For a third consecutive year, the percentage of North Carolina high-school graduates enrolling in at least one community college remedial course increased, the John Locke Foundation’s top education expert has found.
Sixty-five percent of 2011 high-school graduates entering a community college in the fall of 2011 took a remedial course in English, math, or reading, an increase from 64 percent of incoming high school graduates enrolling in community college the previous school year.
Terry Stoops, JLF director of education studies, says the numbers suggest school graduation standards remain “alarmingly low.”
State education officials have touted a recent increase in the state’s high-school graduation rate — from 68.3 percent in 2006 to a revised 77.9 percent in 2011. When graduation rates for the 2010-11 school year were released in August, State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison said, 77.9 percent “is not where we want to be but it certainly is cause to pause and celebrate.”
Stoops urged caution. “On the surface, North Carolina’s increasing graduation rate appears to signal a systematic improvement in our public schools,” Stoops said. “But quantity is not the same as quality. As public school districts have continued to increase their graduation rate, they have done so at the expense of providing graduates with basic literacy and math skills.”
In a JLF Spotlight report published in September 2011, Stoops examined increases in both public school graduation rates from 2007 to 2009 and enrollment in state community college remedial courses in the following school years. “The state’s four-year graduation rate grew by 2.3 percent during that time period, from 69.5 percent to 71.8 percent,” Stoops said. “At the same time, enrollment in community college remedial classes — also known as ‘Developmental’ classes — increased by an even faster rate.”
By 2009-10, more than one-half of students newly enrolled in a North Carolina community college took a remedial math course, while nearly 40 percent enrolled in a remedial English course. “In sum, 64 percent of new community college students enrolled in one or more remedial courses, a 7 percent increase from the 2007-08 school year.”
These data should raise red flags, Stoops said. “If more newly enrolled community college students are taking these remedial classes, this shows an increasing number of graduates from North Carolina public schools lack the basic skills needed to enroll in entry-level college courses,” he said. “Significant increases in English and mathematics remediation suggest that the standards for high school graduation remain alarmingly low. Low standards help provide marginal students an easier path to graduation, thereby increasing North Carolina’s graduation rate.”
Stoops intentionally limited his study to community college remedial courses. Students enrolled in one or more remedial courses at a community college account for about 20 percent of all high school graduates in North Carolina, Stoops said.
“I think few would object to communities colleges providing remedial education and services to adults who have spent years away from school,” Stoops said. “However, that population is not part of this discussion. These statistics represent those who graduated from high school the summer before they enrolled in a community college. It is unconscionable that our community colleges must spend millions of dollars on remedial courses for those who have just graduated from high school.”
Links between graduation and remedial work deserve much more scrutiny, Stoops said. “Remediation and graduation data are limited, and this study provides an overview of a complex issue,” he said. “Researchers should conduct much more comprehensive studies using multiple, multiyear student performance metrics.”
The percentage of incoming high-school graduates taking remedial courses at community colleges has risen as follows: 57 percent in 2007-08; 60 percent in 2008-09; 64 percent in 2009-10; and 65 percent in 2010-11.
Stoops added that even though legislative Republicans have taken heavy criticism for education spending authorized in the two-year budget passed in June 2011, Democrats controlled the legislature over the four-year span represented in the remediation data. Data for the 2011-12 school year will be available in several months, he said.