Posted on 06/25/2012 5:34:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Edward Yacuta felt rushed and nervous when he took a test to determine whether he was ready for college-level English classes at Long Beach City College.
The 18-year-old did poorly on the exam, even though he was getting good grades in an Advanced Placement English class at Long Beach's Robert A. Millikan High School.
Most community colleges would assign students like Yacuta to a remedial class, but he will avoid that fate at Long Beach. The two-year school is trying out a new system this fall that will place students who graduated from the city's high schools in courses based on their grades rather than their scores on the standardized placement tests.
Long Beach is in the forefront of a movement in community colleges nationwide to reassess the use of placement tests for incoming students.
The issue is especially acute in California, where about 85% of students entering a two-year college are assigned to remedial English classes and 73% to remedial math, mostly based on placement tests. Only about one-third of those students go on to earn an associate degree or transfer to a four-year college, according to California's community college system.
Remedial classes — sometimes referred to as developmental or basic education — typically don't offer credit that counts toward graduation. Many students must take multiple levels of remedial courses to catch up. And some research indicates that remedial courses don't adequately prepare students for more advanced courses.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
“Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist.”
Try again? Unlike some around here I’m always open to a good blog.
Yeah...alas - I’m a cheap pimp. There’s an extra dash at the end of the the URL. My bad.
“Education rights” = redistribution of wealth just as “home ownership” = redistribution of wealth (when the fraud is revealed — never mind what happened to 40% of everyone’s wealth). Forgiving student loans looms large and will no doubt remove more of our wealth.
....“home ownership” RIGHTS = redistribution of wealth....
I don’t think that at age 18 a person should be disqualified from college for life. True, some are a litle too immature or go to make their parents happy or avoid entering the work force.
As a 54 year adult (with a BS degree for the early 80s) I have started taking math classes at my local community college and my unscientific observations would indicate that the public schools are really to blame for our poor math skills.
When I first decided to go back to college, I applied to my community college and was notified that I would have to take the COMPASS placement test. For about 5 or 6 weeks before I took the test I studied basic math (pre-algebra) and I mean I put a serious effort into it. The results of the compass test placed me into elementary algebra and I came very close to intermediate algebra.
I took elementary algebra and worked very hard to receive a B. More than half of the class either failed for dropped out. If I had scored just a few points higher on the COMPASS test and took intermediate algebra it would have been a train wreck!
All this to say that my experience is that the placement test (COMPASS at least) overrates the students ability, not underrates. Any algebra at the college level is in truth high school math skills. My class, elementary algebra is first year high school algebra in 1 semester. Intermediate algebra is 2nd year (algebra 2) and college algebra is approx to pre-calculus.
My community college offers by numbers the following for fall 2012:
basic math (pre-algebra) 26 classes
elementary algebra 31 classes
intermediate algebra 28 classes
by comparison, some of the higher level math are offered
college algebra 8 classes
trig 2 classes
1st semester calc. 3 classes
My experience is that the high schools are simply not teaching algebra and the only (or best) place to learn it post secondary school is in college.
Just my opinion.
I had a feeling I was going to enjoy it so I poked around in the main page. Excellent blog! Especially loved “Teen Estrogen Claymores,” that hits home. Thanks for posting it!
You are right on the money there.
You may disagree with me--in fact, I'm fairly sure you will--but so many posters on the "college worthiness" threads fail to understand that employers are looking for people capable of being trained and among the populations they are considering are those who have graduated from college and are perceived to have the intelligence to be trainable. They have other qualities, of course, to include a substantial familiarity with the English language, and by graduating have demonstrated that they stick to the task at hand over long periods of time.
But so many FReepers worship at the foot of the great god ENGINEERING and exclude these possibilities. That is narrow-mindedness in all its glory.
Translation: The teachers and principal at the Robert A. Milikan High School are LIARS!
These teachers and the principal have LIED to the student, his parents, and the taxpayers. metmom: This is another reason to homeschool. When teachers pass on students to the next grade who are unprepared they are LIARS. When then give out good grades that are undeserved they are LYING! Why would any parent entrust their children to LIARS!
Agreed that it is dumb.
Typical trend in colleges and universities nationwide that are having to accommodate the FAILURE of our K12 education system. I repeatedly teach Freshmen having come straight from/out of high school who cannot even write a cohesive paragraph or read and follow simple written instruction(s). =.=
Neither do I. There are other venues for remedial classes, such as community colleges and so forth, that can ensure that students are actually prepared for college. But, truly, if a person gets to age 18 and isn't ready for college, there are maybe three reasons why:
1. The school system failed him, and now he's got to go back and do remedial work on his own dime to cover what should have been covered in grades 9-12.
2. The person's an immature 18 and needs to grow up a little prior to being ready to take on the challenges of the university;
3. The person doesn't belong in college and would be better served by a tech school.
Not everyone belongs in a university. My wife and I both attended, but I'm not sure all our kids will.
Simple, just lower the standards of the math class to the point where everyone can pass it.
The article and others like it in the popular press are about community colleges and doing away with placement tests.
Yes they LIED, but that is only the half of it, in my opinion they did much, much worse, they committed Felony Fraud on Numerous occasions.
They willfully and Knowingly FALSIFIED official Government Records for monetary gain. 20 years to Life for anyone else committing FRAUD on this Level.
They willfully and Knowingly Defrauded the Taxpayers by accepting monies for a Job that was never done, and then lied about it in OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS. 25 years to Life for anyone else.
But hey, I bet all these proud morons can put condoms on in the dark, probably in 2 languages to boot.
As far as I am concerned the Vast majority of teachers and administrators should be imprisoned for LIFE for refusing to be truthful and Honest, FAIL ALL THESE LOSERS and Start expelling people for bad behavior, it worked in the fifties and sixties and it will work again.
I am new to high school AP stuff, as my child is entering 9th grade, but in our public school district, anybody can take an AP class, whether they are prepared for it or not. The counselors will try to discourage you if you are not a stellar student. They will warn you that you are wasting time and money, but you can still take it.
The article didn’t say what this guy’s AP test score was, did it, only that he had done well on his grades in the class? The grades during the semester don’t matter. It’s the official test at the end that matters.
This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)
The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.
They're happy getting their "My Child is an Honor Student" bumper sticker (never mind that it's false flattery doled out to cover up their crime of not educating students. They're in the business of building up and maintaining the teacher union marching army and their lock-step support of the LIBERAL agenda).
Can you explain to me....why any college should be offering remedial classes?
The "education establishment" is all about making money for the "education establishment".
So one of the keys is making a high percentage of the undergrads take 5 yrs instead of 4 to graduate. And believe me those remedial classes cost just as much as the "real" ones.
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