July 22, 2008

New Report Attempts to Tally California's Cost of Remediation

A new report from the libertarian-leaning Pacific Research Institute attempts to calculate the total costs Californians bear as a result of students who graduate from high school unprepared for college.

The report, scheduled for release today, estimates that each wave of freshmen entering California’s public colleges in need of remediation annually costs the state at least $3.9-billion, and perhaps as much as $13.9-billion or more.

The institute arrives at such numbers by looking not just at the $274-million that it says colleges spend providing remedial instruction, but also at other costs it associates with inadequate preparation for college. It estimates, for example, that businesses will spend from $107-million to $447-million providing such students with additional training, and that such students will earn $1.1-billion to $5.5-billion less annually than they would have if they had entered college prepared for the work.

Among its recommendations, the report says California should begin testing students to measure whether they are on track to enter college as early as the second grade. It also calls for the state to take all of the money now spent on remedial education from the elementary level onward and use the funds to offer “money-back guarantee” grants for remedial-education services to students who fall behind. —Peter Schmidt

Comments

1. I clearly remember my undergraduate days working in my college’s writing center and sitting down with 8 students — not ONE of whom could explain what made a sentence fragment a fragment. This article just adds more evidence that admitting low-achieving students into college hurts everyone: the students, their professors, their parents, and us taxpayers. Stop the madness, folks.

   — PiedPiper    Jul 22, 08:59 AM    #

2. I wish there was some proposed solution other than accountability…Last I checked the “early and often” strategy only worked voting in Philadelphia and Chicago. Myself, I would look at spending those billions on after-school educational childcare along with some sort of ongoing assistance so that the children of two-income households can have the help they need to get their homework done.

   As for the admissions standards argument, public colleges and universities will continue to admit below “the ideal” in order to satisfy pressure from legislators and the public while private for-profit institutions will do so in order to satisfy their shareholders.

   Ultimately, the public has made a policy decision on college access and we need to figure out how to implement the goal. Right now, we’re repairing the brakes after the car has already crashed.

   — JS    Jul 22, 03:59 PM    #

3. Well, Pied, just what is it that makes a sentence fragment a fragment? Can you explain it? There are actually lots of possibilities. The most common one is the lack of a finite verb. Can you tell me what a finite verb is? Can anyone else? Raise your hands. Don’t look at your book now. In fact, most high achieving students can’t tell you what makes a fragment a fragment, nor can most of the people who read the CHE.

   — Dave    Jul 22, 04:04 PM    #

4. Ah … accountability; that’s where we spend $5 for each $1 spent productively to make sure it’s being spent productively. I’m repeatedly amused by stories of ever bloating administrative bureaucracy, much of it to do with accountability. What never gets acknowledged is the time literally taken from classroom instruction for accountability (not just testing, test prep, and teacher training to do the testing, but other “great ideas” such as mandated assessment tools applied one-on-one to each kid in the class, and on and on). As near as I can tell, the more accountability we impose, the worse the outcome. I cannot believe a libertarian group thinks more accountability testing is a good idea.

   — CW    Jul 22, 04:29 PM    #

5. A sentence fragment is one in which there is either no subject ( eg. going away), or no verb (eg. a red coat) if either example is presented as a sentence and not a phrase. That’s not to say one cannot use these examples in a literary context. Example : I saw him. Going away. A Red Coat. With all the other soldiers.

   However, few remedial students read or write literature. Many remedial students do not use English as a first language, and/or think in complete sentences. Thus, they usually have incomplete thoughts as well. There’s the rub. How do we remediate thought patterns?

   — Muap Conners    Jul 22, 04:29 PM    #

6. Perhaps a concept that is fairly well-known on the East Coast (esp. Northeast) should be introduced to our friends in CA…that of a “postgraduate” year. A “PG” year will many times ‘bridge the gap’ between high school and college.

   Benefits include: improved writing skills; study skills; time management; independent living; improved academic self-confidence.

