|
If you're new here, you can subscribe to our RSS feed, receive e-mails and/or sign up to receive our FREE monthly newsletter, The Good Ship Mom&Pop . Welcome aboard - thanks for visiting! |
Paying Double: Inadequate High School and Community College Remediation
The study was aptly titled “Paying Double: Inadequate High School and Community College Remediation.” Performed by The Alliance for Excellent Education, a non-profit based in Washington, D.C., the study “shows that a good chunk of students are unprepared for life after high school,” according to Danielle Wood, author of the story at education.com.
After taxpayers spend about $10,000/year/student in public school, “close to one-third of all community college freshmen enroll in at least one remedial course upon arrival and 20 percent of freshman in four-year institutions do.” Those who skip college to enter the workforce are “just as unprepared.”
How much do you think this costs the country? The study estimates the price tag at $3.7 billion annually. Yeah, that’s “b” as in billion.
Speaking about those students immediately entering the workforce, “more than 80 percent of employers said recent graduates were deficient in ‘applied skills,’ and 72 percent said they were deficient in basic writing skills.” Noting that it costs $22,218 per year on average to attend a private college, it doesn’t seem a very good investment when employers called most grads “adequate” or less.
The modern school system was set up to create good employees. This report seems a pretty good indication that it’s failing in this regard, too. Parents, if your child is in this system, you cannot fall asleep at the helm.
Hat tip to Vermont’s Cindy Wade for the lead to this story.
Link to this page
I know that my college students, about 30-40% of them, have no idea what a paragraph is. And many more than that had never heard of a "rough draft," either! I have had college students going back to 1978, when I was a teaching assistant, who did not know how to measure a straight line with a ruler. And most people would be appalled at how many American adults cannot read a road map.
HoosierNan, what is the general response from from the faculty and administration to this? Are remedial classes accepted as a "norm" today, just part of the cost of the college biz? I can't believe after all these years that people are *still* talking about homeschooled kiddos' socialization when this is happening!!
Thanks for the comment!