Study of South Brunswick and East Brunswick schools shows many college students require remedial courses
By: Matthew Armstrong
Kindergarten through high school education is supposed to provide a solid educational foundation so students can make a smooth transition into college.
While South Brunswick may be one of the better school systems in the state, it still is susceptible to what has been identified by the federal government as a national problem: not every student is fully prepared to attend college.
A study of South Brunswick and East Brunswick schools shows many college students require remedial courses to meet the standards expected of secondary school graduates. South Brunswick graduates attending a four-year college did well, but those opting for a two-year program were not sufficiently prepared.
According to the report, 35 percent of the 1995 graduating class attended Middlesex County College. Of those students, only 16 percent graduated and 32 percent left with grade point average of less than 2.0. Other attendees left to attend four-year colleges or to work.
To deal with the incongruity between high school and college, South Brunswick applied for and received a grant from a federal program called Goals 2000. The goal is to prepare all high school students to make a smooth transition into college, without having to take remedial courses.
The program is a collaborative effort by South Brunswick, East Brunswick, Rutgers University and Middlesex County College to identify problem areas, facilitate discussions on college standards, and to enhance courses in middle and high school to meet those standards. The group received $152,000 to pay for the project.
"What’s great is it is a collaborative effort to make sure there are no great differences in the curriculum from high school to college," said Superintendent Samuel Stewart.
The study showed that high school students receiving less than a B in Intermediate Algebra were unlikely to pass the College Placement Test, used by colleges to place new students in English and math classes. As a result, a new high school course, Preparation for College Math will be developed.
This summer English teachers from the four institutions gathered to discuss each others’ curriculum and look into ways to make the transition from high school to college easier.
"We talked about aligning our curriculum and looked at parts that were similar and parts that were different," said Barbara King-Shaver, supervisor of the English program at South Brunswick High School. "We looked at what we could do to revise our program to make it more like college programs."
From this five-day discussion, they found that the high schools teach more literature while colleges focuse more on non-fiction and expository writing. They also found high school students need more basic grammar instruction.
"We’re not that far apart in our programs. We just have to work on a few details, add more non-fiction reading and writing and return to the basics. We’re still going to teach literature, but we are going to incorporate more non-fiction reading along with it."
To reach the goals of the program, classes will be reformed and upgraded, teachers will undergo training and new programs will be implemented to assist students and parents in planning for college.
The study also found one of the major reasons students attending a two-year college did not perform well is that they did not know what they wanted to do after college. Thus, programs will be instituted to improve career exploration and career counseling in high school.
"We have to work to get students to define long-term goals earlier in their careers, so they have some idea of what they want to do when they go to college, rather than just going to college because they don’t know what else to do," said Ms. King Shaver.