CSU Remedial Education
* Re “CSU Admissions: Softer Isn’t Better,” editorial, Nov. 30:
Far from being a retreat on remedial education, the current California State University trustees’ proposal lays out an ambitious plan for defining academic standards and implementing them. The trustees are postponing nothing. Instead, they suggest an immediate and effective process to improve the education of all public school students. To get real improvement will not be easy.
The earlier subcommittee proposal, praised as “sensible” by your editorial, would have imposed an additional entrance requirement for CSU students--one beyond that of the University of California and most other U.S. colleges. CSU doors would have slammed shut to thousands with modest academic deficiencies. Complex circumstances have resulted in inadequate student preparation. Denying access compounds the problem and is unlikely to improve K-12 performance.
The trustees and faculty are making a monumental commitment. The faculties of K-12 and higher education will need to agree on standards of performance and the means to achieve and measure them. We will also need to educate current and future teachers better. All students, whether college-bound or not, will be better prepared for life and work. California lawmakers must increase the investment in effective education while we tackle standards and evaluation, or else the cost of remedial education will pale compared to the social ills for which we will all pay.
JAMES M. HIGHSMITH
Chair, CSU Systemwide Academic Senate
Professor of Business Law
Long Beach
* For those of us in education who seek real educational standards, the juxtaposition of two Nov. 29 articles was sadly ironic. One heralded El Camino Real High School’s triumph in the LAUSD academic decathlon; the other chronicled the easing of proposed toughened admission standards for CSU freshmen.
You won’t find an academic decathlon coach who won’t credit the standard of competition for motivating students to study hard. These teenagers master material in 10 subject fields to a proficiency most adults can’t fathom. Their performance is heartening to those who see hope in public education.
Many of us plead for similar standards to apply to all secondary students. Real content-based standards will motivate most students to take advantage of their high school education and to be genuinely capable when they go to college or enter the work force. The status quo maintains a system where the colleges are required to do the job high schools were designed to do. Instead, the Cal State Board of Trustees will focus on reforming secondary school education. Once again, public school teachers are the scapegoats. As teachers, we must be responsible for what we can control. But we can’t be held responsible for students who don’t come to school or take their education seriously. It’s not only unfair, but worse, it’s delusional and Utopian to believe retraining teachers will fix all.
It’s unconscionable that the powers that be won’t give us the help we need--real content-based standards backed by rigorous exams. Nothing else will make a significant improvement in our educational mess.
DAN HART, Math Teacher
San Fernando High School
* Let me get this straight: The Times opposes spending money on remedial courses to bring otherwise qualified students up to speed, but endorses extravagant pay raises for mediocre but already highly paid administrators in the CSU (editorial, Nov. 12).
Please, get a life!
GEORGE LEWIS
Professor of Mathematics
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
