CUNY’s remedial classes need remediation, writes John Garvey, former dean for collaborative programs, on EdVox.
Remedial students are a heavy burden for CUNY, according to a March 4 New York Times story. Three-quarters of freshmen at CUNY community colleges need remedial instruction in reading, math or writing; one-quarter need help in all three. Some professors complain that college-ready students are neglected in order to serve students who aren’t prepared for college and aren’t likely to ever complete a degree.
CUNY’s approach to remediation is ineffective, Garvey writes.
the placement exams don’t do a consistently good job in assigning students to or exiting them from remedial classes, and they do not provide the diagnostic information necessary to enable teachers and students to identify what students know and understand as well as what they don’t know and misunderstand; there is frequently an unrealistic expectation that students will be able to significantly enhance their skills and knowledge through participation in relatively little instruction—students in most remedial courses only attend class for three to six hours a week; students are usually assigned to separate classes in reading, writing and math although almost all students would benefit from an integrated approach in which improvements in reading would lead to improvements in writing (and vice versa) and improvements in literacy skills would make math learning more effective; the design of most remedial courses assumes that students need to focus on the basic skills of reading comprehension, grammar, arithmetic, and algebra and often doesn’t connect those skills to meaningful content; since students must enroll for full-time study in order to qualify for financial aid, they frequently register for a combination of non-credit and unrelated non-credit courses that does not provide a solid foundation for beginning college; many students who exit CUNY’s remedial courses discover that they’re not ready for the next credit-bearing courses.
CUNY’s community colleges spend $33 million a year on remediation, about 5 percent of the total budget. Is this too much? Remedial students represent 15 percent of enrollment, Garvey notes. Fifteen percent of the budget would be $100 million. Furthermore, remedial students pay roughly $37 million in tuition.
. . . it is not clear that CUNY spends too much on remediation – it is far more likely that CUNY spends too little. Most important, the money CUNY spends on remediation is not spent effectively.
CUNY is trying to improve, writes Garvey, citing CUNY START, “a radical redesign of traditional remediation.” In addition, the new community college will integrate basic skills instruction with credit-bearing courses, instead of making students take remedial classes.
