Report: Overwhelming Majority of CCRI Students Not ‘College Ready’
Friday, October 19, 2012
In a 2010 survey of incoming freshmen at the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI), 92.4 of students said they were hoping to earn a certificate, degree or transfer from the school, but less than one third will do so in three years, according to a report released last month by researchers from the Rhode Island Campus Compact Engaged Scholars Statewide Presidential Faculty Fellowship Program.
The report, titled “Not ‘College Ready,’” breaks down previously released statistics such as the number of incoming CCRI students who have to take at least one remedial course as well graduation rates and suggests social promotion may be one of the leading reasons the majority of students find college level work “overly challenging.”
The numbers are striking.
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For the 2010/11 school year, CCRI’s three-year graduation rate was just 9.6 percent, ranking Rhode Island No. 48 in the country when it comes to graduation rates from two-year institutions.
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The transfer rate for that same time period was 20.8 percent.
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Forty percent of first-time students stop taking classes after one year.
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Seventy-three percent of incoming freshmen were deemed “developmental” and in need of remediation in at least one subject area.
- In 2008 and 2009, 12 percent of all credit hours at the college were for remedial courses.
“Even in light of significant remediation efforts over the years, the CCRI graduation rate has remained virtually unchanged,” the report states. “This suggests that either a greater emphasis needs to be placed on remediation, or that remediation, while pursuing a college curriculum, is futile.”
Poor NECAP Scores a Key Indicator
The researchers for the report analyzed reading and math scores on the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) exams for the state’s top 20 feeder communities to CCRI to identify the number of non-proficient students who were being promoted in middle and high school.
According to the report, “the average 11th grade math proficiency NECAP score from the top 20 feeder communities was just 26 percent, while the average graduation rate in the same 20 communities was 76 percent.”
On the reading exams, many of the largest CCRI feeder districts reported high percentages of their students as proficient while the urban districts lagged behind. For example, in Central Falls, 41 percent of 11th grade students were proficient in reading in 2011. In Providence, the proficiency rate was 56 percent.
“It is clear from the data that the current approach to academic remediation has not worked,” the report states. “Statewide, students that have struggled with proficiency in one subject or another seem to have been promoted to the next grade level regardless of their academic proficiency, as measured by NECAP.”
A Culture of Failure
The report goes on to suggest that social promotion “creates a culture of failure that rewards mediocrity,” and while some school districts have committed to addressing the problem, but the problem has largely gone unchecked.
Earlier this year, Education Commissioner Deborah Gist told GoLocalProv that schools need to offer a variety of options for helping struggling students, but made it clear that those schools who promote non-proficient students must be prepared to help them catch up.
“School districts are responsible for setting standards for student promotion, and we expect all districts and schools to promote students who are prepared to succeed at the next grade level,” Gist said at the time. “When students are not fully prepared to succeed, schools may still promote the students – but the school must also provide the support that these students need to continue their education and to keep up academically with their peers.”
Change Needed
The report also highlights issues such as chronic absenteeism (25 percent of all Rhode Island students missed at least 18 days of school in 2010/11), high student mobility rates, an overreliance on school suspensions and a high percentage of English Language Learners (ELL) as potential reasons students struggle to achieve proficiency on their NECAP tests.
As for solutions, the report suggests that because Rhode Island has one of the highest percentages of high school graduates pursuing college but one of the lowest proficiency rates of those states who take the NECAP, CCRI might want to consider requiring students to have a diploma or ask students to demonstrate they can meet “certain benchmarks for academic proficiency” before they can attend the college.
The bottom line is change is need in the state’s education system, the report says
“There are numerous business metaphors that parallel what we are currently experiencing within our education system in Rhode Island today: Typewriter manufacturers, the US Postal Service, and video rental stores, to name a few,” the report states. “The world changed, and they didn’t. Instead, they were mired in the way things used to be, and not the way they are today.”
Dan McGowan can be reached at dmcgowan@golocalprov.com. Follow him on Twitter: @danmcgowan.
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- Prov. Schools Accused of Passing Failing Students
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Comments:
shawna amitrano
7:06am on Friday, October 19, 2012
As someone who has a lot of contact with High school students and teachers in the classroom. I can tell you the archaic public school model is failing our children. Unions are responsible for fighting so hard to keep a failing system funded.
tom brady
8:05am on Friday, October 19, 2012
Unions are not socially promoting students, administration is. Gist not involved in policies concerning social promotion???? What's the point?
tom brady
8:06am on Friday, October 19, 2012
ps. It's called manufacturing jobs for those who do not qualify for higher education.
