Toughening Up on Admissions

By Ellie McGrath

State universities try to cut the high cost of failure

The board of admissions for California's vast public university system has sent a warning letter to the parents of all the eighth-grade students in the state: "Your son or daughter," it declares, "should be expected to enroll in an English class every semester of every year and most students should be taking a math class every semester." U.C. Administrator Henry Alder stresses that low performance in high school could prove hazardous to college aspirations. Reason: by the fall of 1984 the state's 19 colleges and nine universities plan to toughen entrance requirements. The most dramatic new demands will occur at the state college level, where admissions will require 15 units of college-track subjects, including four years of college preparatory English and two years of math.

California is not the only state system toughening up its entrance requirements. Next fall Florida State University will demand that freshmen graduate from high school with a 2.5 grade-point average (as compared with 2.0 now) and score a total of 950 (compared with 800) on the combined math and English Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Ohio State University, which since 1902 has guaranteed entrance to any Ohio high school graduate, will now accept unconditionally only students who have completed a college-preparatory curriculum that includes four years of English and three of math, science and social studies, plus a foreign language. Both the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas at Austin, where the number of students is rapidly outstripping resources, are planning to reduce the student body by tightening admissions requirements.

All over the country the high cost of higher education and the current reduction in state and federal aid are forcing public university systems to rethink an egalitarian admissions philosophy. For more than a decade, open admissions attracted many talented people who might never have had the chance for a college education. But it also saddled many schools with students woefully unprepared to do college work. The cost of remedial education has skyrocketed. Says Leon Mayhew, vice chancellor for the University of California at Davis: "There are costs in the generic sense of money spent. The other cost is in the misdirection of talents in teaching." While some remedial programs hire specially trained teachers, many untenured--and frustrated--Ph.D.s find themselves teaching basic reading and Algebra I rather than literature or calculus. Adds California State University Chancellor Glenn Dumke: "Either the state university will direct its energy to the full meaning of 'higher education' or its campuses will continue being made into centers of remediation."

The problem is epidemic. A study done at the University of California found that between 1977 and 1980 only half of 50,000 students could demonstrate reading and writing skills necessary for college-level courses. At Kent State University, 25% of entering freshman classes left school after two years of below-average work. In Georgia's 33 institutions of higher education, more than $6 million was spent this year on "developmental studies," the pedagogical euphemism for remedial training. At Ohio State University, 42% of this fall's entering freshmen were required to take at least one remedial course in English or math. Ohio's total remediation tab last year: between $10 million and $12 million. Says Elaine Hairston, director of special programs for the Ohio Board of Regents: "Students who need remedial work need specific help. To be done right it requires one-to-one tutoring and low-student-ratio labs."

Surprisingly enough, few detailed studies exist about the actual cost of remediation and how effective it is. Horizons Unlimited, a special program at Florida State University, now screens and trains about 200 underprepared students. Director Earl Gordon has no exact count but as evidence of the program's success can point to graduates who have become doctors, businessmen and lawyers. At the 170,000-student City University of New York, well known for its mission to educate all comers, there are no plans to cut back open admissions, even though remediation costs $33 million annually. All incoming freshmen must take an achievement test in reading ability and a specially developed freshman assessment test to determine placement, not admission. Half of C.U.N.Y.'S students require special help, and remedial courses are not for credit. Says Marie Jean Lederman, a former English professor who now directs the freshman skills assessment program: "It would be a great shame, given the inequality of our educational system, not to at least give these students one more chance. To say that we can eliminate the problem by eliminating the people is overly simplistic."

California, Ohio and Florida clearly are planning to turn down some of the worst-prepared students and at the same time trying to encourage the learning of basic skills at a less costly level. Some state colleges in Ohio are considering imposing an extra charge for remedial instruction. In many states students are now urged to prepare at community colleges for more advanced work later on. Most of the problem, however, lies with past teen-age attitudes toward learning and a decade-long decline in high school standards. Wayne Brown of the Tennessee higher education commission believes that the $1 million spent in his state on college remediation should be recycled into high school programs. Says Brown: "Remedial courses sap the energy of the college and university faculty. We must say to the high schools that it really does matter how well the student learns math and English."

--By Ellie McGrath. Reported by Joyce Leviton/Atlanta and Dick Thompson/San Francisco

With reporting by Joyce Leviton, Dick Thompson

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