California students testing higher on Early Assessment Program

Cal State and the California Department of Education first offered the Early Assessment Program test six years ago. In the first year, 12 percent of high school juniors tested ready for college math. Cal State Chancellor Charles Reed says that percentage has risen just a few points this year.

Reed says despite improvements, there is still room for improvement, "although the level of readiness is not what we want it to be, but more than 15 percent of the students that have taken the algebra two test, almost 30 thousand students, are now ready for college level mathematics."

Six years ago, 15 percent of juniors tested ready for college English. This year 22 percent tested ready. Reed says the good news is that more students are enrolled in the math and English classes they need to qualify to take the test.

Remedial education rates vary widely at the 23 Cal State campuses. Generally, campuses with higher proportions of white students need remedial courses. Two years ago, 13 percent of incoming students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo needed those classes. At Cal State Dominguez Hills that year, 93 percent needed some kind of remedial coursework.

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It’s not entirely the students’ fault, says Steve Teixeira who co-wrote a recent study on Cal State remediation: "The remedial student in the Cal State system didn’t fail at anything in high school, they got great grades, but their high school wasn’t doing the same thing the affluent, upper middle class high schools were able to do."

This means, he said, that students "come to the Cal State system and find out that their A, their B, doesn’t mean the same thing the affluent students’ A or B means."

Teixeira says underfunded public schools contribute to the problem. Educators say that when students must take remedial classes in college, they need more time to complete their degrees. That, Teixeira, strains already tight campus budgets. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson says the Early Assessment Program test or EAP has awakened high school juniors who thought they could cruise through senior year.

"As they begin to face the facts — 'Are my scores enough to allow me to go to college and succeed in college?' — I think that awareness that what the EAP gives is a great help in having students focus on where they’re weak," said Torlakson.

Beginning next year, Cal State administrators will counsel incoming students to take remedial courses in the summer after they graduate from high school.