University Business - December 2008 - (Page 56)

Remedial Nation Reisz and his fellow coordinators work with local school disaligned to what colleges expect of incoming students. There’s a districts to address the needed skill sets and provide professional deconnect,” she observes. Normandale’s Opatz has seen that disconnect firsthand, espe- velopment to teachers, usually offered through the state’s county cially in math. “Math skills for meeting NCLB are not the same offices of education. The new curriculum includes 14 modules in as college readiness,” Opatz insists. He suggests realigning state reading and writing created by a task force of CSU professors and standards more closely to what colleges need of incoming students. secondary school educators. The modules, which were developed in-house, can be taught as He sees an additional problem in the large numbers of students who have not taken math in either their junior or senior years of a yearlong course, spread out over several years, or cherry-picked high school. “There should be some math required in those years according to the particular needs of students. The topics are designed to engage those students, from hiring practices at Aberso there’s not that long a drought,” he says. Cain is targeting middle school students, who now can take crombie & Fitch to racial profiling, and often they get worked a college readiness test online, and she is developing pilot pro- into the general curriculum. “The original idea was to target seniors who needed it, but not grams—including a two-week institute held at Eastern Kentucky every school offers special classes,” Reisz this past summer—to strengthen basic observes. “In reality, we know it’s a little math and English skills. “We have to more scattershot. We can’t control what strategically plan to improve education at happens in the high schools.” all levels, ensure that students make suc“Math has been a little harder to atcessful transitions from one level to the tack,” adds Reisz. Instead of developing next, and provide interventions for those courses or modules, EAP personnel are who don’t,” Cain says. 4 Give students a limited amount of piloting professional development projtime to get up to speed on basic skills. ects at 25 high schools across the state. The Cal State Connection 4 Ensure that topics covered in deReisz says that the program is aiming System leaders at The California State velopmental courses are engaging to higher than basic mathematical comUniversity have been thinking even bigstudents. petency. “We want students to become ger by assessing almost all of the state’s 4 Consider summer programs to help more creative problem solvers and to high school students at the end of their incoming freshmen catch up before solve problems that require numerous junior year, an approach that Jim Blackthey fall further behind. skills,” he says. burn, director of enrollment manage4 Offer programs during winter break. Blackburn figures that the EAP proment services, hopes will cut back on 4 Design programs that address not gram will need time to make a difference. the almost 30,000 incoming freshmen in just the academic issues but motiva“More and more people have participatneed of remediation. tional issues and stress as well. ed, and the number of people needing re“We were continuing to spend a great 4 Meet with K-12 education leaders mediation has not changed in a substandeal of time and money on remedial to develop similar goals for student tial way yet,” he says. “But these things education,” Blackburn says. “One of the achievement. take the better part of a decade.” problems was that students in secondary For now, existing developmental schools didn’t know they needed remeand remedial programs are charging full dial work until they took our placement speed ahead. Grand Rapids Community College’s Spoelman notes test in the spring of their senior year.” So four years ago, under its new Early Assessment Program that although 2 percent of higher education budgets go toward (EAP), Cal State began collaborating with the California State programs like hers, “that’s not a lot of resources to put towards eduBoard of Education to add a voluntary section of extra questions in cating people who otherwise might be hard-pressed to earn a living reading and math and a 50-minute writing exercise to the standard wage. The gates of college open to them if they pass these classes, 11th-grade assessment tests required of all high school students. and that opens the door to a career.” “What alternative do we have?” asks BMCC’s Perez. “Do we Those who pass are exempted from CSU placement tests a year later. Last spring CSU assessed the college-readiness of more than want these individuals to be underemployed or unemployed? Are we going to pay more now because students are unprepared, or pay 350,000 juniors. And those who do not pass? They have the chance to improve later when they are on the unemployment lines or welfare roles?” “What would it cost if we don’t have these programs?” adds their performance—with the help of EAP programs coordinated from each of CSU’s campuses—by the time they graduate. “It’s an Eastern Kentucky’s Cain. early signal to students that they need extra help during senior year,” says Tom Reisz, the EAP coordinator at San Jose State University. Ron Schachter is a Boston-based freelance writer. Developmental Education Success CheCklist 56 | December 2008 universitybusiness.com http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - December 2008

University Business - December 2008
Contents
Editor's Note
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Human Resources
2009 Annual Directory to Financial Services
Future Shock
Independent Outlook
Endowment Management
Look Before You Leap
50 Best Branding Ideas
Remedial Nation
What's New
Facilities Focus
End Note

University Business - December 2008