Remediation

ASU-Jonesboro shows progress in reducing remediation rate

By Roy Ockert Jr.

Feb. 9. 2013

Arkansas State University at Jonesboro has made significant progress over the past five years in reducing the remediation rate of its first-time students, a new report presented last week to the state Higher Education Coordinating Board shows.

That’s being done by tightening admission standards, which tends to limit enrollment to students more likely to succeed.

Since 1988 all students entering a 2-year or 4-year public college or university in Arkansas in pursuit of a degree have been required to meet minimum assessment and placement standards in the critical basic disciplines of English, mathematics and reading.

What educators found from the assessment process was that a large percentage of those students weren’t prepared for college-level work. They used that information to channel those students into remedial courses designed to catch them up for college-level courses. Providing such courses adds to the costs of running the institution and slows the remedial student down on his or her degree path.

The goal then has been to reduce the remediation rate, and that requires work both at the prep school level and within the colleges and universities. The total cost for 2010-11 was estimated at $51.9 million.

The work continues.

Last fall Arkansas’ public institutions enrolled 23,313 first-time degree-seeking students, and almost all of them were tested for placement purposes. Of those who were tested, 47.8 percent were assigned to one or more remedial courses, while the remainder were allowed to go directly into college-level coursework.

That may not sound good, but it’s a 1.6 percent decrease in the rate compared with the fall of 2011 and the lowest rate in the history of the testing program. In 2009 the rate was up to 55 percent.

Naturally, there is a pronounced difference between the 2-year and 4-year colleges — 56.1 percent and 43.9 percent, respectively, last fall. The 2-year colleges tend to attract many students who know they need extra help in adapting to college-level work.

Now here’s the good news for ASU-Jonesboro: Its remediation rate declined to 30.4 percent last fall. That’s a long way behind the 8.5 percent rate posted by the University of Arkansas’ flagship campus at Fayetteville, but nevertheless a significant improvement and second best in the state.

In the fall of 2009 the ASU-J rate had climbed to 49.9 percent, not far below the statewide average. But each year since then, the rate has declined sharply.

Actual headcounts show what that number can mean. In the fall of 2008 the total number of ASU-J students needing at leading one remedial course was a record 907. Last fall the total was down to 506, cutting almost in half the total resources required.

This improvement has been accomplished in large part by gradually raising the standards for unconditional admission. In 2010 the qualifications were a grade average of at least 2.5 and a minimum ACT score of 17. As recently as 2006 the standard had been merely a 2.0 overall GPA for high school coursework. In 2014 the minimums will be 2.75 and 21 ACT.

That does tend to channel some students in other directions, particularly to 2-year colleges, but it’s a necessary part of focusing resources to meet the main goal — graduating more students.

On the other hand, that can mean a reduced enrollment, which would cut available revenue.

But ASU-J has been able to maintain a steady growth — 3.1 percent last year in unduplicated enrollment and 32.3 percent over five years, according to another report presented last week. Unduplicated enrollment totals the number of students enrolled at any time during the year, rather than just for one semester (though each student is counted only once).

The total unduplicated enrollment for ASU-J this year is 18,206, second only to UA-F’s 26,431. The fall enrollment for the Jonesboro campus was 13,877.

Over the past five years Arkansas Tech University at Russellville has been the fastest growing 4-year institution, followed by UA-F and ASU-J. Much of the growth during that time has been fueled by increases in the numbers of graduate students at ASU.

Here are the fall 2012 remediation rates for other Northeast Arkansas institutions:

• Arkansas Northeastern College, 78.8 percent;

• ASU-Newport, 73.5 percent;

• Black River Technical College, 83.2 percent;

• East Arkansas Community College, 88 percent; and

• Ozarka Community College, 69.2 percent.

The remediation rates I’ve mentioned so far are called “Anytime” rates — meaning the student may have graduated from high school at any time prior to enrolling in college. The survey also produces “1-Year” rates for students who graduated in the previous year before enrolling in college and “2-Year” rates for students who graduated within two years.

Either of the latter rates can be instructive in viewing how well a high school prepares its students for college. Recent graduates tend to be less likely to need remediation than older students entering for the first time.

Here are the 1-Year Remediation rates for 2012 for students graduating from the four major Craighead County high schools and entering any college:

• Jonesboro, 28.9 percent;

• Nettleton, 35.5 percent;

• Valley View, 21 percent; and

• Westside, 34.1 percent.

All four are well below the state average of 40 percent.

Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.