Remediation before college

The Cortez (Colo.) Journal: The Colorado Department of Higher Education released a report recently, finding that 37 percent of 2012 high school graduates had to take remedial coursework once they reached college. The numbers reveal a problem in the coordination between K-12 and higher education, and it is one that must be solved.

The gap between what high school students must know in order to graduate and what colleges expect them to know as incoming freshman is troublingly wide. While it has closed since 2011, when 40 percent of graduates had to do remedial work in college, 37 percent is not comfortable. That means more than one in three students are not prepared for the academic rigors of college but presumably have done adequate work in high school.

The numbers speak not to the capabilities of the students, nor necessarily to the efficacy of Colorado high schools, but instead suggest that there is insufficient communication between colleges and their K-12 counterparts wherein expectations could be made clear. Following that, high schools — and even middle and elementary schools — could shape their curriculums to accommodate those expectations and ensure that graduates are ready for what follows on Colorado’s college campuses.

Fifty-seven percent of Colorado high school graduates go on to attend college — a number that has been dropping slightly each year for the last four years.