Most first-year community college students need remedial math and English, data show

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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Nearly two-thirds of recent high school graduates who enroll at the area’s community colleges need remedial classes to fill gaps in basic English, reading and math, according to data collected from local institutions.

And local students lag behind their national counterparts. National estimates show about 60 percent of 18- and 19-year-old community college students need remedial classes. Numbers at many institutions have risen slightly in recent years due in part to growing numbers of students not fluent in English, as well as what many experts see as a nationwide decline in math-preparedness.

Northern Virginia’s multicampus system, with nearly 10,000 enrollees, keeps pace with the national average, but across the Potomac River, rates soar to 83 percent in need of remediation at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, and to 66 percent at the three Montgomery College campuses.

“It’s almost a national tragedy to have this many students coming out of high school not prepared for college,” said George Boggs, president and chief executive officer of D.C.-based American Association of Community Colleges.

At the same time, Boggs defends the need for the courses at the open-admission institutions. When he started working for community colleges in 1968, he said, students were “allowed to fail.”

“In today’s economy, that doesn’t work,” Boggs said. “Maybe in the past you could get a blue-collar job [without a degree] and make a decent living and support a family, but today that’s not possible,” a thought echoed by college officials in Maryland and Virginia.

Because the institutions are subsidized by state and local dollars, pressure begins at the elementary school level to ensure taxpayer money isn’t going toward teaching students the same material twice. The discussion fed into Maryland’s call for requiring tests for graduation, to begin next year, as well as to a growing number of partnerships between secondary and postsecondary campuses.

A Virginia program that sends community college employees into high schools to mentor students — especially first-generation college-goers — has grown over several years from 11 mentors in 13 schools to 100 mentors in 130 schools.

An initiative announced last week will provide up to 600 Arlington juniors and seniors the opportunity to graduate with a community college certificate in one of five career and technology fields.

“No one here gets a paycheck to sit around and reminisce” about times when postsecondary education wasn’t an economic imperative, said Monty Sullivan, a vice chancellor in Virginia’s system. “We’re looking forward and trying to understand what individual employers and communities need.”

lfabel@dcexaminer.com

SEE THE LATEST ON THIS STORY

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93 days ago: Harsh economy pushes more students to less expensive community colleges

96 days ago: D.C. needs true community college, report argues

96 days ago: Remedial courses show ‘it’s never too late’

» 96 days ago: Most first-year community college students need remedial math and English, data show «

316 days ago: More students are gaining benefits from taking noncredit courses at local community colleges