Many schools have already implemented new placement models for deciding what classes students will take. For example, Davidson County, North Carolina has begun taking, “high school transcripts, college placement exams and whether students have earned previous college credit”, (Smith) into account when deciding where to place students. As well as, according to Jay Mathews article, Are remedial courses actually hurting community college students? Published in the Washington Post, Montgomery College in Maryland has begun giving more weight to high school grades to decide which students should require remediation. Other states and schools have taken different approaches with hopes of finding a better way to assess students. “For instance,
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While Holloway has been a fortunate addition to the Lawson State community, many colleges do not have full time professors teaching their developmental courses. Instead, they rely on part time professors referred to as adjunct professors. These teachers do often have not obtained their master’s degree in order to be eligible for a full time teaching position. Therefore, they often lack the experience as well as the needed training to be able to offer the support required for developmental courses. Meredith Kolodner points out in her Hechinger Report article, In college remedial classes, unprepared students get the least-trained teachers that, “three-quarters of the instructors who teach remedial classes are part-time. They may work at more than one college, they are less likely to have office hours (or offices) and they are not required to have any teaching experience at all, only a bachelor’s degree”. Kolodner speaks about how California public college campuses have restructured their remedial classes by offering extensive training for their professors. Likewise, LaGuardia Community College, located in New York City decided to put programs in place that would develop their professors teaching ability and that they have seen pass rates and retention improve substantially (Kolodner). Having the right people in place to offer students the kind of assistance that they …show more content…
By being willing to look at a comprehensive view of students’ academic careers instead of one, four hour test colleges will be able to greatly decrease the number of students being placed in remedial classes. Going one step further and making developmental classes into co-requisite classes will allow students to escape the “remedial maze” where they fall behind and often end up dropping out altogether, by allowing them to enter directly into college level courses. Lastly by offering the teachers the proper support and training that they need in order to serve students who are underperforming, success rates will increase. Too often in education people get stuck on what has always been done, assuming that it is the best way, however, for real success to take place those who are in charge of making decisions as to how things should be done will have to step outside of their comfort zones of how things have always been done and be willing to do what will work best for their students. Not every solution will work for every college as there are many different factors that go into what makes colleges different. For example, what works in a mostly Caucasian southern
While Holloway has been a fortunate addition to the Lawson State community, many colleges do not have full time professors teaching their developmental courses. Instead, they rely on part time professors referred to as adjunct professors. These teachers do often have not obtained their master’s degree in order to be eligible for a full time teaching position. Therefore, they often lack the experience as well as the needed training to be able to offer the support required for developmental courses. Meredith Kolodner points out in her Hechinger Report article, In college remedial classes, unprepared students get the least-trained teachers that, “three-quarters of the instructors who teach remedial classes are part-time. They may work at more than one college, they are less likely to have office hours (or offices) and they are not required to have any teaching experience at all, only a bachelor’s degree”. Kolodner speaks about how California public college campuses have restructured their remedial classes by offering extensive training for their professors. Likewise, LaGuardia Community College, located in New York City decided to put programs in place that would develop their professors teaching ability and that they have seen pass rates and retention improve substantially (Kolodner). Having the right people in place to offer students the kind of assistance that they …show more content…
By being willing to look at a comprehensive view of students’ academic careers instead of one, four hour test colleges will be able to greatly decrease the number of students being placed in remedial classes. Going one step further and making developmental classes into co-requisite classes will allow students to escape the “remedial maze” where they fall behind and often end up dropping out altogether, by allowing them to enter directly into college level courses. Lastly by offering the teachers the proper support and training that they need in order to serve students who are underperforming, success rates will increase. Too often in education people get stuck on what has always been done, assuming that it is the best way, however, for real success to take place those who are in charge of making decisions as to how things should be done will have to step outside of their comfort zones of how things have always been done and be willing to do what will work best for their students. Not every solution will work for every college as there are many different factors that go into what makes colleges different. For example, what works in a mostly Caucasian southern