Entry bar too low for academic success With poor academic skills on entry, community college students cannot navigate their way through the academic maze. COMMUNITY colleges set too a low bar for students during their first year of enrolment, with lax academic standards in literacy and mathematics, according to a new study from the US's National Centre on Education and the Economy. And many students fail to meet even those minimal expectations. The study uncovered "disturbingly low standards among community college instructors," said Marc S. Tucker, president of the centre, a non-profit group that focuses on academic assessment and standards across systems of education. "It's clear that we're cheating our students," he said. Inadequate standards hurt students" chances of succeeding in the job market, according to the report. But there are no simple fixes for this problem because community colleges are reacting to the inadequate academic preparation of incoming students, a majority of whom require remedial coursework in college. "To raise the standards in our community colleges without concurrently doing what is necessary to enable our graduating high school students to meet the minimal standards currently in place would be irresponsible," the report said. Such a policy stance will only make a tough situation worse. So action on both fronts is clearly urgent. The research looked at academic requirements of credit-bearing courses in eight of the most popular programs at the seven colleges, including accounting, automotive technology, computer programming and a general studies track, among others. The courses were aimed at first-year students. The reading and writing skills students must demonstrate are not very complex or cognitively demanding and the reading complexity of the texts was usually at the 11th -or 12th-grade level. Instructors generally made limited use of those texts and rely heavily on aids such as PowerPoint presentations and videos to help students understand key points. Testing was similarly light, according to the research. "We found that most assessments in community colleges come in the form of multiple-choice questions that demand very little in the way of complex reading skills and no writing," the study found. Mathematics standards were a slightly different story. Most entering community college students need to have a good grasp on math concepts from middle school, but the study found many didn't understand critical key areas with course competion rates poor. The report says high schools aren't teaching the right maths for the two-year path and are failing to help students master the math they need to succeed in community college. That's a large and growing problem, as community colleges enroll almost half of the nation's undergraduates. The cycle of blame for sagging academic achievement typically flows downward, said Tucker. Community colleges blame high schools for the academic shortcomings of their incoming students. High schools blame middle schools and so on, he said. And they all have valid arguments. He said even critics who say teacher preparation programs are lacking probably have a point. "Each one of these actors basically seems helpless," said Tucker. The Common Core State Standards Initiative could help better align standards between community colleges and high schools, according to the report. But Tucker said the solution to inadequate college and job readiness will need to be ambitious, and involve deeper coordination of educators who work on all stages of students' path from grade school to college. Who has to do something here? Tucker said. The answer is all those people. Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/07/community-college-students-struggle-meet-low-academic-standards-study-finds#ixzz2Sf8d66II Inside Higher Ed