The problem of college readiness and why remedial courses don't usually work

LA Times reports: 760,000 Cal State applications, but [college] readiness a problem

Let me be clear: un-readiness among college students is not just a CSU problem. It's a problem for everyone. I'm referring to the Cal State article only because it's recent and provides a jumping off point to discuss today's topic: the seriousness of the un-readiness and why remedial courses don't usually work.

The number of undergraduate applications for Cal State’s fall 2014 class was the largest ever. But, according to the Times, only about 56% of students "are ready to tackle college-level English and math." It's an improvement, 42% tested proficient in 2009.

In 2012, Cal State instituted a program, Early Start, part of "an overarching policy goal of improving college readiness." One facet of Early Start provides remedial courses to help students whose placement exam scores show they lack proficiency in math or English.

College un-readiness: A nationwide problem.  

In this instance, 44% of 760,000 applicants need remedial work in basic courses. It’s these kinds of statistics that prompted me to write my book about “how to get ready” for college. A major theme running through the book? Most students don’t know how to “study” and "learn"(acquire knowledge.)

Learning: a lost art.

·         A huge number of students who get great high school grades get them because they cram — and then quickly forget the bits and pieces of crammed information in a matter of days. When crammers get to college and don’t have the background knowledge the professor expects, crammers will pay a steep price. But teens don’t know that.

·        At the other end of the spectrum are students who are frustrated in courses because they “don’t get it.” Why? They don’t know “how” to get it. Clueless as learners, they lack
the means to overcome the learning barrier and so give-up on the course.

·         Who are the “studiers”? Almost 7% of college-bound high school seniors study 16 or more hours a week, a little more than 2 hours a day.

66% of college-bound h.s. seniors study fewer than 5 hours a week.

What’s more, the majority of students are still using immature study techniques, woefully inadequate in handling courses that have grown progressively more difficult.

So we offer students remedial coursework. Seems logical. But presenting the material in a remedial way will not achieve the hoped-for result. Why? Students are likely to know no more about “studying” when they start college than they did in high school.

Students need help learning how to learn.

I had originally thought about calling my book “Filling the Hole in Your Head.” The phrase captured perfectly the current students’ perception of “learning.” They sit in class, and the teacher "pours knowledge” through a funnel into a hole in their head. (The concept still lives in an illustration that begins a chapter in my book called, How, exactly, to “use” your head.) Students believe that if they “listen” in class, they will learn. They believe that learning is passive.

No. The brain needs exercise. It, too, needs to lift weights and stretch. That's study. No one “pours” knowledge into student heads. Today’s students don’t get that. They believe that if they aren’t learning in class, then the teacher's not doing a good job.
 

We have to teach students how to learn — and that learning, by its very nature, takes time and effort.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced last year that the US now ranks 16th globally in the number of college degrees attained. It’s time to do something about that. And teaching students how to study and learn rests at the foundation of this effort.  

http://latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-lm-lao-calstate-20140115,0,5935060.story

http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2012/jan/20/arne-duncan/arne-duncan-says-us-has-dropped-no-1-no-16-world-c/