Bridging the Gap

It is a stark, indisputable fact that many of America’s high
school graduates are not ready for the rigors of college.  While the
nation’s secondary schools bear much of the responsibility, colleges and
universities have done a poor job of communicating the skills expected of
incoming freshmen and an even worse job of providing effective remediation and
extended support services to ensure that underprepared students eventually
graduate. Only 30 percent of students who take remedial reading courses go on
to obtain a postsecondary degree or certificate within eight years. 
Ultimately, the low college readiness rate is a massive failure of the entire
pre-kindergarten through college (Pk-16) system – a dysfunctional academic pipeline
with weak standards and misaligned policies.

On Thursday, January 29, New America’s Federal Education Budget Project
released Bridging the Gap: How to Strengthen the Pk-16 Pipeline to
Improve College Readiness, a paper on
college readiness and remediation. The program featured a panel discussion on
the college remediation crisis.

Education Policy Program Director MaryEllen McGuire gave a brief description of
the college remediation crisis facing our students, and summed up the recommendations laid out in the report.

• Improving the Pk-16 pipeline.
• Financing and restructuring programs that improve college
  readiness.
• Strengthening college remediation.

Additionally, she introduced a short video
discussing America’s
college readiness crisis.   Next, Michael Wotorson, talked about the
economic impact of the increasing high school drop out rate and what can be
done to not only keep kids in school, but also get them ready for
college.  Mervin A. Jenkins then described AVID’s efforts to help
underachieving middle school and high school students prepare for and graduate
from college through in-school programs.  Lastly, Robert G. Templin, Jr.,
President of the Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) discussed how Northern Virginia community colleges partner with local
high schools to offer remediation courses and help students enrolled in these
courses to eventually graduate.

— Event summary by Emilie Deans, Program Associate, Education Policy Program, New America Foundation

Participants

Featured Speakers

MaryEllen McGuire
Director, Education Policy Program
New America Foundation

Michael Wotorson
Director
Campaign for High School Equity

Mervin A. Jenkins
Assistant Director
AVID Eastern Division

Robert G. Templin, Jr.
President
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA)