Kids should repeat classes in any subject if they do not understand that subject the first time through.
Taking eight years or even longer, while working or doing other service, is not the problem. Much good can be accomplished (if a student is just marking time with no focus in school) by working in the real world for a while.
Some of the most motivated students were / are returning GI’s who have a more mature focus on life.
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