By Katherine Mangan
Jacksonville, Fla.
New students who show up here at Florida State College at Jacksonville have to take placement tests in mathematics, English, and reading. About 70 percent end up in one or more remedial courses. For now, at least.
State lawmakers voted in May to make such courses, which some see as obstacles to progress, optional for most students. Starting next year, recent high-school graduates and active-duty military members in Florida will have the choice of whether to take the courses or even the tests meant to gauge students' readiness for college-level work.
That prospect has sent a wave of anxiety across the state's 28 community and state colleges, which all have open admissions. Their fear: that an influx of unprepared students could destabilize introductory courses and set those who will struggle up for failure.
The colleges have become ground zero in a national battle over remedial education, a field whose current models aren't working, say even its most ardent supporters. Several organizations—including Complete College America and Jobs for the Future, both backed by groups including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation—have been pushing to reduce the number of students who end up in
noncredit remedial courses. Based on the argument that remedial education, as currently delivered, is ineffective, the groups have persuaded lawmakers in Connecticut, Tennessee, and other states to pass laws channeling more students directly into credit-bearing courses.
Complete College America, whose leaders testified before the Florida Legislature, estimates that fewer than one in 10 students who start in remedial courses, which educators and state lawmakers also call developmental courses, graduate within three years. Its vice president, Bruce Vandal, says that only about 15 percent of the students whose test scores place them into the courses truly need to be there. The others, he says, could succeed in credit-bearing courses if colleges were to consider a broader set of criteria in placing them.
But even Mr. Vandal questions the wisdom of leaving the choice up to students. If the law gave colleges the flexibility to identify and support unprepared students, steering some toward technical certificates, that would help, he says.
Thomas R. Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College, testified alongside Mr. Vandal in favor of reforming remediation, but he agrees that making it optional goes too far.
"If you have a complete open door to college-level classes, you'll get more students in there who can't manage it," says Mr. Bailey, who is also a professor of economics and education at Teachers College. "Colleges are going to have to figure out what to do with students who make it partway through and drop out."
That is one of many questions Florida's community colleges are anticipating and scrambling to answer. Educators are preparing to revamp courses so that instructors can teach to a broader range of abilities.
Meanwhile, they are beefing up advising for students who are determined to skip remediation, even when they have little chance of passing a college-level course.
While campus officials acknowledge that the existing remedial system is deeply flawed, they point to experimental new models and efforts already in place to bolster students' progress.
The goal of moving students along makes sense, educators say, but only if those students are ready for it, not if they simply opt out.
"We're worried about the students who are going to come in and say, 'Yeah, I'm fine. Let me try,'" says Jacksonville's interim president, Willis N. Holcombe, a former chancellor of the Florida College System and a former English professor. "You may be trying to teach someone the five-paragraph essay," he says, "and they can't write a complete sentence."
Guesswork and Support
Now students must pass out of remediation before they can enroll in credit-bearing courses. Kathleen Ciez-Volz, director of academic and instructional program development at Jacksonville, regrets that some of them get stuck.
"We know that the longer students are in developmental education, the less likely they are to succeed," Ms. Ciez-Volz said in a meeting here last month for faculty and staff members to discuss how the new law would affect them.
Pushing students ahead could be effective, she said, but the approach probably won't work for those with the weakest math and reading skills.
Meanwhile, Florida State College's campuses and centers all have academic-success programs dedicated to remedial students, to help them progress. It's unclear what will happen to the centers, but Ms. Ciez-Volz says she hopes they can be revamped to meet the support needs of students in both remedial and credit-bearing courses.
Since 2009, Florida State College at Jacksonville's Deerwood Center has helped raise pass rates in math courses from about 65 percent to more than 80 percent, says Jerry Shawver, a remedial math professor who won the Association of Florida Colleges' professor of the year award in 2012. The center relies on individualized, computer-assisted instruction, peer tutoring, and intensive faculty support.
Mr. Shawver jokingly challenges legislators who might think such a resource is a waste of time. "Let's stick it to them and show them our success rates and dare them to shut us down," he says.
In addition to giving active-duty service members and post-2007 graduates of Florida high schools the choice to skip remediation, the new law requires institutions to offer more ways for students to catch up, ideally while enrolled in college courses. The options suggested in the law include compressing two remedial math courses into one, embedding more tutoring in credit-bearing classes, and offering modules that cover only what a student is shaky in.
The college has already been experimenting with some such models, says Patti Levine-Brown, a professor of communications at Jacksonville and president of the National Association for Developmental Education. Those include compressed and fast-track courses and self-paced modules that zero in on specific skills.
The idea of offering remediation alongside college-level courses, instead of as a prerequisite, was touted last year in a report by four national higher-education groups, using data from the Community College Research Center. The center has concluded that students near the cutoff who start out in remedial courses fare no better, and often do worse, than students at a similar level who jump right into credit-bearing courses.
The new law will mean a lot of guesswork for institutions on how many remedial and college-level courses to offer. And shuffling faculty members at the last minute won't be easy: A master's degree isn't always required for remedial instructors, many of whom are adjuncts, but it is for those teaching college-level courses.
Faculty members in introductory courses worry that there may be pressure to dumb things down. Some students share that concern.
Jonathan C. Bolick, a student at North Florida Community College, plans to transfer next year to a four-year institution to study international business and history. But first he had to pass remedial math, which he did last year.
Mr. Bolick, who serves as a peer tutor, says students who need remediation may opt into college-level courses, where their struggles will "stunt learning" for the entire class.
"The teacher doesn't necessarily have to teach to the person who's not understanding the material," he says, "but teachers who really care don't want to leave anyone behind."
Students' Choice
Without placement tests to go on for most students, advisers will have to look more closely at high-school records, which some say are a better predictor of success. But getting access to those records and finding time for extended counseling sessions won't be easy. The Jacksonville campus has 63 advisers for 6,000 incoming students.
Colleges should provide data to those thinking of skipping remediation to show them how much better their odds of success might be with the catch-up, says Jacob Winge, a junior at Edison State College and president of the Florida College System Student Government Association.
Still, he believes students should have choices about how they get up to speed. He took two semesters of remedial math and says he probably could have gotten by with one.
The stakes are high: If a student fails a course and takes it again, that costs money and time. If he or she needs a third try, the state charges out-of-state tuition, which is four times as high as the in-state rate.
Taking remedial classes can be demoralizing for many, but for Mildred Bautista, it made going back to college a little less scary. She's close to finishing her bachelor's degree in public-safety management at Jacksonville and says she wouldn't have made it this far without the remedial math and reading courses she was placed in when she entered an associate-degree program, in 2007.
"It was a little aggravating having to pay for classes I didn't get credit for, but I was nervous going back to school, and I wanted to take baby steps," says Ms. Bautista, who plans to become a police officer.
Her remedial-English instructor took her under her wing and persuaded her to become a peer tutor, Ms. Bautista says. "That lady helped me blossom."
Colleges have until March to present the state with a plan for how they'll overhaul remedial education, offering new options to support less-prepared students. Those plans must take effect by the fall of 2014, but colleges will start rolling them out next spring.
Across Florida, colleges are struggling with the new mandate. William D. Law Jr., president of St. Petersburg College, concedes that remedial education hasn't been working but thinks that allowing students to place themselves is asking for trouble.
"When you ask an 18-year-old student, 'Would you like to opt out of developmental math?' I'm guessing I know the answer more often than not," he says. "I'm really worried about what this is going to look like two to three weeks into the semester, when students have that 'aha!' moment and say, 'I should have chosen a different level.'"
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