Graduates from nearly every Ohio high school in 2012 found themselves unprepared for college-level math and English as 40 percent of the 51,627 graduates ended up in remedial classes, according to data from the Ohio Board of Regents. The data suggests the same amount of Richland County graduates are less than prepared for college-level work: 40 percent of the 431 students who graduated from a Richland County high school in 2012 and enrolled in a public two- or four-year college that fall took remedial math or English.
Of the 11 total school districts in Richland County, four districts had at least 50 percent of their graduating students taking remedial math or English at a public two- or four-year college: Lucas with 60 percent, Mansfield Christian with 57 percent, Mansfield City with 54 percent, and Plymouth-Shiloh with 50 percent. The report comes from the Board of Regents’ most recent Ohio remediation report for Ohio high school graduates in 2012 enrolling as first-time college students in the fall of 2012.
The information is provided from the 14 public universities, their 24 regional branch campuses and 23 community colleges that make up the University System of Ohio. Based on the students’ admissions and scheduling, the schools keep track of how many students have signed up for remedial courses – courses some students must take in order to build up math or English skills before they are allowed to take regular college courses.
The data from the Ohio Board of Regents does not include students who may have graduated from Richland County high schools and attended private schools or out-of-state schools. For example, in the case of Mansfield Christian Schools the report indicates four out of seven Mansfield Christian graduates who attended a public two- or four-year college needed remedial work. According to Mansfield Christian School Principal Terry Campbell, the 29 other students who graduated in 2012 attended private colleges, for which data is not available. Therefore, only four out of the 36 total graduates from Mansfield Christian School can be identified as needing remedial classes in 2012.
Jeff Robinson, Director of Communications for the Ohio Board of Regents, explained that students who take developmental math or English in college do so to develop these skill sets, which set them up for further success in their college classes.
“If you are ready for college-level learning in English and math, then you are apt to be more successful in any of your college courses,” said Robinson. “On the flip side, if you are not ready for college-level learning in English or math – for example, if you have trouble comprehending what you read in a textbook – then you will not be as successful, whether you’re taking a science class, a history class or a sociology class. It’s more about having college-level knowledge of math and English skills.”
Furthermore, Robinson noted taking remedial classes could be a discouragement for students who are paying for college classes for which they are not receiving credit.
“For those students particularly who are on a budget as they enter college, they might have greater debt because they have to pay for additional classes to get those remedial courses out of the way,” he said. “The discouragement can lead to students dropping out of school before they can get their degree or certificate.”
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Richland County is home to two major post-secondary education options, The Ohio State University Mansfield and North Central State Community College. Associate Dean Dr. David Tovey for Ohio State Mansfield cited the university’s open admission policy as one reason why students end up taking remedial classes, which he described as “make-up high school courses.”
“This is a nationwide problem,” said Tovey. “It’s the biggest reason students take longer than four years to graduate.”
According to Tovey, any person with a high school diploma in Ohio can attend Ohio State Mansfield, and students who may not have been thinking about going to college while in high school start at the university without having taken college preparatory courses. Other students, he said, simply shied away from difficult courses in high school, and in college “it all comes home to roost” without the educational background.
Tovey explained students are placed in remedial classes after taking a placement test prior to the start of the semester. Ohio State Mansfield offers three remedial-level classes, one English and two math classes. At the beginning of the autumn semester in 2013, 64 students were taking remedial English and a total of 256 students were taking remedial math.
“The math placement tests sometimes shock students who don’t know as much as Ohio State thinks they should,” said Tovey. “It is unfortunate but many students who know they are very weak in math put off dealing with the problem by not signing up for remedial math after their placement test. Sometimes they try to delay taking it for two years. This is very unfortunate if they amass a large number of course credits but finally realize they can never pass the math requirement at Ohio State. In some semesters, huge numbers fail the remedial math courses.”
When students fail remedial courses repeatedly, Tovey considers this is a sign a student may not be college material; rather, he believes some students would better succeed in two-year schools and vocational professions. He noted being college-ready comes down to preparedness and planning ahead.
“I think sometimes students go to college not because they want to go, but they know if they want to have any kind of career they probably have to go on beyond a high school diploma in some kind of education or training, but they haven’t prepared for any of it,” said Tovey.
“We live in the present and people don’t plan like they used to,” he continued. “Suddenly they’re in their last term of senior year and think, what are they going to do? Students come to places like Ohio State Mansfield and take the remedial courses that would’ve been easier to take years earlier in high school, when they had them five days a week and things move more slowly. In high school they cut up the meat on your plate for you, in college it comes out intact from the waiter.”
