Who's Ready for Colege?

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But I also met Charles Williams, a freshman at Middle who dropped out of high school 25 years ago to join the Marines. He eventually became an aircraft mechanic, but he found he couldn't get a management job in aviation without an aerospace degree. Now 44, married and raising three kids, he seems like one of the more disciplined students on campus; after class he goes home, not to frat parties. Williams needs remedial writing and algebra mostly because it has been years since he was called upon to do either. He speaks up in class a lot, and one of his teachers has already told Williams he should soon be able to attend regular classes.

Students ages 22 and over account for 43% of those in remedial classrooms, according to the National Center for Developmental Education. Not all are like Williams, but 55% of those needing remediation in Tennessee must take just one course. Is it too much to ask them to pay extra for that class or take it at a community college? Someone as dedicated as Williams would take those extra steps, but he knows some of his classmates would not: "You're going to demoralize these kids. Say I've had trouble in high school, and now you're going to throw me into junior college? You take some of their pride, and they may not pursue any higher education." Consider also that 38% of colleges call English-as-a-second-language courses remedial and some classify programs for the learning disabled as such. Few argue that we should automatically send these nontraditional but often talented students to community colleges but that is precisely the effect of policies that end remediation at four-year schools.

Still, making exceptions wouldn't solve the core problem of high schools' turning out ill-prepared graduates. And some argue that college remediation actually makes the problem worse. Jackson Toby, a Rutgers sociology professor, says remedial and other programs that maximize access to college send a message to high schoolers that getting into college is no big deal. Williams reflects this point of view when he says of a few of his remedial classmates, "They're not in the real world now, so some are probably more interested in socializing. The real world will be a jolt." If that's true, how can we jolt these kids before they leave high school?

California has a promising approach. Four years ago, the California State University system began booting students who did not complete their remedial work within a year. Last year 2,277 students were told they couldn't re-enroll unless they completed remedial classes elsewhere. But Cal State is also making sure that high schoolers know about the tough policy long before they arrive. The system is spending $9 million to send its professors and students into the 172 high schools that graduate most of Cal State's remedial kids. The visitors tutor pupils in the basics and carefully explain what classes they will need to get in and stay in. With the extra push in high school, not as many Cal State freshmen need remediation: the percentage testing into remedial math fell from 54% in 1997 to 46% last year. (The proportion who must take remedial English rests stubbornly at 46%.)

Few states work as hard as California to keep students from needing remedial classes. Tennessee, for instance, has no plans to spend its savings from cutting remediation on high school outreach programs. If it did, the state might find that the goal of broad access to college doesn't have to conflict with setting high expectations for those who want to go.