Sandra Steele, Educational Consultant

Refresher Courses Strain Colleges, Students
Frazzled Freshmen try to get up to speed with pricey, no-credit remedial courses.

Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News

The cost of Christine White's senior year in high school has added up to more than just the price of a class ring and a graduation party.

Like many high school seniors, White bypassed a fourth year of math to fill her schedule with classes that better fit her interests. As a first-year student at Wayne State University, the 19-year-old Troy resident is paying about $500 for a refresher math course for no credit.

Too many students are arriving at college unprepared and relying on remedial classes to catch up, educators say. According to some national studies, more than 40 percent of students will take at least one remedial course during their college years. And several Michigan colleges, including Wayne State, Oakland University and Western Michigan University, say they are seeing an increase in remedial class enrollment.

Cash-strapped students end up shelling out money for no-credit classes just to get up to speed, increasing costs and putting them at greater risk of dropping out. And colleges end up using classrooms, teachers and other resources on the basics rather than advanced programs that would better prepare students for a career.

"It is frustrating," said White, who spends about five hours a week in a Wayne State computer lab going over algebraic equations she first saw in ninth grade.

"When I talked to my counselor, she said I didn't need another year."

Part of the problem, experts say, is that Michigan doesn't set required classes for high school students, beyond taking an American government class. Each district sets its own graduation requirements.

The Lieutenant Governor's Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth, led by Lt. Gov. John Cherry, hopes to change that by establishing required courses to better prepare students for college and reduce the number of students who need refresher help. It's crucial if Gov. Jennifer Granholm is to reach her goal of doubling the number of college graduates in the state, supporters say.

"It is not a red badge of achievement for us in education," said Northville's superintendent, Leonard Rezmierski. "We need to address it."

Failure rate is high

Taking refresher classes in college can be a trying experience for recent high school graduates. Failure rates in remediation courses are high, and those students often drop out, said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization pushing education reform.

Seventy-six percent of students who require remediation in reading and nearly 63 percent of those who need at least one math course drop out, according to the group.

"They already know from the first week it will take them longer to graduate," Cohen said. "That can be enormously discouraging to students."

The added cost can be daunting as well.

Chelsea Narmore, 21, who recently moved to Romulus from Arkansas, said she is spending about $500 for out-of-state tuition for her remedial math class at Henry Ford Community College. It doesn't help ease the tab, already $30,000 in student loans, from her first two years at a private college, where she avoided taking math courses and instead took more art classes.

She wishes she would have taken more math during her senior year in high school instead of a marine biology class.

"Since there was an option, I thought I would just take something else," Narmore said. "(Students) should take advantage of the free education while they can."

Patricia Bonesteel has seen students' frustration. She heads Wayne State's remedial math program.

Students often are shocked that they need a refresher class after taking a placement test before enrolling in their first class, she said.

"A lot of students that test in are resentful because they already had it," Bonesteel said.

Wayne State has seen about a 19 percent increase in the number of students taking refresher classes between 1998 and 2004, with 3,000 taking the classes last year. Overall enrollment grew as well, which could explain part of the increase, Bonesteel said. But she said a greater percentage -- nearly 65 percent -- is taking the most basic math.

Western Michigan has had about a 3 percent increase in its remedial math enrollment, and Oakland University has had the same increase in its refresher, no-credit courses.

"We wish it were lower," said Philip Egan, Western's director of the Center for Academic Support Programs. "When we bring a student here, we really start where they are."

At Henry Ford Community College, about 82 percent of the school's new students placed into remedial math and another 67 percent tested into remedial reading. Only about half of Henry Ford's new students are recent high school graduates, but they still end up needing remedial help at the same rate, officials said.

"It is very clear that the high school curriculum is not as rigorous as it should be," said Andrew Mazzara, the school's president.

But he also blames society for what he sees as a declining value on math and reading skills.

Jamilla McCray, 18, agrees, saying she wished her teachers at Northern High School in Detroit would have pushed her to develop stronger writing skills and encouraged her to take more challenging classes. She is taking a remedial writing class at Henry Ford after graduating from high school last year.

"I was just taking the classes I needed to graduate," McCray said. "They should be more persistent, giving you classes that will help you in the long run."

The remedial class demand is not only draining for students but also schools. While universities say the tuition they charge typically covers the cost of running remedial classes, they would rather spend the money better preparing students for their careers.

"These are resources that we and students are spending that could be redirected to university-level work," said Mark Murray, president of Grand Valley State University.

Lesson 1: Be prepared

Education leaders say part of the solution is getting the message to parents and students that a rigorous high school class load is the best way to prepare for college.

"Kids are taking some courses, but they don't add up to anything," said John Austin, a state school board member and policy director for the lieutenant governor's commission. "You can't opt out of a rigorous set of courses in high school."

Granholm hopes to set up incentive money for high schools to require a tough course load. And at the same time, the Department of Education is working on outlining what students should have learned in those classes.

"We do believe that expectations are part of the issue," said Lt. Governor Cherry. "If students understand it is more important, they will treat it differently."

In addition, Northville's Rezmierski thinks part of the solution is getting better feedback on how schools prepare students for college. He said typically they just get word-of-mouth feedback from students or some information from select colleges on how Northville graduates are doing.

He hopes to better connect with colleges so they will share students' grades and the classes they are taking. And if that doesn't work, he plans on sending questionnaires to graduates or surveying them when they show up to reunions.

"If we aren't doing a good job, we need to know so we can correct it," Rezmierski said.

You can reach Christine MacDonald at (313) 222-2269 or cmacdonald@detnews.com.