Kids Who Aren’t Ready for College : CSU raises some very interesting questions

There is no entrance examination for admission to either the University of California or the California State University. Should there be? It may be time to ask.

The current criterion for admission stems from California’s famous Master Plan for Higher Education. Any high school senior graduating in the top eighth of his or her class is in theory guaranteed a seat at one of the UC campuses. Anyone graduating in the top third is guaranteed a seat at one of the CSU campuses. All of those eligible for admission do not actually seek or receive admission, but the rank-at-graduation criterion still rules.

ENGLISH AND MATH: That criterion is beginning to be challenged, however, because to judge from diagnostic tests administered in freshman year, a growing proportion of incoming freshmen does not have the basic skills in English and mathematics that high school graduation should guarantee, much less the well-developed skills that top rank in a high school graduating class would suggest.

The trustees of the Cal State system have begun to ask whether it is a wise use of resources to teach what should already have been learned. Is it not reasonable, they ask, to exclude from the university those students who are not prepared for university work? If high school subjects must be taught again, should the teaching not be done in high school rather than in a university?

To these questions, any California taxpayer might add another: How many free chances to learn should a student get? If a student fails to take advantage of free elementary school, then fails to take advantage of free high school, should he or she be taught gratis the third time? Might not extra tuition be a reasonable “penalty” at that point?

HUGE IMPLICATIONS: These questions are just beginning to be asked. They affect economically disadvantaged students, obviously, more than students in comfortable circumstances. But even in our worst high schools, most students who want to learn can learn. (And there’s the related question: If they don’t or cannot learn, why not?) Among 10 measures now under consideration by the Cal State trustees is one that might do much to strengthen students’ will to learn. That recommendation reads: “The CSU should work with K-12 representatives to develop an experimental competency-based admission program. This would involve agreement between post-secondary education and K-12 on specific performance criteria for high school graduation. Successful satisfaction of these criteria by graduating high school students would constitute satisfaction of entry-level basic skills requirements in the university.”

The language is quiet but the implications are large for the Cal State system, for the Community College system (which might end up with more remediation students), for California’s high schools and, of course, for the students themselves. A change like this would take some time to implement, and would entail some risks. But we applaud the Cal State trustees for raising a question whose time has indeed come.