   Downfalls: A “PG” year is NOT cheap, so accessibility is an issue; many student’s pursue a “PG” year for athletic reasons…this option doesn’t help the non-athlete.

   Many PG’s will graduate from college in 4-years (I work at a all PG school and our records reflect this…I can’t speak for other schools which offer a PG but would assume similar results). In the long run, consider this a financial investment on the ‘front-end’ of a student’s education, rather than paying for 2-3 extra years of full tuition.

   Perhaps CA would like to subsidize (read: use some of the $3.9 billion) to off-set the cost for student’s thus improving accessibility (I know, I know…it’s a long shot).

   — Webb    Jul 22, 04:41 PM    #

7. Last I heard (should I have started this sentence with “The”? If so, why?) even linguists were having a devil of a time defining what a sentence is. Can we define a fragment of the whole without knowing what the whole consists of?

   Is this getting confusing? Imagine what composition teachers experience trying to explain these esoterisies to 19-year-olds.

   — Lee    Jul 22, 04:41 PM    #

8. I grew up in a family where correct English was spoken and written routinely. Because of this it was easy for my school teachers to teach me how to write. Let’s see… what might the important variable be these days???

   — Betty Stevens    Jul 22, 05:03 PM    #

9. California’s problem is and has been for a long time crappy K-12 education in many cities and towns. The only way to solve the remediation issue is to take whatever resources are used on it and put it toward better education for young children so that, one day, they will BE ready for college. The rock and hard place then is that this would harm 18-19-20 year olds who did not create the state that miseducated them in the primary grades. I remember when, as a young voter, I did not cast my ballot in favor of Proposition 13 because opponents pointed out that it would mean the end of bands and sports teams at our high schools. Wrong… people donate for extracurriculars or pay-to-play. They seldom donate to basic education. Here’s hoping some of those pro-Prop. 13 folks from 30 years back are rolling over in their graves at what their state has become.

   — Dave    Jul 22, 05:15 PM    #

10. Before we worry about the definition of sentence fragments, let us ensure that the students can frame an idea verbally. Do they know why people write and what the various purposes are. Do they understand introducing an idea or defining a problem. Remediation is about so much more than grammer.

    — lef    Jul 22, 05:18 PM    #

11. Here’s a novel idea: Colleges should not be in the business of preparing college students for college. That’s what high schools are for. Students who are unprepared for college shouldn’t be in college. Fix the problem where it exists – in the high schools!

    — Carl    Jul 22, 05:19 PM    #

12. It’s nice to say that we should do more in high school or elementary school or whatever part of the educational process feels like it needs more money, but the reality is that students won’t improve unless an authority figure in the home makes them turn off the TV, log off of Facebook, stop IM’ing friends, and do their damn homework. I would take an ounce of that over a pound of any other solution.

    — J. Ward    Jul 22, 06:00 PM    #

13. California’s problem starts with schools bloated by as many as 80% illegal immigrants.
    Resources go to second language (oddly just one), food, medical care and laundry.

    I had substituted in a class where there were two English speaking students out of 35. Spanish was prominent, complimented by Korean, Mandarin and couple of other dialects.

    That day we had learned how to say book, pen, pencil, cat and butterfly- we needed those for our lesson.

    I mimed the actions- write, paint,etc.

    Better results?Take Spanish out of communication. All communication: schools, social services, driver’s license, medical care, everything.

    Illegal immigrants need to be able to communicate, if they cannot, they will either learn the language, or not come to California.

    — lii    Jul 22, 06:29 PM    #

14. Here’s my sentence fragment: “And the University of California is thinking of ditching the SAT II?”

    — Bruce    Jul 22, 10:06 PM    #

15. The cost of remediation is going to be measured in the amount of decline endured by the USA. It’s going to be worth far more than $3-$13 billion. Unless we agree on English as our fundamental language and use it as part of a common culture, there is no way that non-English speaking persons will likely ever get to the point of understanding the basics of this language and the related aspects of thinking and communicating effectively.

