Students need a wide range of skills to be
ready for college-level work. These include having effective time-management
and study skills, or the habits that lead to effective learning. But perhaps even
more important is the mindset of the student; successful students take
responsibility for their own learning (rather than perceiving themselves as
victims) and possess the motivation and perseverance that will carry them
through the inevitable obstacles and challenges of academia. These personal
traits are essential, and they aren’t necessarily taught in the classroom.
Also, successful students tend to display a genuine desire to learn and
authentic intellectual curiosity, an interest in learning for the sake of
learning itself, rather than focusing only on earning an A or fulfilling a
requirement (what might be called "intrinsic" versus "extrinsic" motivation).
When
students are not ready for college-level work, they can be referred to meet
with academic counselors who can educate them on what it takes to succeed in
their classes and orient them to college resources. Colleges can also address
this issue on an administrative level, by offering programs like learning
communities and cohorts, which often lead to better retention
rates and more effective learning (since under-prepared students often persevere
in school and absorb information more effectively when surrounded by peers who
are experiencing the same challenges). So no, such students should most
definitely not be excluded from
college; they simply need to have their specific needs met, and this requires
that a college offer the resources necessary to meet the needs of a diverse and
changing student population. Such resources could include the learning
communities mentioned above, study skills classes geared toward first-year
students, and programs that target a specific sociocultural population, such as
the Puente program offered at many California community colleges, or Mfumo at
Foothill College for African American students. Support programs such as
Foothill’s EOPS Program also provide financial support for students who are
struggling to pay for college.
I’m
not sure about the question about whether under-prepared students should be
sent to community college first. Since I teach at a community college, I don’t necessarily
see community college as a step beneath the state universities. For most of our
students, attending community college offers a more affordable way to get a
high-quality education. Many students are not at the community college because
they aren’t yet ready academically for the state university, but rather because
they want to save money and perhaps stay closer to home for a certain period of
time. Also, offering developmental classes is only part of the mission of the community college; other parts of the mission include a focus on transfer-level education, vocational training, and lifelong learning. Therefore, relegating under-prepared students to the community college would make these colleges a kind of "dumping ground," and would not fulfill the larger mission and purpose of the community college.
I
do think that implementing some kind of “time limit” for students to become
prepared for college is a good idea. An “exit exam” given at the end of the
developmental reading and writing sequence is one way to measure students’
preparation for college-level courses; perhaps students could be allowed no
more than two attempts to pass through a developmental sequence. I think
students should be allowed to take other courses while they are making up
“deficiencies” in reading and writing, as long as there is some kind of limit on how many times they are allowed to try to pass these courses.
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