2019 Ohio Remediation Report – ODHE/ODE= Remedial courses that are designed to help academically underprepared students get ready for college-level work are known to be a barrier, as students pay for remedial credits but the credits do not count toward graduation, reducing the likelihood that students complete a certificate or degree. In 2012, the Chancellor convened an Ohio Completion Task Force to create a specific action plan to help close gaps in college completion rates, ensure access and quality, and evaluate completion strategies that have documented success
Fewer Ohio college students need remedial classes, but lower-income students still lagBy Jennifer Smola
The Columbus Dispatch
Posted at 5:15 AM
Though the percentage of 2018 Ohio high school graduates attending state public colleges who need remediation in math or English has declined, remediation rates among low- and moderate- income students remain much higher than the state average. Local educators and administrators say it’s up to both K-12 schools and higher education institutions to support students.
The number of Ohio high school graduates needing remedial coursework at state public colleges and universities continued to decline in 2018, but newly released data shows low- and moderate-income students needed remedial courses at a much higher rate.
Statewide, about 27% of Ohio graduates who enrolled in public higher education institutions in fall 2018 needed remediation in either math or English. That’s down from about 30% for students who enrolled in fall 2014.
Remediation rates among low- and moderate-income students are decreasing, too, but they still remained much higher than the state average. Nearly 39% of Ohio high school graduates who qualify for federal Pell grants needed remediation in either math or English in 2018, according to the
2019
Ohio Remediation Report
.
College readiness and income are closely tied, said Hunter Boyland, recently retired director of the
National Center for Developmental Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
?(Remediation rates are) a good measure of inequity among school systems and districts,” he said. “The poorer you are, the less prepared to go to college you are.”
In Franklin County districts, about 32% of graduates needed some type of remediation.
Ten Franklin County districts had remediation rates that topped 40%, including Columbus City Schools (49%) and Whitehall City Schools (61%).
State remediation rates don’t necessarily paint a full picture of college readiness in a district, as they track only graduates who attend public higher education institutions in Ohio.
The state numbers were down sharply from 2012, when state efforts around college completion included addressing remediation rates. At that time, around 40% of Ohio high school graduates took at least one remediation course. Then, in 2014, Ohio implemented statewide remediation-free standards, establishing uniform rules that all public colleges now use to decide who needs remediation. The result was a quick 5% decrease in the Ohio remediation rate in one year.
Though Columbus school district remediation rates remained above the state average in 2018, the number of students needing remedial math or English in 2018 was down from 2014, when more than 1 in 6 graduates needed remediation.
“As the state graduation requirements and state assessments have changed over the years, we have remained focused on preparing our students for college and career readiness,” district spokesman Scott Wortman said in an emailed statement. He noted that the district plans to implement a comprehensive plan this year to increase students’ development and proficiency in math and reading.
Graduates from the
now-defunct Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, Ohio’s first online charter school, had a remediation rate at about 60% in 2018. The highest remediation rate for a Franklin County district or charter school network was for graduates of Zenith Academy, where 7 in 10 graduates needed a remedial course. Zenith Academy is a group of four charter schools throughout Columbus serving high-risk students.
But leaders at Zenith High School, which serves students with limited English proficiency, say they are still making progress with their students. Many of the students at the Southeast Side school are refugees from Somalia with no prior schooling, they said.
“They’re faced with a big dilemma of not only the language barrier, but socialization skills, organizational skills,” said Principal Rick Penrod. ”... We’re proud of what we’ve done and where we’ve come from and the distance that we’ve traveled with these students.”
Zenith has a broad range of students and programs to support them, said Assistant Principal Macarena Guerrero, and some students go on to college and do well. But, she said, working to close academic gaps should not solely be the work of K-12 schools.
When it comes to remediation, Boyland stressed how important it is that institutions address income disparity, ethnically diverse student populations and first-generation students.
“We need to be teaching our students and our faculty and staff and administrators to be more inclusive types of institutions, and be more welcoming of all students,” he said.
Columbus State Community College has worked to put in place programs that aim to meet students where they are or help bridge the gap. Efforts include co-requisite courses that allow students to take the college-level course but get extra remediation support as they go; an
online college prep math program for students from partner school districts; and a free, two-week
college prep program for incoming freshmen.
“I think it’s much more nuanced than simply that (students are) not college ready,” said Lauren Jones, director of College Credit Plus curriculum at Columbus State.
“Every student is college capable; it’s just a matter of digging out what supports they need to get up to that level,” she said.
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