In an effort to cut costs, the State University of New York system is considering eliminating remedial classes within the next decade. Our staff strongly opposes this movement, as it could make higher education an almost impossible goal for a high percentage of students.
According to a report at Suffolk Community College in 2010, over 60 percent of incoming students need remedial classes, and Suffolk isn’t the only school. Others estimate that one-third of all students pursuing higher education require some sort of remediation.
SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher explained that the plan is to use the cradle-to-career approach, which would partner K-12 and higher education, in order to close the “remediation gap,” which costs the SUNY system $70 million a year.
It seems unlikely that the education system could ever be so standardized that the need for remediation would be entirely eliminated. Not all K-12 schools have the resources to meet federal standards and prepare students for college, and so long as all levels of government base funding of public schools on competitive models, this will continue to be a problem.
The report also found that the percentage of students entering SCC that need remedial courses has increased from 48.7 percent in 2002 to 61.3 percent in 2011. Federal statistics, however, show that a quarter of students placed in remedial classes based on standardized test scores could have passed a college-level course. In addition, less than a quarter of the students starting out in remedial classes graduate.
Whether the low percentage of graduating students is due to a lack of skills, frustration or poor teaching is unknown. Whatever the case, the relationship between K-12 and college administrators needs to be cultivated. Clearly, there needs to be more concrete education standards but eliminating remedial classes cannot be the answer. There are students who aren’t lacking in skills but just need the remedial course as a refresher – students who aren’t going to college straightaway, or haven’t taken a math class in a few years.
Besides, aren’t we all about access to higher education in public school systems, especially within the famously affordable SUNY system? Well, access has to do with more factors than just ability to pay tuition. By taking away remedial courses, SUNY would be taking away avenues to a higher education degree from over 60 percent of incoming students at SCC. Who knows how many students wouldn’t attend SUNY schools statewide if remedial courses were eliminated?
Our bet is that it would be a grossly high number and we don’t think that kind of exclusion is what SUNY stands for.