Readiness Plan Gears Students Up for College

Cal State University officials want to make a deal with 300 high school juniors in Simi Valley and Ventura: one week of summer school in exchange for a better shot at excelling in college-level work.

Thanks to a $15,000 grant announced Friday by Pacific Bell, university officials are expanding a campaign to prepare high school students for college-level work by sharpening the basic skills they will need for university admission.

The money will be used to administer assessment tests this year to 11th-graders in the two districts to determine where they need help in English and math. The youngsters will then attend an intensive one-week institute at the fledgling Cal State Channel Islands campus this summer, where CSU faculty will help them shore up academic weaknesses.

The goal is to ready them, early in their senior year, to pass the university system’s basic proficiency exams in English and math, tests that have proven to be significant stumbling blocks for a growing number of college-bound students.

At the new Ventura County campus, officials do not intend to offer remedial courses to those who fail to pass the entrance exam. “We want to support their proficiency in English and math so that when they take the entrance exams, they will pass, they will get in,” said Barbara Thorpe, head of academic planning for the Channel Islands campus. “We want to count on a CSU admission for every student who goes through the summer institute, and we’re hoping that one week will be enough time to make that happen.”

The summer institute is the latest step in a statewide campaign to reduce the number of freshmen arriving on Cal State campuses ill-prepared for college-level math and English and in need of remedial training in those subjects.

The Cal State University system requires all entering freshmen to pass basic skills exams in English and math or to demonstrate proficiency in those subjects with sufficiently high SAT or Advanced Placement test scores.

Last fall, more than half the freshmen who entered the university system were unprepared for college-level math, and 47% lacked the skills to handle college English courses, despite the fact that they were among the top one-third of California’s high school graduates.

Those who fail to prove proficiency are funneled into remedial programs, forcing a delay in their education.

To help reverse that trend, Cal State officials this fall launched a Readiness Program at Santa Paula High School and half a dozen others throughout the state. Juniors at Santa Paula High will undergo diagnostic assessments this month and, starting March 6, will receive tutoring in areas where they need help.

Those students also will go through the one-week program this summer and take the entrance exams next fall.

While the effort in Simi Valley and Ventura won’t be nearly as extensive, educators believe it will give students in those districts a leg up when it comes to earning admission, and excelling, in the university system.

“This puts our kids first in line to be tested on material they have had a chance to study and become familiar with,” said Ventura Unified School District Supt. Joseph Spirito. “How can you look at this and not say this is something that is significant and makes a lot of sense?”

Many of the details of the program, such as how students in the two districts will be chosen to participate in the summer program, have yet to be worked out.

University officials have not determined when the summer institute will be held, although both students and parents will be invited onto the campus that week to get a feel for the developing university.

Educators said that kind of exposure to a college campus environment will be just as important as the readiness program.

“I think it’s an excellent opportunity for our students,” and Lynn Johnson, coordinator of secondary education for the Simi Valley Unified School District. “The more we can connect the kids to a college experience, the more it’s going to encourage them to make real the things they’ve been thinking about doing their entire school careers.”

Pacific Bell chose Ventura and Simi Valley because a large number of the company’s employees live in those cities. And while the commitment for now is to sponsor the summer institute for a year, Pacific Bell spokesman Michael Carney said the company will consider the program for funding on an annual basis.

“Right now, the campus needs as much help as it can get, and we want to be there for it, especially in the early stages, to help them get geared up,” Carney said.

About This Series

“Birth of a University: Countdown to a Cal State Campus” is an occasional series chronicling the development of a four-year college at the shuttered Camarillo State Hospital complex. This installment focuses on a campaign by the new campus to prepare high school students for college-level work by sharpening the basic skills they will need for university admission.