Many Cal State Freshmen Lack Math, English Skills

More than half the freshmen who entered the California State University system last fall were unprepared for college-level math and 43% lacked the skills to handle college English courses, even though they are among the top third of California’s high school graduates.

The new data, released Wednesday by Cal State officials, shows a continuing rise in the number of freshmen in the 22-campus system who need remedial courses on subjects they should have mastered in high school.

The percentage of unprepared students was the highest since Cal State officials began reliably tracking the data in 1989.

“It is going to take a fundamental revolution in the way California undertakes K-12 education to change those numbers you saw today,” said Barry Munitz, chancellor of the Cal State University system. “Tinkering around the edges is not going to help the next generation of Californians.”

Munitz and other officials outlined ambitious plans to improve high schools, ranging from better teacher training to setting higher standards for student achievement and dispatching thousands of college students into the schools as tutors and mentors.

Munitz said he was encouraged that the Board of Trustees was willing to embrace the discouraging statistics and not shirk its responsibility as California’s primary source of public school teachers. About 60% of the state’s teachers are trained at Cal State institutions.

“It’s not scapegoating. It’s an act of contrition,” Munitz said.

Delivering Cal State’s first report on remedial education, Senior Vice Chancellor Charles Lindahl unveiled newly revised figures that show 53% of last fall’s freshmen needed remedial classes in math and 43% needed English remediation to prepare them for college work.

University officials suggested that the percentage of substandard performers may creep higher still as the university does a better job of rounding up the 10% to 12% of freshmen who manage to “elude” the assessment tests.

The latest set of numbers was based on the performance of about 22,000 of the 25,298 freshmen enrolled through regular admissions. It did not include athletes, talented musicians and others enrolled through special admissions. If they were counted, officials said, the percentages of poor performers would rise a few points.

“This should not happen at a university,” said Trustee Ralph R. Pesqueira, who led a campaign two years ago to phase out Cal State’s $10-million-a-year remedial education program and deny admission to students who lack college-level math and English skills.

He agreed last year to soften the policy by setting gradual goals to reduce the number of students who need remedial courses to 10% of freshmen by 2007.

“We must help those who are feeding us, namely kindergarten through 12th grade,” said Pesqueira, who is chairman of Cal State’s educational policy committee. “This is the most important thing we have to do. The more successful we are in helping K-12, the more we can get on with our primary mission: higher education.”

Although sobered by the escalating need for remedial college courses, Pesqueira said he was encouraged by steps taken in the first year of a long-term project to improve K-12 education.

One accomplishment highlighted was the cooperation among education leaders to draft a comprehensive set of high school graduation standards.

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Not Ready for College

The percentage of Cal State freshmen unprepared for college-level math rose for the the seventh consecutive year. The percentage unprepared for college English has remained at an all-time high since 1994. Percentages are based on students who fail proficiency tests administered to incoming freshmen. Not all students are tested; for example, some satisfy the requirement because of their SAT scores.

% OF FRESHMAN FAILING ENGLISH TEST

‘89: 38%

‘90: 39%

‘91: 39%

‘92: 41%

‘93: 42%

‘94: 43%

‘95: 43%

‘96: 43%

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% OF FRESHMAN FAILING MATH TEST

‘89: 23%

‘90: 24%

‘91: 26%

‘92: 39%

‘93: 45%

‘94: 48%

‘95: 52%

‘96: 53%

NOTE: The failure rate in math proficiency jumped markedly in 1992 after Cal State added a third year of math--intermediate algebra--to its entrance requirements.

Source: California State University