The latest news from Arkansas’ Department of Higher Education–a focus on remediation for high school
graduates entering college and university outreach to K-20 audience:
AHECB approves new programs; higher ed remediation rates continue dropping
Remediation rates for all students that entered college or
university in the fall were at 43.2 percent, down 47.8 from fall 2012. That number includes recent high school graduates and any returning student. In the last five years, the rate has fallen steadily from 55 percent in fall 2009. For those students who graduated high school in spring 2013 and entered college or university that fall, remediation rates were at 37.2 percent, down from 40 percent the year before. That rate has fallen from 45.4 in 2009. Director Shane Broadway provided the board with an update on efforts to further reduce remediation that the department and the Arkansas Department of Education are currently working on as well.
Just this week, our university’s Educational Renewal Zone office (state-funded grant) facilitated a day-long Town-Hall Meeting focused on improving “transitions” from one level of schooling to the next:
WHAT: NEARK Regional Education P-20 Town Hall Meeting
WHY: Requested
by Commissioners of ADE and ADHE to involve the major providers and stakeholders
of educational services, P – 20, in conversations regarding how to improve the
transitions of pre-kindergarten through post-graduate students, in Northeast
Arkansas.Since Arkansas has been one of the first to sign onto the Common Core
movement and one of the most steadfast states to move forward with
enhanced teacher evaulation systems and PARCC assessments, it’s logical that
they are gearing up to better manage the barrier that required remediation is
having on entering university freshman. As a member of the state’s PARCC
educator leader cadre, I know that the bridge from high school to college will
soon be paved with results of the Common Core high stakes tests. Depending on
how schools and teachers facilitate the Common Core standards and how much time
is provided as a transition from one set of standards to another, remediation
rates could quickly grow when PARCC testing hits next spring.