Nearly Half of CSU Students Need Remedial Courses : Education: Some trustees say basic skills classes cost too much and should be given by community colleges.

Almost half the freshmen throughout the 20-campus California State University system do so poorly on math and English placement exams that they have to enroll in remedial classes to prepare for college-level courses.

Although California high school graduates are taking far more college preparatory classes than in the past, and those who enroll in Cal State schools are required to be in the top third of their graduating classes, the percentage of those who lack basic skills has been rising slightly but steadily in recent years.

Helping those students prepare for college-level work costs the Cal State system about $10 million--less than 1% of its $1.4-billion budget--and some members of the 320,000-student system’s Board of Trustees are proposing that the college system eliminate all such spending for incoming freshmen and send unprepared students to community colleges instead.

Businessman Ralph Pesqueira, a Cal State trustee from San Diego, has led the charge against remedial classes, blaming the problem on public schools that pay more attention to students’ social needs than to academics. “We need to send a message to the K-12 system,” he said. “Get your act together.”

While public school educators acknowledge that many high school graduates need extra help to succeed in college, they say the problem is complex and has many causes.

Some schools, for example, may not be teaching the material tested on the Cal State placement exams. And the percentage of California students who are not native English speakers has increased 51% in the past five years, while per-pupil public school spending in California has lagged behind two-thirds of U.S. states. Moreover, they say, many of the students who have to take remedial classes are perfectly qualified for college in most ways, but have narrow deficiencies in specific subjects. The number of California high school graduates completing the course requirements for admission to Cal State or University of California schools rose 30% between 1985 and 1992 and the number of students who do well on college aptitude tests is up substantially as well.

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At a trustees meeting later this month, Pesqueira will ask the board to eliminate all remedial classes within five years--a proposal certain to draw fire because it would disproportionately hurt minority students and urban campuses, where the percentage of students needing those services exceeds the systemwide average.

Cal State Chancellor Barry Munitz said such a decision is a long way off.

“I don’t think (the trustees) have really faced up to the variety of philosophical issues that are behind this problem,” he said.

He said that before making any sweeping policy changes, the trustees will have to define the proper role and responsibility of a state university in a diverse society.

The issue of remedial education prompted a lengthy and impassioned debate at the board’s November meeting. At that time, trustees asked that a report on the cost and scope of remedial education be presented at this month’s meeting.

That report is still incomplete, but preliminary findings indicate that the percentage of incoming Cal State freshmen required to take remedial English classes peaked at 49% in 1993. The percentage required to take remedial math classes reached 47% that year.

Under current practice, Cal State students--who are admitted on the basis of grades and completion of high school college preparatory courses--must take placement tests in the two subjects if they do not score high enough on the Scholastic Aptitude Test or American College Test college entrance exams. Those who fail the placement exams have to take one or two basic math or English classes that they do not receive credit for.

The University of California system has a similar process. Students can demonstrate proficiency in English or math with adequate scores on college entrance exams or advanced placement tests. Otherwise, UC students can satisfy that requirement by taking additional low-level math or English courses.

Mike Alva, a UC system spokesman, said 31% of incoming UC freshmen have to take such classes in English and 2.5% have to take math classes.

David Mertes, chancellor of the California Community Colleges, said that 13% of the students in his system are taking “pre-collegiate classes.”

He said that if Cal State decided to stop offering such classes, the community colleges would have to pick up the ball. “If they decided they do not want to deal with these students, by law, we must deal with them,” he said.

How to provide remedial education in California has not been examined systematically since 1984, when the California Postsecondary Education Commission found that the two four-year systems were spending a total of $16 million to help prepare high school graduates to do college-level work.

At the time, the commission recommended that the systems write plans for reducing their expenditures on remediation.

“There is a great deal of concern about it, partly driven by fiscal concerns, because it is the most expensive form of instruction short of the doctoral level” because of the small classes that are required, said Charles Ratliff, the commission’s deputy director.

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But he said the cause, as well as the nature, of the problem is difficult to discern. “Is it a product of the quality of instruction in the high schools in college prep classes? Or is it a question of the assessment instrument itself and does it measure college-level work?”

Amy McKenna, assistant superintendent for instruction in the Los Angeles Unified School District, said, “We have to make accommodations for the youngsters we are preparing in an urban environment.”

Some needing remedial classes “are outstanding youngsters . . . and the institutes of higher education would be very well served by putting resources behind programs that serve their needs so they can become productive members of this society and they can contribute,” she said.

Former state Sen. Gary K. Hart, who authored the 1983 legislation that raised graduation requirements for California students and who until November headed the Senate education committee, cautioned universities against rejecting students whose skills fall short in one or two areas.

“The lion’s share of remediation is done at the community colleges, but it’s never been the intent of the Legislature that it be done entirely there,” he said. “Some limited amount of remedial education is appropriate.”

But Cal State Trustee Marian Bagdasarian disagreed. Calling remedial education at Cal State schools a “wrong use of taxpayers’ money,” she said such classes “belong in the community colleges.”

Pesqueira said the elementary, high school and community college systems are better funded than the universities and the universities should not “be in the business of correcting” their ills.

He complained that public schools in the past decade have been turned into laboratories for “social engineering programs” at the expense of academics.

Schools “decided it’s more important to teach a third-grader how to buy a condom than how to add 2 plus 2,” he said. “They can’t teach basic academics.”

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Failing Freshmen

Over a four-year period, an increasing percentage of freshmen entering the 20-campus Cal State system have failed basic placement tests in English and math. Students who fail must take non-credit, remedial classes before they can enroll in college-level courses. Here is a look at the percentage of students who fail entry-level tests.

YEAR FAILING ENGLISH FAILING MATH 1990 44.3% 29.8% 1991 44.7% 32.5% 1992 46.5% 45%* 1993 48.8% 47.2%

* Much of this increase is believed to be related to an increase in the minimum passing score for the test that year.

Source: California State University officials