Is ‘Sorta Close’ Good Enough? : The flap over academic unpreparedness at Cal State Northridge has a lot to do with the school’s straying from its own admissions standards.

The fact that a majority of freshmen arrive at Cal State Northridge without the ability to do college-level work is being much clucked over, but it should surprise no one--particularly officials at CSUN. That is because the California State University system, including its Northridge campus, has widely ignored its own requirements for freshman entrance. Where required courses are concerned, if you’re sorta close, you can get in.

On paper, the university increased its entrance requirements in 1988, when it became apparent that it was admitting too many students who were not prepared to do college work.

The new requirements were sound: four years of English; algebra, geometry and advanced algebra; two years of foreign language; one year each of lab science, history and fine arts; three years of college preparatory electives. Why, then, the latest figures showing that approximately 70% of the incoming freshmen at CSUN are unable to pass the placement tests in writing and math? Why, after six years of higher admission standards, are students still unprepared?

The truth is the university ignored its own requirements and continued to accept students who did not meet them. None of us who works in college admissions is surprised by the latest statistics, though the public is. At the conferences for high school counselors held every fall, CSU officials have told us that students would be accepted if they fell short of the full slate of “required” classes. As a result, CSUN has 70% of its freshmen in “developmental” math classes. Instead of the full complement of math classes, many students enter CSUN having had only algebra, which is often an eighth- or ninth-grade course. How many? Officials I spoke to at CSUN last week were unable to say. My own experience, for what it is worth, suggests that a significant number of the 70% lack at least advanced algebra.

The picture may be changing. An official of University Outreach and Recruitment, the CSUN recruiting program, told me that from now on ordinary freshmen will be admitted only if they have had the proper math classes. However, students in the Educational Opportunity Program may continue to get in without all the required classes. These students, who get special tutoring at CSUN, are economically disadvantaged, first-generation college students and underrepresented minorities. According to CSUN, they make up about one-third of the freshman class.

CSUN officials say that many students who have taken the proper courses in high school cannot pass the college placement tests. This, of course, shifts the responsibility back to the high schools.

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As a former English teacher, I can attest to the fact that the only way to teach students to write is to make them write and rewrite, edit and polish. Due to funding decisions at the state and local levels, English classes are so large--close to 40 in some districts--that teachers cannot possibly assign as much writing as high school students need to do and physically manage it all. The 69% of the freshmen failing the writing placement test should shock public school officials into making changes in the size of English classes.

No doubt, some students pass their high school advanced math classes, then fail the math placement tests at CSU. But here again, CSU admissions practices play a part. The high school grades and Scholastic Aptitude Test scores required for admission to CSUN and many CSU campuses are not high. With a 2.5 grade-point average--a C-plus to B-minus--a student needs a score of only 800 out of a possible 1,600 on the SAT, which is below average. With a 3.0 average, a student need not take the SAT at all. These SAT requirements are so low as to be meaningless.

Why have the standards become so flexible? Clearly at work is CSU’s mandate from the state to make higher education accessible to minority students who have been historically underrepresented on college campuses. Surely another motivation is the desire to maintain the university enrollment following the Northridge earthquake. Although they were not entirely successful since enrollment dropped this fall, CSUN officials no doubt accepted some weaker applicants in hopes of keeping the numbers up.

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For the future, changes need to be made.

Students who hope to be admitted to CSUN should work to meet its entrance requirements. They will get the message only if it is sent loud and clear. What incentive is there for a potential CSUN student to continue to take mathematics in high school if he knows the university will admit him without those classes? Forget the intangible concept of being better prepared for college. Many students just want to know if they must take geometry and advanced algebra to get in. And CSUN should answer, “Yes!”

Since students must demonstrate their knowledge on placement tests, high school math teachers should consider grading policies that heavily weight test scores. This would show which students understand the material and which do not and would eliminate students’ earning good grades in high school math courses and failing the college placement test, a situation that CSUN officials say exists.

If CSU had consistent high admission standards, we might see high school students working harder for their grades, learning more and moving into higher education better prepared. We wouldn’t have to hear the victim’s lament: “It’s not my fault I’m not prepared. They should have made me work harder.”

Let them start today.