One guy claimed that he had seen an article that claimed that 20% of incoming college freshmen need remedial classes. Several people disputed his claim and asked for documentation. He only remembered that he had seen this statistic in a Boston Globe article. From: GP100SS To: IvoteGOP@aol.com Subject: "Remedial" classes in college Date sent: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 23:33:27 EST Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) During the '96-'97 school year, I was in an e-mail discussion group that often fought over education. One guy claimed that he had seen an article that claimed that 20% of incoming college freshmen need remedial classes. Several people disputed his claim and asked for documentation. He only remembered that he had seen this statistic in a Boston Globe article. An article in my college newspaper mentioned the topic, and I uncovered a few facts with a few phone calls. My findings roughly supported his assertion, so I wrote this to help him. I am sending the post that I made to my group at that time. I tried to report the facts first and then make comments. I hope that no one is offended at my sense of humor. I am a 34 year old engineer who has returned to school to get a second master's in a different field of engineering. I have had to take a number of junior and senior level courses and have met many students who are recent products of public education. In spite of the weaknesses (real and imagined) of modern public education, these are intelligent, hard-working, young people who know their material. Bill __________________________ Last Friday’s “The Oracle,” Tennessee Tech’s college newspaper, contained an article with this paragraph: “At 33.9 percent for freshmen who enrolled in remedial or developmental classes, Tech had the lowest of the TBR schools the report stated. Remedial and developmental classes provide students with basic skills in reading, mathematics, and writing.” The TBR is the Tennessee Board of Reagents, and the TBR schools include Tennessee Tech, Middle Tennessee State University, Austin Peay State University, Memphis State University, East Tennessee State University, and all community college and technology centers in Tennessee. These are not necessarily prestigious schools, but they provide a solid education in many areas. While Tennessee Tech is not well known outside Tennessee, our engineering graduates compete on equal terms with graduates of any other schools in Tennessee. The general subject of the article was that Tennessee Tech had the highest percentage of graduating engineers in the state passing last spring’s EIT exam. Tennessee Tech also had the highest number of students taking the exam. The article also mentioned similar accomplishments of Tech students taking the Nursing Licensing Exams. My first thought on reading the paragraph was “What is a developmental class?” I called the young lady who wrote the article, and she did not know. She was simply reporting a number given in a report that she used to write the article. After another call and a transfer or two, I spoke with Stephen Coble, Director of the Academic Development Program. He provided some interesting details. Remedial and developmental classes are similar in that both try to compensate for a student’s not being completely prepared for college work. Originally, remedial classes were classes that tried to re-teach material that the student failed to learn during a previous exposure. Developmental classes were intended to teach material to which the student had never been exposed. These terms have changed, and remedial classes teach material that is considered at or below ninth grade level. Developmental classes teach material from grades ten through twelve. He gave examples of both remedial and developmental subjects. Remedial writing covers sentence and paragraph structure. Developmental writing covers writing themes. Remedial math originally covered basic computation when introduced eleven or twelve years ago but has changed to resemble pre-algebra. Developmental Math 1 is high school Algebra 1 compressed into a semester. Developmental Math 2 is high school Algebra 2 compressed into a semester. He gave me the impression that they do not teach reading. These courses do not count towards college degrees. He added a few more statistics about the students taking these classes. About 70% take classes in only one remedial or developmental area. He said that those taking writing are typically the students who sat in the back of English 101 and failed once or twice. He said that many non-traditional students take these courses as review after having been away for some time. Forty percent is a very rough estimate of the number of students in this group, and the forty percent includes any non-traditional student starting as a freshman over the age of 21. My opinion of all of this: The short answer to my original question seems to be that there is little difference between remedial and developmental classes. The idea that developmental classes cover new material seems silly. Unless an incoming freshman was raised by wolves,* I can’t imagine him/her not having taken algebra or writing. Both remedial and developmental classes are trying to give the student an education that he/she should have received in high school. The rough estimate that 40% of those taking these classes have been away from school is somewhat more encouraging. A high school graduate who takes a job that doesn’t require algebra could justifiably have difficulty doing math for the first time in several years. Their taking courses that review Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 does not reflect poorly on the education given by our high schools. Excluding these non-traditional students, roughly twenty percent of high school seniors need remedial/developmental classes. The change in remedial math classes from teaching basic computational skills to teaching pre-algebra could have two interpretations. One interpretation is that fewer students now need instruction in basic computation skills. Another interpretation is that four dollar calculators are more abundant than they were eleven years ago. Mostly, this entire post is a long-winded way of offering supporting evidence for Knight’s assertion that 20% of graduating high school students need remedial education to prepare themselves for college. Bill * Liberal elements within the university believe that in order to maintain the self-esteem of freshmen raised by wolves, developmental programs for these students should recognize their unique ethnic background. Howlbonics has been successful in raising students verbal abilities (especially when the moon is full), but its application to writing skills has been difficult since the students’ traditional written language has consisted entirely of urinating against trees.