Remediation is an issue for Delaware high school students. Many aren’t ready for college level work in math and English before graduating.
Despite a grant Delaware received Tuesday, stakeholders feel there's more to be done to decrease remediation needs for First State students .
The P20 Council - a group tasked with aligning Delaware’s education efforts across all grade levels - met on Monday. One key topic: how to reduce remediation needs for Delaware high school students before they enter college.
A report released in February studied the college readiness of 2014 high school grads. It found significant gaps - with 42 percent of Delaware high school graduates several steps behind peers from other states.
The report also offered four ways Delaware can reduce its need for students to take remedial classes before tackling entry-level college work.
Those recommendations include: intervening with students falling short of college-ready benchmarks prior to 11th grade, making sure students entering 12th grade are ready for pre-calculus or calculus and college English, and possibly redesigning the K-12 education system to ensure students are ready for college-level courses by the time they graduate.
Shana Payne, Director of Delaware’s Office of Higher Education says remediation classes create an additional barrier to college for minority, low-income students.
“For students, they have to take more classes than their peers, it costs them more to complete their degree, and we know nationally that students who end up in a remedial pathway are far less likely to graduate from college ultimately,” she said.
The council is setting up two subcommittees to further investigate issues leading to remediation. One will look at English classes, while the other will examine math.
“Students taking the higher level courses in math and English were far less likely to need remediation. So our recommendations for math are that students end up a path so that by 12th grade, they’re ready to take pre-calculus or calculus," Payne said. "They may choose not to, but they have the ability to do so and be successful. On the English side, that they’re able to take an AP or dual enrollment course.”
The subcommittees will offer recommendations to the full P20 council in April.
