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Lots of high school grads need remediation courses when they get to college Many Alabama high school graduates attending public colleges in Alabama face remediation classes in basic skills like math and English. A review of figures as compiled by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education and recently published in a series of articles by The Birmingham News shows that regionally, the percentage of students in remedial classes frequently runs anywhere from 20 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent and in one instance for Livingston High School, as high as 59 percent. "Statewide, one of every four public high school graduates who went to a state college last year didn't have those skills. That's 4,483 of the state's 20,742 public high school graduates who went on to state colleges but weren't ready for college level math, English or both," wrote News Staff Writer Stan Diel. Christopher Hammons, a political science professor at Houston Baptist University, was critical. "Those kids are not getting their money's worth," in high school, he said. A study by Hammon on the issue showed that $85 million a year is spent on remedial classes at Alabama's two and four-year schools. When you add funds contributed toward the same end by Alabama businesses, the total comes to a staggering $541 million a year in Alabama alone. Hammons blames lowered standards that allow students to graduate unprepared for college. "We've watered down the standards in high school and given them delusions of grandeur," Hammons said. "We're afraid to flunk students who need to be flunked." Many four-year colleges have stopped the remediation courses and are sending students to twoyear schools for the courses. Jefferson State Community College President Judy Merritt said the smaller colleges are better suited for the task. Remedial education itself is not a bad thing, The News article stated. "Some level of remediation always will be necessary. In addition to recent high school graduates who failed to learn the basics, remedial classes often are taken by nontraditional students who have been out of the classroom for years." "Still, ACHE Executive Director Gregory Fitch said Alabama's numbers-26 percent of freshmen at public colleges are in remediation-actually understate the problem with education in the state's high schools. That's because the numbers don't take into account the students who drop out of high school or who graduate but don't go to college."
Fitch was blunt about the remediation courses: "We're essentially paying for the same education twice," he told The News.
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