After the MCAS
THE NEED for remedial classes for entering freshmen at Massachusetts state and community colleges is great, and college administrators want to know why. But educators won't find the answers by analyzing the performance of students on the high-stakes Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System examination.
A Globe analysis has found that 37 percent of incoming freshmen from public high schools required a remedial course in reading, writing, or math last year. Public college administrators decry the lack of readiness on the part of students who, after all, fulfilled the graduation requirement by passing the MCAS exam. What's more, the percentage of freshmen requiring remedial help last year is nearly identical to the number in 2002, one year before passing the MCAS exam was made a requirement for graduation.
The overall concerns for student success after high school are valid. But passing MCAS scores were never intended to guarantee college readiness. In the early grades, MCAS tests are useful to diagnose a student's academic deficiencies. The final MCAS exam measures a student's 10th grade-level skill against the state's learning standards in English, mathematics, and, coming soon, science. The test is relatively easy to pass, though hard to score in the highest level. If MCAS promises anything, it is that high school graduates will enter the job market with a basic level of literacy skills. The test was part of an education reform movement that was meant to respond to the concerns of employers, not college admission officers.
The failure of Massachusetts high schools to prepare students for college is rooted in the number or quality of their classes -- the missing links in the educational chain. A 2004 national study by ACT, one of the two major preparers of college entrance examinations, found that only 56 percent of high school students were taking what ACT deemed a minimum core curriculum for the college-bound: four years of English and three years each of science, math, and social studies. These numbers look better in Massachusetts, where, for example, nearly 78 percent of high schools require at least three years of math. But the exact content of the offerings are unknown even by the state Department of Education. The ACT study found that only 13 percent of high school students who took no mathematics beyond algebra II and geometry were prepared for college algebra. Rigor, not just access, makes the difference.
The college freshmen in remedial classes across the Commonwealth are smart enough to know that higher education will determine their ability to overcome barriers of income and opportunity. The open question remains whether high school educators will give them what they need before they arrive on campus.
