As students pack their bags for college in coming weeks, they may learn a hard lesson. They’re not ready for it.Statewide, 42 percent of first-time full-time students at public colleges and universities take at least one remedial course in English or basic math to prepare them for college-level work.Remediation slows their journey into higher education, forcing them to invest time in subjects — most often, math — that they may not have liked the first time around, racking up additional tuition costs to boot. “It’s a difficult issue,” said Tim Chandler, senior associate provost at Kent State University. “It’s a shock for students who think they’ve reached a certain level” to still have to take developmental classes.Statewide, the number of students needing remediation has continued to inch upward over the last five years — from 36 percent to 39 percent of students under the age of 20 and from 40 percent to 46 percent for older students, according to the Ohio Board of Regents, which coordinates higher education statewide.Part of the reason is that a growing number of people believe a college education is a necessity for today’s difficult work environment. Many who would not have enrolled a decade ago are doing so now — including many at midcareer.The cost to get those students up to speed was $189 million in 2007-08 in Ohio alone, according to the nonprofit Alliance for Excellent Education in Washington, D.C. That included $126 million in direct costs and $63 million in lost lifetime wages, because remedial students are more likely to drop out of college.At the University of Akron campus in Akron, more than one in every three full-time, first-time freshmen — 37 percent — took a remediation class in math or English in 2009-10, the last year for which statewide figures are available from the Regents.Numbers are similarly high at many other public universities statewide: At Cleveland State, 43 percent took at least one developmental class; at Kent State’s main campus, 53 percent did. Generally, numbers are higher at regional campuses and two-year institutions, which tend to attract older students who may have graduated from high school years, even decades ago.“A lot of our incoming freshmen don’t remember their math because they’re not using it,” said Sandie Crawford, UA’s director of developmental programs. “With the use of calculators, they have not had core mastery of these skills.”In contrast, Miami University’s main campus in Oxford does not offer remediation classes at all because it is more selective in the students it accepts. Most other universities statewide extend admission to anyone who meets basic requirements.Testing neededWith basic knowledge so questionable, most institutions have resorted to testing students who apply for admission if they have low ACT scores or grade point averages in high school.The testing aims to place them in the right courses for their skill level.“The last thing we want to do is put students in a course for which they won’t be successful,” which could prompt them to drop out, said Chandler, the KSU official.Colleges and universities receive state subsidies to teach remedial classes, but that may change in the future.Jim Petro, the state’s chancellor of higher education, would like to restrict remedial classes to online, distance learning or two-year colleges, as they can be delivered more economically in those venues.“The main campuses are where there are the highest costs,” Petro said. UA Provost Mike Sherman said the university may allow a community college to offer remediation classes on its campus.Another solution may be to work more closely with area high schools in what they teach.Both Kent State and UA offer self-paced, Web-based programs in math remediation. Instructors are available, but they don’t teach a class in the conventional sense.Math problemsFor many students, there is no mystery about why they need remediation, particularly in math. They stumbled through high school classes, don’t remember what they learned or didn’t take the right courses to prepare them for college-level work in the first place.“I didn’t do good in math in high school. Fractions were hard. Pre-algebra was hard,” recalled Melanie Curry, a 33-year-old Akron resident who graduated from high school in 1996.She said she knew she would have to “freshen up” her skills when she enrolled in a two-year program in surgical technology at UA.This summer she volunteered for a self-paced, Web-based program for underperforming math students. The pilot program was free to students, so Curry and the other participants don’t have to pay tuition.The program seeks to plug her gaps so she can start her credit courses this fall and get on with her career goals — possibly a four-year degree in a health-related field.Fifty-year-old Christina Dearing of Akron said she hasn’t used math since she graduated from high school in 1979. She took her last math class even earlier than that: in 1975.She has enrolled at UA to get an English degree and eventually teach at the college level.She said she is grateful for remediation programs, as they should make the rest of her college career easier. She said she is not at all surprised that her math skills are rusty.Odds against diplomaStill, the odds are stacked against students who need remediation. Most will never get a bachelor’s degree, at least according to statistics.At UA, only 21 percent of students who take a remediation class earn a bachelor’s degree in six years, which is considered the reasonable time frame nationwide to complete a four-year program. If they fail a remediated course, they have almost a zero chance of ever graduating.“Part of the problem here is the history and culture of higher education,” said Ron Abrams, president of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges. “We’ve not valued things like reaching out and being a hand holder to students. We don’t do enough to help them through the experience.”Petro, the chancellor, said remediation may be a “disincentive” to students at a time when the state needs ever more young adults with bachelor’s degrees to bolster the economy.Perhaps students who aren’t majoring in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) don’t need to slog through remediation in advanced algebra, he said.While students are struggling to get through their remedial courses, they may be racking up loans that they will have trouble paying back if they drop out — and many do just that. When they drop out, colleges and universities must recruit still more students to fill their seats —a vicious cycle.“Maybe the best solution is to blow up what we’re doing and start all over,” said Abrams, the community college official.Carol Biliczky can be reached at cbiliczky@
thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3729.