CSU Freshmen Face Challenges

Less than half of the freshmen currently in the California State University system were ready for college-level math and English courses upon enrollment -- a figure significantly below the goal established by the system’s trustees a decade ago -- a new report said.

University officials told the Board of Trustees on Tuesday that 45% of students who entered the Cal State system in the fall were prepared for college-level work, a mere 2% increase from the previous year. In 1996, the Board of Trustees said it wanted 90% of students starting college in the fall of 2007 to be proficient in mathematics and English.

“Obviously, these figures are lower than what we would hope to be in this particular year if we are to achieve the goals set for 2007,” said Gary Reichard, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer.

“We don’t pretend otherwise,” he said.

But administrators for the 23-campus system also said they anticipated noticeable gains over the next two years, as they began to see results from a new assessment test for high school juniors that was first administered last spring.

When 11th-grade students take the mandatory California Standards Tests, they may now add a voluntary exam that includes 15 additional math questions, 15 additional English questions and an essay that make up the Early Assessment Program. The voluntary test helps them find out whether they are ready for college-level courses.

Last spring, 119,000 juniors took the voluntary math exam and 185,000 students took the English exam, Cal State officials said.

Cal State faculty and high school teachers are working together to create 12th-grade courses for students whose performance on the voluntary tests indicate that they are not prepared for college-level instruction.

“We have trained more than 700 teachers and are in the process of training thousands more,” said Trustee Roberta Achtenberg.

But William G. Tierney, director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at USC, said educators can’t just rely on high schools to prepare students for higher education. He said that colleges should assume some of the responsibility and try to serve high school students in creative ways -- after school, on weekends and during summers.

“The community colleges, colleges and universities need to be more involved -- not simply assessing the quality of students but working with them to prepare them for college,” Tierney said.

Of the 43,005 current freshmen, 36% needed to take remedial classes in math, down 1% from a year ago, and 45% needed remedial English classes, down 2%.

Since 1998, when Cal State began tracking student performance, math proficiency has increased 18 percentage points. English proficiency has increased only 2 percentage points, “unsatisfactory from any point of view,” Achtenberg said.

Pointing to current sophomores, Cal State officials touted the success of their remedial instruction programs. Of the freshmen who enrolled in the fall of 2004 and needed remediation, 84% -- 22,004 out of 38,859 -- became proficient in both subjects before their second year of college.

Of those who needed remediation, 10% did not complete their courses and were not allowed to re-enroll.