Cal State Plan Would Severely Curb Admissions : Education: Students lacking college-level skills in English, math would be denied entry. Minorities seen as most likely to feel impact of proposed policy.

In a move that critics say could dramatically reduce college opportunities, especially for minorities, Cal State University officials are considering a proposal to deny admission beginning in the year 2001 to students lacking college-level math and English skills.

If such a policy were in place now, it could disqualify up to 60% of Cal State’s entire freshman class. And the impact would fall disproportionately on minority students, who have traditionally scored lower on the skills tests that would be used.

The controversial proposal, to be aired Tuesday at a Cal State trustees meeting in Long Beach, is part of a package of reforms aimed at virtually eliminating the need for remedial education courses in the 320,000-student, 22-campus university system by the turn of the century. The courses cost the system $10 million a year.

Some of the system’s Los Angeles-area campuses--including Los Angeles, Dominguez Hills and Northridge--would be severely affected because they have among the highest rates of students needing remedial help. For example, 80% of Cal State L.A.’s freshmen were found unprepared for college-level English courses in 1993--the worst results in the system.

The third-worst results were at Cal State Northridge, where 63.3% of freshman failed the English placement test in 1993, the last year results for the entire system were released. In math, Cal State L.A. ranked sixth-worst in the state, with 65.3% of freshmen failing; and Cal State Northridge was ninth-worst, with 60.6% failing.

“This would be quite a radical departure from the master plan,” said Eric Mitchell of the California State Student Assn., in reference to CSU’s current mandate to admit the top third of the state’s high school graduates. “It seems like it’s really going to reduce access to the university.”

CSU administrators, including CSUN President Blenda Wilson, said they had mixed feelings about the plan, which they lauded for its goal of making high school students better prepared for college but questioned for its potential for mass rejections. CSU officials have pledged to work with high schools to improve students’ basic skills. But Wilson also called the prospect of turning away large numbers of students “an unacceptable result” that she would not support.

“If we find we’re not able to help students achieve these proficiencies at the time they would be admissible to CSU, my argument at that point would be we should admit those students,” provided they demonstrate the potential to graduate, Wilson said.

Under the stricter admissions proposal, freshmen applicants would have to pass standardized English math and placement tests--the same ones now used only for placement--or some similar assessment to gain admission, regardless of their grade-point averages, achievement test scores or extracurricular activities.

Currently, admissions are governed by a combination of high school grades and achievement test scores. Most incoming freshmen take placement tests, but only to determine what level of math and English courses they should enroll in for their core curriculum. (Students with high scores on standardized achievement tests are exempt from taking the CSU placement tests.) Low or failing scores get students referred to remedial classes.

CSU Trustee Ralph Pesqueira, the San Diego businessman who is spearheading the proposed policy, said the intent is not to shut the doors of educational opportunity, but to send a wake-up call to the state’s public schools that they must do a better job of preparing students.

“What we’ve got here is a state public education system that for 101 reasons has found it easier to move the conveyor belt of students along. We want to put a stop to that,” said Pesqueira, who noted that students and schools will have six years to improve before the change.

Although the policy is due to be discussed by the Cal State trustees Tuesday, a vote on whether to adopt the plan is not scheduled until January. CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz said it is too early to gauge support for the idea of phasing out remedial education.

Likewise, Munitz said, he has yet to make up his mind on the issue.

“I want to hear the board’s conversation,” Munitz said. “And I want to hear the others--students, administrators and so on--who have asked to speak.”

Earlier this year, some CSU trustees have said they do not believe the funding exists to accommodate rising numbers of underprepared students.

Trustees critical of remedial education have also asserted that remedial students lower CSU academic standards, saying that teaching basic skills is outside the realm of their responsibility.

Students rejected from Cal State under the new admission rules would be urged to enroll in two-year community colleges. Before 2001, the measure would require freshman to take the placement tests before they register and to begin remedial classes immediately.

A variety of experts called the proposal unusual for a state university system. Several said the plan is unrealistic because six years is not long enough for the state’s cash-strapped public schools to start producing significantly larger numbers of better-educated graduates. They also predicted vast numbers of students could be turned away from CSU.

“You’re going to cut off a huge segment of the higher education population,” said Esther Rodriguez, associate executive director of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Assn., a national group. “Sometimes students, if they’re not accepted, they may not keep going.”

If enacted, the new policy is expected to have the worst effect on minorities and recent immigrants. When systemwide placement test scores were compiled for 1993, about 70% of all Asian, African American and Mexican American freshmen failed to achieve college-level scores on the English placement test, compared to only 23% of all white freshmen.

On the math-preparedness test in 1993, the failing rate for freshmen was 77% for African Americans and 58% for Mexican Americans, but only 42% for whites and 34% for Asians.

Minority students have long trailed whites on many school tests, with educators blaming differences in family education, income and school quality for the difference in performance levels. Many recent immigrants also score poorly in English while performing well in math. But university remedial programs designed to help students catch up have come under increasing attack in recent years because of their cost and a growing backlash against programs perceived as giving minorities an unfair advantage.

Cal State spokesman Stephen MacCarthy said criticism of CSU’s proposed admissions plan does not take into account the fact that Cal State officials also are promising to work with the public schools to improve students’ skills in the coming years.

Cal State officials are proposing to begin offering the English and math tests to students while they are still in high school to enable them to gauge their skills early on. And for those needing help, Cal State officials are promising tutoring for students and consulting with their teachers.

If those measures do not work, Pesqueira conceded, then the trustees may have to reconsider the new policy.

A decade ago, Cal State officials recognized a growing problem with unprepared students and drafted a five-year plan to reduce the need for remedial classes. When the issue resurfaced last year, they discovered the rates of unprepared freshmen had grown steadily through the 1990s.

Peter Ewell, a researcher at the nonprofit National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in Colorado, said CSU officials are unlikely to reduce the problem of unprepared students in only six years. “It’s going to be a tough road,” Ewell said.