Small Minnesota schools have lowest percent needing remediation in public colleges/universities

By Joe Nathan, January guest blogger

Here's something little noted when an important state report was released last year. The report dealt with the number of Minnesota public high school graduates who need to take a remedial (aka "developmental" ) course in reading, writing or math at a Minnesota public college or university. 

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, needed remedial courses in reading, writing or math. Statewide, it was 38% of Minnesota high school graduates who attended our public 2-4 year universities, a total of 10,834 students.  The trend is for more, rather than fewer graduates to take remedial courses.

Which high schools have the smallest percentage of their graduates taking remedial courses at Minnesota's public colleges and universities?  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.

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.

When I wrote about this last year, a couple of college students contacted me.  "Yes," they agreed, it is important for many high school students to take more challenging courses.  "But, it's also important for high school teachers to encourage students in those challenging courses. Sometimes faculty teaching the most challenging courses encourage students to drop out of them, when they really are capable of doing the work."

That's where learning from some of the state's smallest and most successful high schools comes in.  When our staff interviewed them a couple of years ago, we heard over and over that these successful small schools:

• Do not offer a large number of courses in key academic subjects.  They encourage virtually all students to take challenging, college prep courses.
• Have developed strong options for those not interested in attending 4 year institutions, that help lead to good jobs in applied fields like printing, electricity, construction, car or computer repair, etc.
• Often have partnered with 2 and 4 year institutions to offer courses described immediately above
• Work with families and community groups so there are clear, strong consistent messages including, "continuing your education is valuable, doing well in academics is important, and we believe in you!"
• Deep belief from faculty that most students should continue their education beyond high school, whether in a two or four year institution.

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.”

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 study done by the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State College and University system (MnSCU). 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 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.

The report is published every few years, and has valuable information.  But it would be even more helpful if data from Minnesota's private colleges and universities were included. Is this possible?  Could Minnesota's Private College Council work with the University of Minnesota and MnSCU, to help make even more comprehensive information available?

Comments

[Nate]

Joe,
Great issue to dig into on remediation. As the VP of Research and Policy Development for the Council, I've pondered your question about looking for similar data from privates, and it doesn't appear to be worthwhile, given there's an apples-oranges issue. (Privates generally structure support for students who are challenged by the main courses, rather than setting up separate non-credit courses that need to be completed. Also, given that first-time, full-time students at our colleges have the highest on-time graduation rate in the state, graduating in four-years at twice the frequency of similar students attending the U of M system, this is a different kind of issue for us than the publics.) That certainly isn't to say that there couldn't be meaningful collaboration around the core issues of how we all contribute to helping more high schools graduate more students who are prepared to do college-level work.

[Joe Nathan]

Nate, thanks for your note. I've looked at Minnesota Milestones, by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, to determine 4 and 6 year graduation rates of private, as well as public colleges and universities.

www.ohe.state.mn.us/mPg.cfm?pageID=1733

Both groups,in many cases frankly, have a long way to go. Only 3 of Minnesota's 36 4 year institutions have a graduation rate of 80% or more - after 6 (right SIX) years.

As you suggest, private colleges have a higher graduation rate than public 4 year institutions. But here are graduation rates after 6 years at some of the private colleges: 51.8% (Augsburg), 23.4% Bethany Lutheran, 69.7%, Bethel, 92.8% Carleton, 79.6% College of St. Benedict, 56.9% College of St Catherine, etc.

So far too many students are not graduating from private colleges, as well as public colleges.

A conference we recently held (and which I will write about in the next week) suggested that colleges and universities need to change the way they operate.

Asking and assisting high schools to do a better job isn't enough.

Bottom line is that I think we need to get more data about how many youngsters enter private, as well as public colleges, without college level skills.

I don't know how many private colleges offer "remedial" courses - but some research on the number of students entering private colleges without college level skills in reading, writing and math seems warranted.

Joe Nathan