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Minnesota high school students need to take more challenging classes |
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Two strong messages about many Minnesota high school students come from
a new state report. First, large numbers of high school graduates
2003-2006 entered Minnesota public 2-4 year colleges and universities:
49% overall Minnesota public high school graduates in those years). The
rates vary among high schools.
However a disturbing percentage of the graduates who entered Minnesota
public colleges or universities, need to remedial courses in reading,
writing or math. Statewide, it was 38% of Minnesota high school
graduates who our public 2-4 universities, a total of 10,834 students.
The trend is for more, rather than fewer graduates to take remedial courses.
Give educators and families credit for helping many students enter
higher education. But students clearly need more encouragement to take
advantage of challenging high school courses – especially in math.
Unfortunately, Minnesota taxpayers and families are paying MILLIONS of
dollars for students to take classes covering material that most of them
should have mastered in high school. This is especially true in math. Of
the 2005 high school graduates who took remedial courses in Minnesota
public colleges or universities, 36% took a course in “developmental
mathematics” compared to 17% in “developmental writing” and 13% in
“developmental reading.”
All fifty high schools with the strongest record in this report are in
greater Minnesota. Forty-six of them are quite small, in places like
Clinton Graceville (52% of 2003-2006 grads entering a Minnesota 2-4 year
college or university, but only 13% of them taking a remedial course,
Verndale, 57% of graduates entering a public college, 15% taking a
remedial course, and Chokio-Alberta, 66% of graduates entering a public
2-4 year institution, but only 16% taking a remedial course).
Some suburban educators have pointed out that they have larger
percentages of graduates entering Minnesota universities that are
private, or colleges outside of Minnesota. That’s true. But there still
are thousands of suburban public high school graduates taking remedial
courses.
Minnesota trends are not encouraging. The percentage of Minnesota high
school graduates attending public colleges and universities is not
increasing. It was 49% in 2000-2003, and in 2003-2006. Even more
important, the percentage of Minnesota high school graduates taking
remedial courses on entering public colleges and universities is NOT
declining. It was 33% for the class of 1999, 36% for the classes of
2001-2003, 37% for the class of 2004, and 38% for the class of 2005. As
legislators and educators try to improve education, the trend should be
down, not up.
The data comes from “Getting Prepared 2008,” a recently released study
done by the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State College system.
The report is available at
www.mnscu.edu/media/publications/pdf/gettingprepared08.pdf
The report suggests possible reasons for the increase. First, “since
1999…larger percentages of new high school graduates were attending
public colleges and universities.” But since 2001, “the percentage of
new high school graduates enrolling in Minnesota public higher education
institutions has been relatively steady at 49 or 50 percent.” Next, the
report notes that recently the Minnesota State College and University
system (MnSCU) has done “more thorough placement testing and enforcement
of required enrollment in developmental education.”
Developmental – also known as remedial – courses do not count toward
graduation. Statistics cited above may help account for disturbingly low
graduation rates at many Minnesota public colleges and universities
(I’ll write about that in a future column).
Going to either a two or year college has many benefits. But here’s a
strong suggestion to current high school students: Save substantial time
and money by taking free, challenging math high school classes, now.
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