California Panel endorses bill aimed at reducing number of college students in remedial classes

Larry Gordon:

Reformers have scored legislative progress in their efforts to enroll many more California community college students in credit-bearing courses instead of remedial classes, with placements based on high school grades rather than just placement exams.

Critics decry remedial classes as dead ends that often lead to students dropping out. Students too often feel trapped in remedial courses even though they might have done well if they were admitted directly into credit classes that count toward their diplomas, according to researchers.

One thought on “California Panel endorses bill aimed at reducing number of college students in remedial classes”

  1. I am continually amazed at the relatively poor performance of USA math students relative to the East Asian countries of Korea, Japan, Singapore, etc.
    While legislators discuss how to change various aspects of college to deal with apparent inadequacies a couple of things are clear:
    (1) There is little if any real interest in analyzing Singapore’s instructional approach. TIMSS 2015 grade 8 USA 518 Singapore 621 gap 103 pts.
    (2) Basing grade level promotion on skill acquired not going to happen. [Florida’s requirement to read well to enter grade 4 is a remarkable exception.]

    It is well past time that the National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) figured out that 60 years of trying to create better results their way has been remarkably inefficient. Today NCTM still pushes that Understanding should precede Procedural Fluency…. yet the high performing nations believe conceptual understanding arises from Procedural Fluency. In short knowing how to accurately add and subtract is a skill that will make it easier to understand what addition is all about.

    While East Asia leaves us in their mathematical dust the NCTM plods along pushing a failed ideology.
    8th grade TIMSS math results with percent of students able to achieve benchmarks
    country — advanced — high — intermediate — low
    Korea ——-43% — 75% — 93% — 99%
    Singapore– 54% — 81% — 94% — 99%
    Japan —– 34% — 67% — 89% — 98%
    USA ——– 10% — 37% — 70% — 91%

    Instead of figuring out how to cut corners, we should learn from others how to improve instruction. Tell me about the Common Core, the big emphasis on (STEM) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math careers after you explain the difference between Advanced 54% and 10%.

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