Less than half of GHS students are ready for college-level
courses
Gilroy – Less than half of the Gilroy High School students entering Gavilan College this semester were prepared for college-level English classes and a paltry 0.62 percent – less than one in 100 students – of those students were ready for college-level math. The majority of these GHS students ended up in remedial classes – classes they should have mastered in high school or even junior high.
The problem with students being unprepared for college is compounded by the fact that more than half of all students doing remedial work at Gavilan cannot pass the classes with a grade of C- or higher, according to the college’s own statistics. Further, these students are not English-language learners, who statistically tend to score lower. English is the first language of these students.
Pat Midtgaard, president of Gilroy Unified School District’s board of trustees, gasped when she heard that less than 1 percent of GHS students going to Gavilan were ready for college-level math.
“I didn’t think that the math would be that bad, and I’m very surprised at the level of English, too,” she said. “I think I’m even more surprised because these students have always spoken, read and heard English. It is alarming.”
GHS students are not alone – most students are coming to Gavilan College several years behind in course work, said Jan Bernstein-Chargin, spokesperson for the college. To compensate, students are spending several years catching up before being ready for college-level classes.
“It’s clear to us that this isn’t just a Gavilan problem, though,” Bernstein-Chargin said. “It’s a statewide problem. We see more drastic numbers of unprepared students because we’re a community college and we don’t have the initial screening process of, say, the (University of California) system. But, the fact is, high school students across California aren’t ready for college classes when they graduate.”
The California High School Exit Exam, a test high school students are required to pass before graduating, only tests math skills at an 8th grade level.
According to San Jose State University’s Web site, almost two-thirds of SJSU freshmen enter unprepared and must take remedial courses. The California State University system requires students taking such classes to finish their remedial work within one year.
The University of California system does not offer remedial courses.
“Our admissions requirements require that students have completed, at minimum, intermediate algebra,” said Michael McCawley, associate director of undergraduate admissions at University of California, Santa Cruz. “It’s the stringent admissions requirements that we believe will make our students successful.”
All math classes offered in the UC system presuppose students have had intermediate algebra, McCawley said.
GUSD recently spent $550,000 on a new math plan for middle school-aged children that extended math class instruction time by an additional 45 minutes in an effort to bring students up to snuff.
“We spent that money because we did some backwards mapping and saw that students were already in trouble when they got to high school,” Midtgaard said. “Even students that were doing well in math at the middle school level weren’t prepared for the next level. We’re starting to look at the elementary school levels. These remedial class numbers just reinforce that we should be doing this, and it’s worth the time, money and effort we’re investing.”
Low English scores are being addressed as well.
Mark Rose, teacher and chair of the GHS English department, said changes were made to the English curriculum at the school this year to help students with reading comprehension.
“We need to make sure these students are on the right track to meet the goal of being ready for college,” Midtgaard said. “We’ll certainly be looking at these Gavilan statistics more closely.”
