More than a quarter of Indiana high school graduates enter state universities or community colleges unprepared for higher learning, needing at least one remedial course on material they should have learned in high school, according to a new report.
In Allen County, high schools like Canterbury and Bishop Dwenger are producing few graduates who need remedial work while Harding, North Side, Elmhurst and Wayne are at the opposite end of the spectrum.
The data, collected by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, show how many 2007 graduates from each high school in Indiana went on to a two- or four-year college and how many of those needed at least one remedial course.
The findings were issued to each Indiana high school this year for the first time so school officials could see how their schools were doing. The commission plans to release similar reports on a regular basis.
“This is not about pointing fingers or assigning blame between our K-12 and higher-education communities,” Teresa Lubbers, the Indiana commissioner of higher education, said about the data. “This is an opportunity to acknowledge the extent of the challenge in each community and to begin taking steps together to address it.”
Of Fort Wayne Community Schools’ six high schools, Snider had the best results, with 35 percent of its 2007 graduates who attended state colleges needing at least one remedial course in math or language or both, according to the report.
“It does show something we’ve known for a long time, that what we were doing in the high schools was not everything we needed to do,” said Fort Wayne Community Schools spokeswoman Krista Stockman, who noted that district officials were still reviewing the information after receiving it Wednesday.
Ryan Meriwether, a freshman at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, said his four years at Snider thoroughly prepared him academically for college.
In place at the time was a reading program that tried to help those needing remedial work early, he said. Plus, teachers were attentive and always willing to meet with students after class.
“It wasn’t like some other big schools,” Meriwether said. “The teachers were there for you when you needed them.”
The district is overhauling several of its high schools. Administrators were shuffled to different buildings or demoted this year in the state’s failed bid to get federal funds as part of President Obama’s Race to the Top program.
District officials said the changes were necessary in any case. Also, the district is considering closing Elmhurst to help reduce a $15 million budget deficit. Of Elmhurst’s 2007 graduates, 62 percent needed both remedial math and language courses in college.
Officials with East Allen County Schools did not respond to requests for an interview or comment on the study as of Friday afternoon.
In that district, 25 percent of the graduates from Leo needed some remedial work in college, the best percentage of the district’s five high schools.
At Harding, also part of East Allen, 76 percent of its graduates needed remedial coursework in college, the highest percentage in Allen County.
Also in Allen County, graduates from schools with less poverty were less likely to need remedial work once they got to college.
A common indicator of poverty in schools is how many students receive free or reduced-price lunches.
At Harding, North Side and Elmhurst – the three schools with the highest percentage of students needing remedial work – 63 percent to 67 percent of the students receive free or reduced-price lunches.
At Bishop Dwenger and Carroll, 8 percent to 11 percent of the students receive such lunches.
While remedial coursework takes its toll on the students – such courses usually don’t count for college credit, and studies show such students are less likely to graduate – it also puts a strain on the taxpayer, according to a Washington, D.C., advocacy group.
“Certainly, remediation is a huge problem around the country,” said Jason Amos, a spokesman for the Alliance for Excellent Education.
A 2006 study by the alliance showed that about $1.4 billion a year is spent on remedial education by taxpayers and students, Amos said.
The same study calculated that $2.3 billion more is lost by students dropping out of college because they weren’t prepared.
If Indiana didn’t have to provide remedial education, Amos said, about $18 million would be saved annually.
“When high school graduates require remediation, they lose a year and taxpayers are paying twice for the same education,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia.