Ed Jucation
8:11am on Friday, October 19, 2012
Shawna, did you read the article carefully? The article stated " the article suggests social promotion may be one of the leading reasons the majority of students find college level work “overly challenging.” Also, "The report goes on to suggest that social promotion “creates a culture of failure that rewards mediocrity.” Teachers have been fighting social promotion for years to no avail. Even Angel Taveras stated that social promotion is wrong and should not happen. But what has been done? NOTHING. Failing students will continue to be promoted to the next grade and students with up to 115 absences in their senior year will graduate (see Central Falls). Deb Gist has done NOTHING to address this problem. You can blame the union all you want but it only makes you look like an uneducated union basher.
Chris MacWilliams
8:41am on Friday, October 19, 2012
Question for educators close to this issue- Is it possible to make social promotions illegal?
Johnny Onthespot
8:48am on Friday, October 19, 2012
Ed- how are you unions guys feeling about electing Linc into office? He's done wonders for our education system!! All thanks to the unions.
Ed Jucation
9:25am on Friday, October 19, 2012
@Chris: Of course the General Assembly could outlaw social promotions but who is going to pay for the THOUSANDS of students who are held back? We're talking big numbers here.
@Johnny: I did not vote for Linc and I'm not a "union guy". Like it or not, it's a closed shop and I must be a member. That doesn't mean I support them and I'm not alone. It is obvious Johnny that you have not been inside a classroom in a long time and are commenting on something you know nothing about. Take the time, visit a school and sit in on a few classes. Then get back to us.
David Beagle
9:26am on Friday, October 19, 2012
Isn't that idea of a community college in the first place?
Charles Beckers
9:44am on Friday, October 19, 2012
Underlying, unstated assumption of the article: CCRI students graduate from RI high schools. While that may be true for the vast majority of CCRI students, I know of at least one case in which that is not true. On a quick look at the CCRI website, I do not even find a requirement for RI residence. So what is the statistic on RI high school graduates at CCRI?
Separately, what are the comparable statistics for other two-year institutions in RI? Yes, there are other institutions of post-high school learning in RI that offer two-year degrees and/or certificates.
Mark Smiley
10:42am on Friday, October 19, 2012
This article seems to ignore a major flaw in our school system today. Not every child needs or wants a college education. In the 60's & 70's our society wanted to make it so that every kid no longer had the financial obstacle in the way of getting a college degree. Going from that to every kid needs to have a college degree is where we have failed.
Every child does not need a college degree to succeed. It's seems to be hard to believe, but success is really measured in happiness. Happiness MIGHT include a job that requires a college degree or it might not. Where our public school system has fallen short is not offering an worthwhile education to children who do not want or need a college degree.
When these children who have been convinced they need a college degree, discover that it's just not right for them, they fail. These children wonder what is wrong with them that they can't seem to pass college and they've been taught that this is the only route to anything. Our society also fails by spending $15K+ X 12 Years for that student to fail to attain the only thing they've been trained to do, get a college degree.
We are falling way behind in filling the "trades" as I've heard them called. We need people to build houses, lay bricks, install and maintain plumbing, electrical, do vehicle repair, etc... Somehow we have decided to look down on these trades and it's starting to show. Kids are not going into the trades and our tradesman are starting to age. Teach our children that these jobs are good jobs also and they will be happier and we will waste less money teaching them something they really have no interest in.
In the end we have failed, but not at CCRI, the failure happened long before that. Teach our children what we need them to know in our real society and not the utopian society where everyone earns $100K for sitting at a desk.
J. Ferreira
10:56am on Friday, October 19, 2012
Ladies & gentlemen, you are overlooking a glaringly obvious reason for social promotion. It's called simple economics. A student held back a grade adds another body to already over-crowded classrooms. The more students are held back and prevented from graduating, the larger the school populations swell. That then translates into needing more faculty to educate the increasing numbers of students that are in addition to the students who are academically promoted and filling their next grades classrooms already. Administrators know this and keep the kids moving through the system so they aren't caught short and needing to demand further tax money for more teachers for the increasing class sizes that retaining that many students would require. IN other words, quality education, hard to come by in much of this state anyway, is being held hostage to budget realities. A graduated, under-prepared student is someone else problem, especially budget-wise.
ella mentry
12:05pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
Social promotion has been goin gon for years. In my system, it was called camopying...
The kids were pushed up and on.....teachers were not to blame. The wimpy administration was to blame because they caved into the whims of parents. The administration was and still are wimps. This is why administration changes grades and who gets the blame? the teachers who are not in charge of administrative policies and the waivering of them.
