College Is for the Prepared

Last week brought some very unhappy news for 1,440 students at California State University. Following through on a program adopted last year, school officials announced that they were kicking out 5% of last year’s freshman class for failing to pass required courses in remedial English and math. It’s unlikely that anyone on the 22-campus system is pleased to have to get this tough, but the action was necessary.

In addition to the students booted out, 1,259 freshmen who needed remedial work left on their own, and about 1,300 students who were close to passing the required tests or had special circumstances were given one final chance this fall.

No doubt some dreams died hard this week at Cal State and others were deferred. But colleges--and state taxpayers--should not be footing the bill for earlier educational failures.

The growing magnitude of those failures has been a source of concern for a decade. In 1989, 42.1% of freshmen failed the incoming English test and 28% were unprepared for college math. Last year, 68% of the freshman class began Cal State deficient in basic skills.

Remedial education has cost CSU $10 million annually, taking money away from other university programs and draining professors’ time. More important, the students themselves have been ill served by being presented as ready for college work when they had major deficiencies in English and math. A bachelor’s degree should guarantee at least basic academic competency. The new get-tough policy is an important step in that direction.

The university has also begun working closely with high schools around the state to improve students’ skills before they arrive at college. Moreover, the students who were ordered last week to leave, a tiny fraction of the 28,327 systemwide who enrolled as freshmen last year, can return when they present evidence of having completed their remedial work, generally at a community college. They are not required to reapply for admission.

It is worth asking how student skills dropped so low, here and elsewhere. The decline in public education nationally is, of course, well known. But a survey released last week provides some new clues to poor student performance. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that American children spend nearly three hours every day just watching television.

Weekly, the study found, kids spend more than 38 hours--an adult workweek--playing video games, in front of the television, listening to music or on the Internet. A smidgen of that time goes to any kind of reading, even comic books. As high schools struggle to raise test scores and college readiness, students and their families need to help by spending less time on media play and more on learning.