UTC finds fewer local public school graduates require remediation courses


By Beverly A. Carroll Staff Writer

The percentage of Hamilton County public school graduates taking remedial English courses as freshmen at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has dropped by nearly half in the last six years, the university’s community liaison said Tuesday.

'Last fall 4.2 percent of Hamilton County students entering UTC required English remediation,' said Dr. Jane Harbaugh, a retired administrator and professor emeritus. 'That’s down from 8 percent about six years ago.'

Dr. Harbaugh said UTC professors and county teachers have worked together to increase student readiness for college-level English.

'It’s the hard work of faculty sitting down together to discuss what it is that a student has to be able to do at the college level,' said Dr. Harbaugh, who has tracked the need for remediation in math and English at UTC for about eight years.

While fewer students need remedial course work in English, there is room for improvement in math. About 45 percent of Hamilton County’s public school graduates and 40 percent of its private school graduates need math remedial courses, she said.

Statewide, about 40 percent of all students need some remedial work in either English or math, according to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

'Math is more complicated,' Dr. Harbaugh said. 'Part of the problem is that teachers lack enough training and opportunities for help.' In addition, some students do not take enough math courses in high school to prepare for college-level work, state education officials said. Last year, a team of high school teachers and college professors met to pinpoint what high school graduates need to know. Soddy-Daisy High School English teacher Link Sparks, who was part of that team, met with English professors from UTC, Chattanooga State Technical Community College, Middle Tennessee State University, East Tennessee State University and Tennessee Technological University.

'We didn’t have any data or feedback from high school to college,' Ms. Sparks said. 'Now we have feedback from the experts that grades our students’ work at the college level.'

Soddy-Daisy revamped its curriculum to focus on writing across all subjects and improve achievement in English, Ms. Sparks said. Every nine weeks, teachers in math, science, physical education and social studies give students a writing assignment. The teachers were trained on how to evaluate the writing so the instruction is consistent, Ms. Sparks said.

Brian Noland, spokesman for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, said four-year institutions no longer offer remedial courses. Students who need remedial work are encouraged to attend two-year institutions, he said.

'Remedial prepares students for a level of skills they should have upon completion of ninth grade,' Mr. Nolan said. 'Developmental courses prepare students with the skills they should have upon completion of high school.'

Most community colleges, or two-year institutions, have open admissions, Mr. Noland said. They are serving students who graduated from high school with little or no math skills, he said. Tennessee offers three tracks to earn a high school diploma: college preparatory, technical and vocational and a combination of the two.

'Many students who take the technical preparatory core (in high school) never get past Algebra I,' Mr. Noland said. 'Our advice to any student is to take four years of math and take the college core.'

Next year’s class of Hamilton County freshmen will be the first group to start under the district’s single path diploma. All students will take the same core academic classes, including four years of English, math and science and two years of a foreign language.

Hamilton County Schools superintendent Jesse Register said the single path diploma will significantly reduce the number of students needing help in college.

'Research shows that requiring more rigorous course work in high school improves the potential for success in college,' Dr. Register said.

State officials said lottery money pays for remedial and developmental course work but the classes do not count toward earning a college degree.

'A student can spend an entire semester to make up what they should have learned in high school,' he said.

CATCHING UP

The state classifies remedial course work and developmental course work differently.

Remedial: Students lack the basic ability to write complete sentences, lack basic reading comprehension, and basic math skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Developmental: Students have basic remedial skills but lack the ability to write coherent paragraphs and do algebraic computations.

Source: Tennessee Higher Education Commission

E-mail Beverly A. Carroll at bcarroll@timesfreepress.com