I owuld not have the clueless and uneducated Gen Assembly in charge of this issue at all. Bite your tongue whoever suggested that!
This is Gist's problem as commissioner. She needs to appoint credited certified teachers to a policy making board. This board should have 2 goals. The first to make sure that grades are not manipulated and that social promotion gets eliminated. The second is to make sure that those who do not live in the town or city do not attend that school. It is a fact students from other cities use fake addresses to attend a school and don;t pay the out of state tuition to that school district.
This would definitely help in the fight to keep schools up to par.
J. Ferreira
12:15pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
@ella, I would also suggest putting in policies or laws forbidding parents from threatening or engaging in legal action against any teacher or administrator who holds their child back for failing to achieve required educational outcomes. In our law0suit-happy society, this has had a detrimental effect on education (and many other public policy issues).
Mark St. Pierre
12:17pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
The problem is that we have a generation of parents that don't want to raise their children, they want everyone else to, including teachers. Plus, when graduates come out of college are they really ready to teach? And, what are we teaching today, we need to make sure student can read, write, spell, know basic math (so they can at least make change. But, no we get all these consultants, specialist that do reports, have meetings etc, yet students get promoted when they shouldn't. Is is right to move a student ahead when he/she can't do that level of work. It's time to get back to the basics in education and make sure students know the basics before their pushed along. Which is not doing them any good in the long run.
pearl fanch
4:36pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
duh, that's why they're at CCRI and not a real college.
Odd Job
4:46pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
keep em' stupid, so they'll vote democrat. working so far!
Michael Collins
5:54pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
CCRI is an excellent school. Having served in the military for six years has afforded me the opportunity to compare my classroom experiences throughout the country. I have attended community college classes in California, Florida, Tennessee, and Rhode Island. I can tell you CCRI ranks favorably with all of these other states. I think the main issue nowadays is that young people have more limited opportunities coming out of high school. They are all told they 'should' attend college so they can get a higher paying wage. Unfortunately some are just not mature enough or have other domestic obstacles facing them. School is like life it is what you make of it.
For me I was not ready for college and therefore opted for military service. It was the 'right thing' for me. I certainly matured quickly as well as gained confidence in my abilities. I am not advocating military service for anyone but it was wise for me. I later attended CCRI at night for many years (skewed the graduation statistics even more) and obtained a Cisco Networking Certificate. Later I returned and gained enough credits to transfer to Roger Williams. I earned a BA in Public Adminstration this past May. It was not easy but CCRI and its teachers helped me achieve my goal.
Pilgrim High>US Navy>Fortune 500 Company> CCRI > RWU > Degree. The numbers don't always tell the tale.
Joseph Fazio
6:47pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
I find it hard to believe that this is a surprise. There is no entrance requirement for CCRI because it is a community college. Bring only your checkbook and you will get the schedule. Next, why are people amazed that social promotion is taking place in the age of educational smack down? I read recently where the principal of Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls socially promoted one third of the 8th grade class even though they flunked 4 out of the 5 core subjects. The results of such stupidity will be the decline of test scores in the high school (sorry high school teachers - you're fired) and a knowledge disabled graduation class that can only go to CCRI. Easy - blame Gist and her stupid policies. Get rid of Gist and go back to the days when the tax paying citizens of the district set policy. Local taxpayers deciding what will and will not be taught at the schools. Enough with the surprise tax bills for classes, programs, and coddling of teens that don't want to learn.
tom brady
7:05pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
Pearl, To some people it is a real college. Your a class act. Read Michael Collins post. Learn a little.
pearl fanch
10:35pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
Michael, thanks for your service and job well done.
Brady, I'm in no way putting down those who attend there. however, you can't compare a community college, with a 4 year college or university. It's merely a stepping stone.
Thanks for showing off YOUR class, tom.
Mark St. Pierre
11:48am on Saturday, October 20, 2012
CCRI is one of the highest rated community colleges in New England. Many students attend their first two years at CCRI to help defray costs. Which I think is a smart move before they move on to a four year college.
Pam Thomas
11:52pm on Sunday, October 21, 2012
The issue is not whether every kid should go to college. The issue is whether any kid should have the skills to be able to go to succeed in college if he or she chooses to attend. Many high school seniors cannot do the kind of math they need to do in order to take the first college-level math course at CCRI. This problem doesn't begin in high school. It begins in elementary school. Math builds on itself. If you get lost along the way, you're lost forever unless someone intervenes and helps you. Too many kids get lost in math and then are just pushed along. When they get to CCRI, CCRI has to test them, find out where they are in math, and then start them there, even if it's middle-school math. But this time, they're paying for it.