CSUN Freshmen Near the Bottom in Math, English

Cal State Northridge freshmen rank among the lowest in the Cal State system in being prepared for college-level English and math, according to data released Monday.

The Northridge campus, with 69.7% of its incoming freshmen needing remedial help, had the third-largest share of those unprepared in English and the fourth-largest percentage unprepared in math, according to the Cal State study of the 1994 student population at 19 campuses.

“I don’t think there are any quick and easy answers,” CSUN spokesman Bruce Erickson said. “Once we put our finger on the issue, six months later we’re not going to see dramatic results. This is like turning around the Queen Mary.”

The figures for the CSUN freshmen were reported in The Times more than a year ago, but this new study ranks 19 of the Cal State campuses.

Only the campuses in Los Angeles and Dominguez Hills had larger shares of students who needed remedial help in English. And only Dominguez Hills, Los Angeles and San Bernardino had larger shares of students needing remedial help in math.

Overall, 49% of Cal State freshmen needed remedial English help and 54% needed math help. The data marked record high levels of unprepared students and the fifth consecutive year of increases.

Erickson said the dismal results should “serve as a continuing wake-up call that we need to show a much greater commitment to education.” He said the solution lies with parents, educators and others who prepare the incoming students.

Cal State’s four Los Angeles-area campuses--Los Angeles, Dominguez Hills, Northridge and Long Beach--all fared among the worst of those in the study, with the highest rates of unprepared freshmen exceeding 80%. The data is the latest and most comprehensive released by Cal State officials.

Marsha Hirano-Nakanishi, the director of analytic studies for the Cal State system, said the Los Angeles area probably fared poorly in the study because of a relatively high number of students not proficient in English.

“There’s probably no place in the world that’s got the percentage of limited-English-proficient students that are in the Los Angeles Basin,” said Hirano-Nakanishi.

Cal State officials also have cited many other possible factors, including more selective admission policies among some Cal State campuses, the varying quality of students’ high school educations, and possible biases in the tests.

For instance, in the 1994 English results for all campuses, male and female freshmen had the same unpreparedness rate of about 49% each. But in the math results, female freshmen fared much worse with a 61.1% unpreparedness rate overall, compared to 44.6% for their male counterparts.

Similarly, freshmen from all minority groups identified in the study fared worse than their white counterparts in both the English and math results, with the lone exception of Asian American freshmen, who did the best of all ethnic groups in math.

In 1994, 79.8% of all Cal State’s African American freshmen were unprepared to do college-level math, as were 72.9% of Mexican Americans, 57.9% of American Indians, 44.6 of whites and 40.2% of Asian Americans.

Results of the 1994 English test were slightly better. Just under 70% of black and Mexican American freshmen were unprepared for college work, as were 68.3% of Asian Americans, 33.8% of American Indians and 24.2% of whites.

The first data on Cal State students’ lack of preparation in English and math--which were released in January 1995--unleashed a political firestorm and led to proposals that the 326,000-student university system totally abolish its remedial education offerings, which cost about $10 million a year.

But in January, after months of debate about the complex web of factors behind the rising numbers, the Cal State Board of Trustees adopted a new remedial education policy that focuses on better preparing incoming students rather than turning away those needing extra help.

Under the new Cal State policy adopted in January, the university system will try to reduce its share of freshmen in need of remedial help to 10% overall by the year 2007 through working with grade schools and high schools to better prepare students and more quickly remedy problems.

But Cal State officials conceded that the task will be long and arduous, with freshmen test results likely to decline farther before they get better.