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.
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.