Eager but unprepared: huge numbers of students in need of remedial work
Sep 9th, 2006 by jeffmcneill
NYTimes article from September 2, 2006
Nearly half the 14.7 million undergraduates at two- and four-year institutions never receive degrees.
Nearly half of all students seeking degrees begin their journeys at community colleges.
Most of the students expect the transition to community college to be seamless. But the first, and sometimes last, stop for many are remedial math classes.
“It’s the math that’s killing us,’’ Dr. McKusik said.
The sheer numbers of enrollees like Mr. Walton who have to take make-up math is overwhelming, with 8,000 last year among the nearly 30,000 degree-seeking students systemwide. Not all those students come directly from high school. Many have taken off a few years and may have forgotten what they learned, Dr. McKusik said.
More than one in four remedial students work on elementary and middle school arithmetic. Math is where students often lose confidence and give up.
“It brings up a lot of emotional stuff for them,’’ Dr. McKusik said.
She told of 20 students who had just burst into tears on receiving their math entrance exam scores and walked out on college. Mr. Walton remembers a fellow student who failed to hand in a math assignment for the fourth time in the last week of class and learned that he would fail. The student lunged toward the professor and said, “I’ll kill you.”
“You can say whatever you want, but this really isn’t helping your grade,” the professor replied, Mr. Walton said.
The student stormed out the door with a final expletive, leaving the professor shaken.