    Like ain’t that gonna be tuff 2 do in dis country da weigh its goin?

    — Bob S.    Jul 22, 10:12 PM    #

16. Carl (#11) came closest to hitting the nail on the head – students who are unprepared for college shouldn’t be in college. Add to that the kids who may be prepared for college but who would probably benefit more from (and/or enjoy more) vocational training, and there are a lot of kids who aren’t receiving much value from their college education and who are siphoning value from the overall educational efforts.

    — Allison    Jul 23, 07:33 AM    #

17. #3, I think my point was that my university had admitted people whose cognitive skills were far too weak for college success (BTW, they also could not identify subjects and verbs when asked to circle them, tell me what country Shakespeare was from, or locate England on a map). And as someone who has taught many high achieving students, I promise that every single one can explain a fragment.

    — PiedPiper    Jul 23, 07:46 AM    #

18. The Pied Piper must be proud. He is able to teach the most prepared and committed students how to define a sentence fragment.

    Regardless of who is responsible, we need persons who can teach poorly prepared students. They will either cost resources to remediate or resources to support on welfare. Research indicates that there is a subgroup of college level language professors who have discovered strategies to motivate and teach unprepared students. This is a task requiring different approachs than traditional concerns about sentence fragments characterized by our old fashioned grammerians. However it is a task best addressed by those immersed in the study of language learning and open access student success. These are the faculty who are demonstrating the most cutting edge and socially important freshman English teaching/learning skills.

    — lef    Jul 23, 12:30 PM    #

19. #18, I do not know if you teach English or not, so forgive me if I am preaching to the choir. For those who do not teach English to ill-prepared students, it is easy to assume that this population needs the “cutting edge,” “socially important” techniques that you mention. I have taught for many years and know from experience that students must walk before they can run…that is learn the building blocks of language before they can become competent in it. You will no doubt encounter young teachers who embrace the “flavor of the week, feel-good, be one with the text, hokus-pokus” approaches, but guess what? These approaches simply DO NOT WORK! Old-fashioned or not, the tried and true methods still work the best, assuming that any method will work. Many of these students are so far behind that NO method will work, regardless of how proven or “cutting edge.” And when you can define “socially important freshman English,” let me know. I can add that bologna to my Fall syllabus.

    — PiedPiper    Jul 23, 01:01 PM    #

20. To the authors of posts 8 & 13:

    Like me, I suspect that you are also descendants of immigrants, but I know that empathy is a difficult skill to master for some among us. I find your use of anecdotal evidence to bolster your biased positions quite offensive. I happen to teach a masters level course in a highly ranked program at a tier 1 research university and my anecdotal evidence significantly conflicts with yours (which is why I teach my students to stop relying on anecdotal evidence to support their claims). My classroom is notably absent of first-generation immigrant students. There are of course quite a number of international students (all from the same few countries located on the same continent), but the international students are not my “problem” students. My “problem” students all grew up speaking English as the only language in their homes, received all their schooling in the United States (just like me), and yet the writing skills of several are below those of my own son when he was in the 8th grade. In addition, they not only resist efforts to improve their communication skills, they consider correction of their errors (logical errors as well as grammatical ones) on their papers to be “rude.” They further resist reading as a required part of the curriculum. Having to review three journal articles for a four hour class is “too much work.” I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point.

    — Proud to be a descendant of immigrants    Jul 23, 04:26 PM    #

21. Post #12 by J. Ward has summarized well. I, too, would take an ounce of parental involvement over a pound of remediation in the schools—at any level. What happened to basic PARENTING, for heaven’s sake?

    It’s also apparent, at least to me, that kids who can’t read and write well shouldn’t be admitted to college until they’ve learned those skills. Elementary and secondary schools are supposed to be in the business of getting students to that point. If they’re failing, then I think it’s incumbent on the student and his/her family to pick up the slack, not on the taxpayer.

    — L Wood    Jul 24, 09:43 AM    #

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