New test assesses non-academic readiness
Student success depends on motivation as well as academic preparation. A new ETS test called SuccessNavigator claims to measure students’ readiness to show up for class, ask question and persevere, reports Inside Higher Ed. Steven Robbins, director of research innovation at ETS, said the test can be used in tandem with conventional placement exams to find students [...]
States expand college readiness testing
Thirty-eight states are measuring 11th-graders college readiness, reports the Community College Research Center in Reshaping the College Transition. Some use state exams,while others use the ACT, SAT or community college placement tests. Even more states are expected to start testing when Common Core State Standards’ assessments are available. Twenty-nine states are using catch-up courses or online [...]
Unprepared students, dumbed-down teaching
Most community college students aren’t ready for college or the workforce concludes a National Center on Education and the Economy study. Colleges have lowered standards to accommodate poorly prepared students, writes the NCEE’s Marc Tucker. Very little writing at all is required in most programs. The writing that is required is of a very simply sort. Students, for [...]
Should Pell require readiness?
Many Pell Grant recipients aren’t prepared for college and never complete a degree, writes Jane Shaw of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. Instead of denying Pell aid to remedial students, she proposes requiring evidence of readiness, such as SAT scores of at least 850 (verbal and math) and a high school GPA of at least [...]
No Pell for remedial courses?
Pell Grants should go only to college-ready students, proposes Mike Petrilli of the Fordham Foundation on Bloomberg View. “A huge proportion” of the $40 billion annual federal investment in college aid is going to unprepared students, he asserts. About two-thirds of low-income community-college students — and one-third of poor students at four-year colleges — need [...]
Online courses for ‘novice learners’
Can “novice learners” succeed in all-online courses? Many believe remedial and entry-level students need lots of personal attention to succeed. But San Jose State is working with Udacity on three online basic math courses that include round-the-clock online mentors, hired and trained by the company, reports the New York Times. The tiny for-credit pilot courses, open to [...]
In the spotlight
Community colleges are in the national spotlight, said Richard Rhodes, president of Austin Community College, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges in San Francisco. ”The expectations are higher than they’ve ever been before, but legislators are beginning to understand the trajectory and pathways of our students.” In addition to tracking the three-year [...]
Khan offers self-paced, online remedial help
Self-paced online courses backed by data analytics could help community colleges get students up to speed, said Khan Academy founder Salman Khan at the San Francisco convention of the American Association of Community Colleges. “About six million people around the world watch Khan’s free online tutorials each month, writes Paul Fain on Inside Higher Ed. Khan thinks his [...]
Unprepared in the Big Apple
New York City high schools are flooding community colleges with unprepared students, reports the Village Voice. Eighty percent need remedial reading, writing or math — especially math — when they enroll, up from 71 percent a few years ago. City University of New York’s community colleges have doubled spending on remediation in just a decade, [...]
Pima faces accreditation loss for remedial policy
Threatened with losing accreditation, Pima Community College is expected to open admission to all students, reversing a policy that sent very poorly prepared students to alternative programs. Accreditors also criticized the Arizona college’s leadership problems, including mismanagement by past and present administrators, a “culture of fear” and an allegedly absentee governing board, reports Inside Higher Ed. In addition, [...]