Tovey echoed Robinson’s concerns of student discouragement when taking remedial classes, saying it can be frustrating for freshman students working very hard and realizing they are not working towards college credit. He added the reduction of remedial classes would lessen the financial burden on both the university and the students paying for classes they are not receiving credit for.
“It will save students money but it means they’re going to have to buckle down more in high school,” said Tovey.
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In an attempt to combat the number of students requiring remedial classes, the Ohio Board of Regents in partnership with the Ohio Department of Education has rolled out a new set of standards to be adopted by Ohio school districts. The presidents of Ohio’s public colleges and universities established uniform statewide standards for remediation-free status in December of 2012. This statewide effort to make colleges remediation-free began this fall and any success will appear in next year’s report, said Robinson.
“We are hoping those remediation numbers for the most part will go down overall and continue to go down, which shows students are being better prepared in high school for that next level and there are fewer students that have to take remedial courses when they get to college,” said Robinson.
The language in the standards, outlined in Ohio House Bill 153, states the presidents of all state institutions of higher education jointly shall establish uniform statewide standards in mathematics, science, reading and writing each student enrolled in a state institution of higher education must meet to be considered remediation-free. A student deemed remediation-free in a subject will then be eligible to enroll in a credit-bearing course in that subject.
“It’s an attempt to help young people avoid running up huge tuition bills in college because they’re not ready for college and they have to take a lot of remediation work,” said Tovey. “The idea is they really should be doing that work at the high school level where it doesn’t cost them anything. It’s going to cost the taxpayers something, but that’s really where it belongs.”
Robinson noted the remediation-free standards are aligned with the Common Core standards in that both have similar expectations for what a student is supposed to have learned coming out of high school. One educator familiar with such standards is Dan Freund, Superintendent of Lucas Local School District. Freund began his position as superintendent of Lucas in August of 2013; prior to that, he served as superintendent of Mansfield City Schools for three years and superintendent of Clear Fork Valley Local Schools for six years. In 2012, six out of the 10 first-time college students from Lucas took a developmental math or English class.
“The remediation problem is multifaceted and takes a lot of thought from a lot of different angles to wrap your arms around it,” said Freund.
In addition to the remediation-free standards, Freund said introducing the idea of college earlier in a student’s academic career is key to a student’s college preparedness.
“We think they need to be thinking about it in fourth and fifth grade; in Mansfield we started a program where we wanted all of our kids beginning in fifth grade to visit a college campus, and then we wanted that to proceed at least a couple times as young students visiting a university so they had a visual of what college was,” said Freund. “Also, there’s a lot more interaction between the high schools and the colleges in terms of taking classes as high school student. I think that sort of thing allows kids to focus a little earlier on what study skills they’re going to need to be successful in college.”
Freund said he agrees “100 percent” with Tovey’s belief that students should start planning for college far in advance, even beginning with the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. He noted new education standards have introduced very high stakes tests for kids at a very young age.
“It has to begin at a very young age; we want our kids reading as early as possible and that becomes the foundation for more rigorous curriculum, with the idea that kids are exposed to very high quality learning experiences in a rigorous environment throughout, and by the time they graduate are prepared for what’s ahead,” he said.
“In light of that, we’ve got to understand that kids are still kids,” Freund continued. “We don’t want to program and test them to death and suck the creativity out of them. We still want them to be experimenters and try things and we can’t put them in this bubble environment where they can never fail; some of the best lessons in my life were from failure.”
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When asked why remediation numbers vary from district to district, Robinson said many different factors could weigh in to modify individual results.
“I don’t want to speak specifically to say what a district is doing differently or not differently,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s something you can pinpoint with each particular student or if it’s something within the district, it’s hard to say.”
By the end of 2014, Robinson hopes the number of first-time college students taking remedial classes will shrink as the Regents work with the Ohio Department of Education and their school districts to make sure graduates are ready for college-level work.
“It’s something that will affect the overall numbers of our graduates and hopefully the overall number of students that are leaving school with a degree and getting a job here in Ohio,” said Robinson. “It’s going to be a ripple effect that we hope will continue, but it starts with students being prepared for college when they get out of high school.”
Ultimately, Freund believes it boils down to the individual student and what they’re going to do with their educational opportunity.
“It boils down to personal initiative and hard work,” he said. “College is very hard work and you’ve got to have a certain discipline to be successful there.”
“It boils down to personal initiative and hard work,” said Lucas Supt. Dan Freund. “College is very hard work and you’ve got to have a certain discipline to be successful there.”
This story has been updated to include an explanation for the remediation percentage attributed to Mansfield Christian school. See paragraph four.
